Well, I have in mind something more like banning the pursuit of a certain class of research goals.
the fact that evidence is fairly easy to come by and that intent with those is fairly easy to prove.
Hm. This provokes a further question:
Are there successful regulations that can apply to activity that is both purely mental (I mean, including speech, but not including anything more kinetic), and also is not an intention to commit a crime? Doing research on how to build a nuke with the intention of blowing up a bunch of people would be only mental, but is an intention to commit a crime. Hitting a pedestrian with your car by accident doesn’t involve an intention to commit a crime, but is obviously not purely mental.
To say it another way, is there some X and Y such that conspiring to do Y is illegal, even though doing Y is not in itself illegal, because doing Y would tend to cause X? Not sure this question even makes sense, but I ask it because a ban might want to say “no, you’re not allowed to run a giant unbounded algorithmic search on this giant dataset, because our scientific advisors said that this might result in accidentally creating an AGI, and creating an AGI is illegal”. Maybe that’s just the same as “Y is illegal”.
For example, is there something analogous to: “it’s illegal to do theoretical research aimed at making a hyper-potent dopamine agonist, because even if that hypothetical drug isn’t illegal right now, it would be extremely hazardous and would become illegal”?
Hm. The closest things I can think of would either be things like inciting racial hatred or hate speech (ie not physical, no intent for crime, but illegal). In terms of research, most research isn’t illegal but is usually tightly regulated by participating stakeholders, ethics panels, and industry regulations. Lots of it is stakeholder management too. I removed some information from my PhD thesis at the request of a government stakeholder, even though I didn’t have to. But it was a good idea to ensure future participation and I could see the value in the reasoning. I’m not sure there was anything they could do legally if I had refused, as it wasn’t illegal per se.
The closest thing I can think of to your example is perhaps weapons research. There’s nothing specifically making weapons research illegal, but it would be an absolute quagmire in terms of not breaking the law. For example sharing the research could well fall under anti-terrorism legislation, and creating a prototype would obviously be illegal without the right permits. So realistically you could come up with a fantastic new idea for a weapon but you’d need to partner with a licensing authority very, very early on or risk doing all of your research by post at His Majesty’s pleasure for the next few decades.
I have in the past worked in some quite heavily regulated areas with AI, but always working with a stakeholder who had all the licenses etc so I’m not terribly sure how all that works behind the scenes.
Thanks for the thoughtful responses!
Ha!
Well, I have in mind something more like banning the pursuit of a certain class of research goals.
Hm. This provokes a further question:
Are there successful regulations that can apply to activity that is both purely mental (I mean, including speech, but not including anything more kinetic), and also is not an intention to commit a crime? Doing research on how to build a nuke with the intention of blowing up a bunch of people would be only mental, but is an intention to commit a crime. Hitting a pedestrian with your car by accident doesn’t involve an intention to commit a crime, but is obviously not purely mental.
To say it another way, is there some X and Y such that conspiring to do Y is illegal, even though doing Y is not in itself illegal, because doing Y would tend to cause X? Not sure this question even makes sense, but I ask it because a ban might want to say “no, you’re not allowed to run a giant unbounded algorithmic search on this giant dataset, because our scientific advisors said that this might result in accidentally creating an AGI, and creating an AGI is illegal”. Maybe that’s just the same as “Y is illegal”.
For example, is there something analogous to: “it’s illegal to do theoretical research aimed at making a hyper-potent dopamine agonist, because even if that hypothetical drug isn’t illegal right now, it would be extremely hazardous and would become illegal”?
Hm. The closest things I can think of would either be things like inciting racial hatred or hate speech (ie not physical, no intent for crime, but illegal). In terms of research, most research isn’t illegal but is usually tightly regulated by participating stakeholders, ethics panels, and industry regulations. Lots of it is stakeholder management too. I removed some information from my PhD thesis at the request of a government stakeholder, even though I didn’t have to. But it was a good idea to ensure future participation and I could see the value in the reasoning. I’m not sure there was anything they could do legally if I had refused, as it wasn’t illegal per se.
The closest thing I can think of to your example is perhaps weapons research. There’s nothing specifically making weapons research illegal, but it would be an absolute quagmire in terms of not breaking the law. For example sharing the research could well fall under anti-terrorism legislation, and creating a prototype would obviously be illegal without the right permits. So realistically you could come up with a fantastic new idea for a weapon but you’d need to partner with a licensing authority very, very early on or risk doing all of your research by post at His Majesty’s pleasure for the next few decades.
I have in the past worked in some quite heavily regulated areas with AI, but always working with a stakeholder who had all the licenses etc so I’m not terribly sure how all that works behind the scenes.
Ah, yeah, that sounds close to what I’m imagining, thank you.