Funniest thing I've read this week!

So, you're related to some asshole who was one of a faceless hoard fighting against Obama, pushing to maintain the status quo on the ramp-up of nuclear armament? I'd want to stay anonymous, too.

Shockingly? I think it's good that we have experts in a field developing high-impact tools who are pessimistic about the uses of those tools. If 100% were like "yeah guys no sweat, we got this!" then I would be more concerned. The result of this poll, in my mind, is that we have a healthy subset who are going to be actively working towards making AI safe.

Do you mean "noted AI experts Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk," or do you mean "noted celebrities Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk"? Because I think you just conflated the latter with the former, and only the former holds weight.

The summary really emphasizes the minority opinion, "and only a slight majority said it would be a net positive." As if "only a slight majority" is not the majority opinion.

Probably not. The authors made the newbie mistake of saddling their scheme with purpose-built crypto. They make a slight nod to the danger of this in the appendix, and sweep it under the rug (IND-CPA is nice and all, but it's not a proof of security). Experience says that they're overrating the security of their system, and there's a good chance it's broken. Thus, geeks will think they're voting, but The Man will actually be doing the voting for them.

Is that message "Australia is a crucial part of the USA"? I'm a little confused.

Right, cut out the expensive appeals process. Remove the sliver of legitimacy and watch the innocent death rate climb. My primary problem with the death penalty is the certainty that we kill innocent people. Second is a difference of opinion with our criminal justice system: I think we should optimize human wellbeing, not just focus on punishment. Third is a desire to keep our government out of the business of killing civilians or causing civilians to be killed.

But people aren't persuaded by moral or ethical considerations. Big Government Wasting Money... now that makes people mad.

Stupid fuckin capitol punishment is dumbass bullshit. Costs billiontards of dollars, kills innocents around 5% of the time. Lock 'em up and throw away the key for pennies on the dollar!

Well, a 'Oh, shucks, a bad thing happened, that sucks.' press release isn't precisely 'nothing', but it's about what I expect.

I don't think that your statement of a generality applies to the specific, Bruce. The modifier "if you want to patent the changes" must not be discounted. So if you write a research paper on how you can tweak their architecture to produce some feature, you can simply elect not to patent it. If somebody else tries to patent the same thing, even the company in question, your research is prior art that anybody can use to strike the patent down.

As an academic who has done patentable research, I can tell you that universities are keenly interested in building their IP portfolios. And any informed patent holder knows that any violation must be prosecuted, or the validity of the patent evaporates. End result: taxpayers getting sued for violating patents generated 100% within universities with public funding. No company need get involved.

I don't know what century you live in... but universities operate like large corporations these days. They mistreat and underpay their workers as much as the law allows, they build massive IP portfolios, they pay their executives millions of dollars... I could go on.

Altruism, what? This has "company town" written all over it.

He's building low-income housing so his low-income code monkeys have a shorter commute. So they can spend more time at work.

What? There are upsides to everything! "Excuse me, Office of the Panopticon! How does this outfit look?" "It's okay, but your shirt is untucked in the back. I'm not a big fan of the yellow, but historic data seems to show that your style works for you. Good luck on your third date tonight! You might want to pick up the tab tonight, though. Your intended has told her friends that you might be a cheapskate."

Did you read that clause?

(or intended to be sold, offered, or otherwise provided by Amazon in the future)

No matter what job the employee tries to get, all Amazon would have to do is draw up some business plan to enter that field. With the increasing trend of privitization of government services, not even public sector jobs are safe. This is an 18-month unemployment clause, plain and simple.

Seriously, though. Weinersmith! How did it come to pass that yourwife opt to took this incredibly amazing name, mid-academic-career, and you didn't with your awesome career that could only benefit from having the name Weinersmith?