Readit News- it's actually to get regulatory capture
- it's hubris, they're trying to seem more important and powerful than they are
Both of these explanations strike me as too clever by half. I think the parsimonious explanation is that people are actually concerned about the dangers of AI. Maybe they're wrong, but I don't think this kind of incredulous conspiratorial reaction is a useful thing to engage in.
When in doubt take people at their word. Maybe the CEOs of these companies have some sneaky 5D chess plan, but many many AI researchers (such as Joshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton) who don't stand to gain monetarily have expressed these same concerns. They're worth taking seriously.
<ShamelessSelfPromotion> I also have a series of blog posts on the topic: https://github.com/DataForScience/Causality where I work through Pearls Primer: https://amzn.to/3gsFlkO </ShamelessSelfPromotion>
Edit: look at his sources.
Sure, it's not peer-reviewed, and his other articles might look quite loony, but he does highlight some anthropological discrepancies in this piece. Not everyone can have their articles peer-reviewed.
1. I’ve been asked to keep my camera on in most meetings. 2. Like many in the tech world, I generally prefer to keep it off. 3. I was pulled aside over concerns that my LinkedIn profile "looked suspicious." 4. Admittedly, my LinkedIn does look suspicious to anyone who doesn’t communicate with me regularly or hasn't met me recently. 5. As with many developers, I place a premium on privacy, and some of my actions to safeguard it might appear suspect. 6. I’m involved in the cybersecurity community, participating in conferences and learning platforms. 7. The individual who asked me to remove the repository is non-technical. 8. The company I work for is not a tech company. 9. My direct supervisors and decision-makers are also non-technical. 10. I maintain strong relationships with technical team members. 11. I’ve had difficulties navigating remote work dynamics with non-technical colleagues. 12. I speak up less than I used to—this could be interpreted as disengagement. 13. In the past, I struggled to make measurable progress or explain setbacks, which hasn’t reflected well on me. 14. I’ve made no secret of the fact that Quality Engineering is not my passion, preferring development work instead—a comment that’s occasionally thrown back at me: "I know you’d rather be doing X, but..." 15. I have fewer than 10 years of experience in the industry and appear quite young. 16. I’ve been with the company for several years. 17. I work remotely. 18. I attempted to explain our CI/CD pipelines, the importance of QE, and why I believe I need access to the repo.