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What damages were caused here that would need reparation exactly?
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What damages are caused at the moment in time a human downloads a file they weren't supposed to have access to? That's apparently enough to send people to jail for a long time.

If you hack a government website and access confidential information but don't do anything with it ("no harm") you're still going to prison. Good luck arguing in court the no harm no foul defense.

> If you hack a government website and access confidential information but don't do anything with it ("no harm") you're still going to prison.

You could potentially go to prison. Individuals and companies face different sets of consequences though.

The other side of the coin is that the government won’t suffer any consequences for having shitty security either.


I rarely notice usernames on HN, but after reading this comment it was so easy to guess that the classy contribution on another comment about legal liability was also yours.

And you are right again! The Australian government must compensate OpenAI for having shitty security.

It must be a bliss to transact with you in real life!


Honestly I’d expect my government to secure sensitive data to a higher standard than I’d expect a random company motivated only by profit to. We should have an expectation of both sides to do better. Do you disagree?

You are correct, but the regulatory and liability issue regarding AI is one issue and the government’s liability for having insecure systems is another.

They are independent concerns. A discussion about the first issue is not enhanced by the interjection of the second.


You can discuss two things at once. Especially if they are inherently related. Australia fining OpenAI a large amount of money and using that to audit and harden their systems would be a good outcome here, for example.

Too many people are making inane fantasy level comments that Sam and his employees should be jailed, and conspiracy theories that he did it on purpose to get regulated because he’s out of runway. That’s boring and repeated ad nauseam every time the topic comes up.


I agree, but switching to a different subject doesn’t strengthen that argument.



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