This has created a potentially dangerous mismatch in public perception between what the more serious AI safety researchers think they’re doing (e.g. reducing X risk from AGI), and what the public thinks AI safety is doing (e.g. developing methods to automate partisan censorship, to embed woke values into AI systems, and to create new methods for mass-customized propaganda).
This is the crux of the problem, yes. I don’t think this is because of a “conservative vs liberal” political rift though; the left is just as frustrated by, say, censorship of sex education or queer topics as the right may be upset by censorship of “non-woke” discussion—what matters is that the particular triggers for people on what is appropriate or not to censor are extremely varied, both across populations and across time. I don’t think it’s necessary to bring politics into this as an explanatory factor (though it may of course exacerbate existing tension).
Yep, fair enough. I was trying to dramatize the most vehement anti-censorship sentiments in a US political context, from one side of the partisan spectrum. But you’re right that there are plenty of other anti-censorship concerns from many sides, on many issues, in many countries.
This is the crux of the problem, yes. I don’t think this is because of a “conservative vs liberal” political rift though; the left is just as frustrated by, say, censorship of sex education or queer topics as the right may be upset by censorship of “non-woke” discussion—what matters is that the particular triggers for people on what is appropriate or not to censor are extremely varied, both across populations and across time. I don’t think it’s necessary to bring politics into this as an explanatory factor (though it may of course exacerbate existing tension).
Yep, fair enough. I was trying to dramatize the most vehement anti-censorship sentiments in a US political context, from one side of the partisan spectrum. But you’re right that there are plenty of other anti-censorship concerns from many sides, on many issues, in many countries.