[HN Gopher] Eric Schmidt helped write AI laws without disclosing...
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Eric Schmidt helped write AI laws without disclosing investments in
AI startups
Author : mfiguiere
Score : 39 points
Date : 2022-10-24 18:10 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cnbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cnbc.com)
| leplen wrote:
| Was anyone under the impression that Eric Schmidt wasn't
| investing in AI companies? Tech billionaire invests in tech
| companies seems pretty expected to me, even if he was doing
| consulting work for the Feds during the same time period.
| LatteLazy wrote:
| To play devil's advocate here...
|
| Would you want an advisor on any sector who had zero investment
| (monetary or otherwise) in that sector?
|
| And it is totally standard in the US (and UK) for law makers
| themselves to invest, vote, and divest, literally being paid by
| the market for their support. So why shouldn't a mere advisor
| make a long term investment? If this behavior is wrong, ban it
| for everyone, don't pick on one guy because he used to work at
| Google...
| danielmarkbruce wrote:
| This.
|
| If someone has no conflicts of interest, they aren't really in
| the field. Everyone on that board had conflicts and it will
| always be that way. You can manage around it, sort of. It's
| like those who complain about the revolving door between the
| department of treasury and financial services industry - do we
| want people who actually have a clue? The only way you can get
| a clue in many situations is by being in the industry.
| 8note wrote:
| I'd want them invested in broad indexes of the sector -
| somebody invested in OpenAI would be incentivized to make it
| illegal to open source model weights, which is great for the
| one company, but bad for the overall sector.
|
| I'd also want advisors who aren't invested at all in the
| sector, since they can advise in a way that isn't about driving
| growth in the sector
| danielmarkbruce wrote:
| This would be nice in theory - in practice there are almost
| never any people who meet this + actually understand the
| technology or industry. At least in my experience, people
| outside the industry don't understand it, ever. They
| sometimes think they do, but they don't.
| hunglee2 wrote:
| 'no indication that Schmidt broke any ethics rules'
|
| dunno man, writing regulations for an industry I am about to
| invest in sounds like a breach of something
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| I don't think so. Schmidt didn't approve them and make them
| law. Telling your legislator what you want and proposing
| something that makes you happy isn't a breach of anything.
|
| That is to say, there is no conflict of interest when you are
| only representing yourself or your opinions
| P5fRxh5kUvp2th wrote:
| Not disclosing a conflict of interest is unethical.
| jjeaff wrote:
| Was it something already in the works? Seems a bit much to
| want people to disclose potential future investments.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| His conflict of interest is expected, it is why they picked
| him. It is a commission of mostly industry leaders telling
| the government what policy they want.
|
| https://www.nscai.gov/commissioners/
| P5fRxh5kUvp2th wrote:
| His expertise is expected and it may be reasonable for
| him to have such a conflict of interest.
|
| But it should still be disclosed.
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| The person who writes a proposal decides the framework of
| thought. If the reader (in these cases the legislators) are
| not expert enough in the field, they can think that the the
| framework is unbiased and the correct one to think under.
|
| This is why it is unethical to not declare any conflicts when
| making a proposal. It hides your biases which will likely
| feed into the framework.
| ljw1001 wrote:
| Telling your legislator what you want while being a
| billionaire is one of the main reasons why we can't have an
| actual democracy
| nescioquid wrote:
| It is possible to perform a legal action which doesn't
| violate any rules and which is simply unethical (the
| conclusion of the government ethics advisors in this case).
|
| If the council's remit is to advise on "how to enhance
| American competitiveness on AI against its adversaries, build
| the AI workforce of the future, and develop data and ethical
| procedures", anyone on the council can shape policy that will
| pick winners and losers in the marketplace based on that
| "advice". You then have to wonder to whose benefit the advise
| really is.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| The intent of the council is not and never was to provide
| unbiased advice.
|
| "The commission was, by design, an outside advisory group
| of industry participants, and its other members included
| well-known tech executives including Oracle CEO Safra Catz,
| Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy and Microsoft Chief
| Scientific Officer Dr. Eric Horvitz, among others."
|
| Personal financial interests in the field was his basis for
| selection in the first place, and who he represents. You
| might not like that, but that is the purpose of the
| commission. Look at the commissioners yourself [1].
|
| https://www.nscai.gov/commissioners/
| nescioquid wrote:
| Seems unpersuasive to me since one now has to sweep under
| the rug the fact that the government's own ethics
| advisors find "a huge conflict of interest" in this
| matter.
|
| Your quote says "industry participants" but suddenly
| "personal financial interest" becomes the basis for
| selection to this advisory board.
|
| So what could those government ethics advisors be on
| about?
| [deleted]
| pempem wrote:
| Comments seem divided on whether someone 'in' the industry is the
| only person that can understand the industry and whether being in
| it means having a vested interest.
|
| For those of us who feel like "well duh obviously, and he should
| be allowed to do what he wants" I'd bring up that this is a
| democracy and we can simply make different rules. It is harder as
| a consultant to invest in an industry that you consult on than it
| is for a CEO who is advising on the rules that are being written
| for the industry. _this is a problem_ and rather than having
| 'ethical considerations' we could make rules to
|
| -limit investment
|
| -require divestment
|
| - disclose and review investments
|
| None of these would be beyond the pale and really the SEC and
| other bodies should be way more on the ball. The fact that they
| aren't is a reflection of this kind of one hand washing the other
| that we need to get out of our government
| asperous wrote:
| All of the members of this industry board have conflicts of
| interest being from industry, but having read the reports here:
|
| nscai.gov
|
| I thought the reports were good and I'm not sure how the
| conflicts would come through. Most of the advice would seem
| common sense to people on here.
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