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Why not hold the people accountable that deployed the tool? Ultimately the tool helps a human do the job. It doesn't do anything on its own. If a contractor shows up to do repairs in your house, but their hammer is faulty and the head flies through your window you don't talk to the hammer manufacturer. You talk to the contractor. It's the contractor's job to deal with wherever they got the hammer from.

If software developers are held responsible for the software then expect costs to multiply. Nobody would directly sell you software either - they'd sell you a hardware and software bundle that you must use exactly as the developers say. If you input a value that's out of bounds then that's on you. The software also won't get updates and it will run on 20 year old hardware. That's not too dissimilar to what we have in aerospace, right? And developers aren't even held responsible there! It's the companies, so expect it to be worse than even that.




Would you blame the people who paid for the bridge for the collapse? Should they have understood the details and flagged where corners were cut.

When it comes to critical system I think it's fair to say that the engineers who build it are the only ones who can fully understand the risk.

This is the point behind accreditation. It forces the supplier to maintain a minimum bar for services to protect the reputation of the industry.


In real life the engineers don't police themselves.

Before a bridge, house or even patio deck with a foundation is used a safety inspector needs to give approval.


Are safety inspectors intended to validate the design of a bridge? Or just that construction and materials are up to spec?




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