On Ethics and Usefulness

A blogger criticizes Linus Torvalds for dismissing ethical concerns about large language models, arguing that Torvalds' focus on utility ignores the moral and societal implications of the technology.

Kevin sent me a link to this email from Linus Torvalds the other day, and I found that to be a great example of something that has been bothering me for a while now. It’s about AI—everything is about AI these days, so damn boring—and, more specifically, Linus’ position when it comes to the use of LLMs. What I find bothersome is the lack of any consideration for the moral and ethical implications of the technology itself. The justification for its use essentially boils down to “it’s a useful tool”, which is a totally unconvincing argument in this context. In his defense, Linus also mentioned that «There are other questions around AI» but it’s telling that the one example he picked was «what the economy of it will actually look like in the end» which, again, has nothing to do with anything related to the ethics around the use of these tools, how were made, and so on. And look, I understand that this is a very complex landscape to navigate since it touches A LOT of different aspects. But to quote Linus, «the solution is not to put your head in the sand and sing "La La La, I can't hear you”» . This is a technology that is deeply entangled with moral and societal issues, and you have to accept the fact that you need to confront those ethical and moral dilemmas. There’s no way around it. And if you decide to sweep everything under the “it’s useful” rug, well, that’s disappointing to say the least. 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