My point is there is no stopping this research now, open or not neural nets just have too much potential. So I'm happy there is an open initiative that the big players support.
Big companies are just equally a problem as big governments. They are even more effective and efficient in collecting user data and reaching privacy sensitive information.
AI in general has become a game for big players, that's in itself a worrying trend.
Big companies are not like government. Government is the law and what everyone adheres to; companies simply aren't. A private company can't force you to do anything you didn't agree to (agreement = contract/interaction), governments force people to do things they can't opt out of. Corporations are bad, but governments are much worse because they can use information they have to force people. If you are thinking that lobbying means corporations are basically government and therefore it's all the same, this isn't true either as lobbying doesn't always happen, and even through lobbying corporations normally lobby for favorable non-restrictive legislation, it doesn't allow them to force people as a government does.
Nah, you're thinking too directly. Private companies can absolutely force you to do anything you don't want to, but they rarely do this - too costly in a system with a somewhat working rule of law - and if they do this, they do it pretty subtly. Examples from all across the spectrum:
- Strong companies can and do force weak governments to adopt whatever policies they want; see e.g. tobacco companies and their fight against health warnings on cigarette boxes. Or private companies and their private armies - happened in the past (e.g. East India Company), happens today (why do you think people kill each other in Africa over tantalum they don't have technological capability to use?).
- Lobbying you mentioned. Doesn't always happen, but happens frequently.
- Various low-level deals and bribery on e.g. city scale.
- Low-skilled jobs. Just talk to people who are stuck with those, especially in smaller cities. Employers can, and routinely do, make them do anything because they basically own them.
So yeah, private companies are not like governments. They can't just go and coerce you to do something in the name of law. But they have lots of less direct ways to coerce people if they really want to. The job of the government is usually to make them not want to.
The point being, top-line research still happens on somewhat open market, where knowledge is shared and people - including those working on AI safety - can participate. The alternative would be countries and/or corporations developing all that tech in secret.
