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Edward Snowden releases new message: "You have been warned" (www.newsweek.com)
submitted 7 months ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/fuck_ai@lemmy.world
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Edward Snowden wrote on social media to his nearly 6 million followers, "Do not ever trust @OpenAI ... You have been warned," following the appointment of retired U.S. Army General Paul Nakasone to the board of the artificial intelligence technology company.

Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) subcontractor, was charged with espionage by the Justice Department in 2013 after leaking thousands of top-secret records, exposing the agency's surveillance of private citizens' information.

In a Friday morning post on X, formerly Twitter, Snowden reshared a post providing information on OpenAI's newest board member. Nakasone is a former NSA director, and the longest-serving leader of the U.S. Cyber Command and chief of the Central Security Service. He retired from the NSA, a position he held since 2018, in February.

Snowden wrote in an X post, "They've gone full mask-off: do not ever trust @OpenAI or its products (ChatGPT etc.) There is only one reason for appointing an @NSAGov Director to your board. This is a willful, calculated betrayal of the rights of every person on Earth." He concluded the post, writing, "You have been warned."

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[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 103 points 7 months ago

Posts like these really bring out the Nextdoor app type lemmy people. Everything's a conspiracy.

Point is it doesn't matter who they add to OpenAI, OpenAI is already a problem. There is no conspiracy, you missed the boat. Your data is already being scraped, traded and sold to the Nth degree by corporations, and the government just goes ahead and buys it instead of forming yet another agency to scrape it all themselves (yay, privatization?). OpenAI is just the next level of the same. Doesn't matter who is on the board, the damage has already been done. So Snowden is way behind the times and frankly his commentary is irrelevant - or at least nothing that the news hasn't been complaining about with the rampant theft of IP by AI makers for the last couple of years or more.

[-] masquenox@lemmy.world 30 points 7 months ago

Snowden just said that they had gone "mask-off" - so I think it was just aimed at those who still refuses to believe it.

[-] SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world 13 points 7 months ago

So Snowden is way behind the times and frankly his commentary is irrelevant

This is some heavy Dunning-Kruger.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

Really.

When was he relevant, again?

[-] stoicmaverick@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago

Depends. What is your working definition of "Relevant"?

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

When he was a citizen with access to highly secure information.

[-] Lemjukes@lemm.ee 12 points 7 months ago

exactly, anyone trusting AI companies in general beforehand and being swayed by this one statement from Snowden, doesn’t understand the technology or environment enough to be effectively skeptical in the first place.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Thing is that Snowden isn't really a figure I think most people would listen to. I think he's cut off from any valuable information that would offer him anything groundbreaking to reveal and I think he's probably somewhat isolated in his current situation.

Edit: really? You downvoters just Snowden fans? Care to actually offer up a reason you think my comment isn’t right? Snowden is hiding out in a foreign country that has to keep him at arm’s length, trot him out when he’s useful, but not offer him access to anything actually important.

[-] dwindling7373@feddit.it 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

He's one of the most prominent privacy advocate in the world, maybe the most impactful in the history of digital technology. He's relevant no matter the "quality of his sources".

In this instance specifically the topic is literally NSA.

Are you for real?

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[-] jaybone@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

What are Nextdoor app type people?

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 25 points 7 months ago

Every "bang" they hear outside from a car backfire is gunfire. Every "boom" sound is a potential bomb. Every terrorist or rapist wants to visit your boring suburban neighborhood and is creeping around in broad daylight walking down the sidewalk. Every helicopter flying over is something nefarious. The government is out to get you. A police car mentioned going anywhere with the lights on must mean a horrific murder or "Praise jesus lord protect our police" followed by a blue line flag pic.

Every post warrants unsolicited derogatory political commentary, i.e. "Nice day outside..." followed by "Those fucking lying sleepy joe democrats are full of shit about climate change it's fine outside!" Or some unsolicited "praise Jesus its a nice day you wouldn't have the sun earth and stars if it weren't for Jesus praise God you're all sinners." with a crapton of emojis.

It's an awful place. I briefly tried it for yard sales and looking for services like tree trimming, but it's not worth it.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 100 points 7 months ago

Newsweek making it sound like Snowden is a James Bond villain issuing pronouncements from his skull-shaped island lair.

[-] sunzu@kbin.run 8 points 7 months ago

Fake new always trying to get the clickbait up the algo chain

[-] sunzu@kbin.run 91 points 7 months ago

Strong down vote ratio...

Can't tell if "AI" bros or the spooks are butthurt today.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 67 points 7 months ago

There are a significant number of people who also really hate Snowden for various reasons (he's a traitor, he ran to Russia, etc.) and don't care whether or not he's making a good point.

[-] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 48 points 7 months ago

He didn’t really choose Russia, it was the only country that would protect him from rendition.

[-] Morgoon@startrek.website 29 points 7 months ago

Not even that. He was headed to Cuba, the US government forced him to be in Russia.

"NSA leaker Edward Snowden got stuck at a Moscow airport after Cuba, feeling pressure from Washington, warned that it would not allow an Aeroflot flight from Russia to land in Havana if he were aboard"

[-] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 23 points 7 months ago

And sadly Cuba is all too aware of how petty the USA can be.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago

I'm not justifying their reasons, I'm just explaining that's what some of them say.

[-] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 7 months ago

Oh I know that Mr Squid. I was just adding some context. :)

[-] Perfide@reddthat.com 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Maybe at first it was a lack of options, but he's absolutely become a Russian asset since then. Doesn't mean he's wrong about OpenAI, but still.

[-] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Would love some sources for that claim, if it isn’t just conjecture.

Edit: Nice to be downvoted for not taking everything at face value and questioning people’s claims.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago

He's a Russian PR win, but I haven't seen him be especially pro-Putin or anything.

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[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 42 points 7 months ago

AI bros. Most of their investment is wrapped up in OpenAI being glorified

[-] SkyNTP@lemmy.ml 21 points 7 months ago

Alternate explanation, from the normies: it's a purely speculative claim with minimal argument.

[-] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago

Yes, a speculative claim ... from someone who absolutely knows what the fuck they're talking about.

[-] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

That’s not good enough. There are countless cases throughout history of professors, scientists, and other public authority figures who have made well-reasoned, well-supported and argued claims and also made completely unsubstantiated rubbish claims.

This is an unsubstantiated appeal to authority. Snowden is saying “trust me” but refusing to elaborate. Well, sorry, but no.

OpenAI hiring a former NSA director raises a lot of questions and we in the public have the right to demand answers. If OpenAI refuses to answer or is otherwise evasive about their motives then we have genuine reason to be suspicious.

I think overall we should treat ALL cloud service providers with the same degree of suspicion, regardless of who they hire. They are handling our personal data which is a serious responsibility that should not be betrayed.

However, I think there is a legitimate reason for OpenAI making this hire: they want to market their language models as a tool for automated signals intelligence analysis. Hiring a former NSA director puts them on a fast track to getting the opportunities and intelligence community contacts they seek.

[-] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago

It is ABSOLUTELY good enough when the question is about TRUST.

He's not making positive claims that specific things will happen. He's saying don't trust putting a wolf in charge of the hen house.

The fact you do not understand this basic tenant of life is frankly pathetic.

[-] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

And I’m saying you shouldn’t be trusting any of these cloud providers implicitly, regardless of who they hire. A company needs to demonstrate trustworthiness first. Starting off from a position of trust is foolish.

[-] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

Yes, it should start at not trusting them, but this move distinctly and specifically means they are EVEN LESS trustworthy.

[-] sunzu@kbin.run 7 points 7 months ago

There is deff speculative element to it. We dont have view of the inner workings and unlikely to see it besides bread crumbs that get leaked over years and astroturfed by the fake news.

People still relying on propaganda networks do have weird idea that they knows what's up.. I guess it is easier to be simping for dudes in power after all. Makes you sleep better at night.

[-] Halosheep@lemm.ee 5 points 7 months ago

I would downvote simply because this type of community, "fuck whatever" exists solely as an echo chamber of internet hate train and is unlikely to ever produce anything of value.

I would claim that it's better to downvote to prevent other people from finding extremely biased posts from a one sided community such as this. There is no arguing in good faith here, only tribalism.

[-] swayevenly@lemm.ee 5 points 7 months ago

the spooks are butthurt today.

Are you from the UK?

[-] sunzu@kbin.run 5 points 7 months ago

Am I utilizing a britishism?

[-] swayevenly@lemm.ee 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Was looking up if that word meant something else and the first result was a British show called Spooks. My mom used to watch it but I didn't recognize it because it was called MI-5 in North America since spook is a racial slur. Atleast it is in the US.

[-] Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I have never heard anyone say that as a racial slur and I grew up with a bunch of racists. Historically it was, at least in some parts of the u.s.

I love William Gibson's 'Spook Country' from 2007. I don't remember any controversy about the title then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spook_Country

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[-] throws_lemy@lemmy.nz 5 points 7 months ago

I guess someone here said that Snowden is behind the times and his comments are not relevant? And try to downplaying something bigger that Snowden might suggest.

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[-] AncientFutureNow@lemmy.world 26 points 7 months ago

I asked AI what the torque spec was for my valve cover bolts and ruined my engine. 70ft pounds! I pulled the threads out at 20ft/lbs!

just kidding. im not that stupid.

[-] rbesfe@lemmy.ca 23 points 7 months ago

"do not ever trust [insert large corporation]"

FTFY

[-] oce@jlai.lu 22 points 7 months ago

Welcome to Large Language Monitoring

[-] mhague@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago

This kind of rhetoric is for conservatives / Trump supporters / conspiracy theorists.

The way he implies there's an agenda behind the hire without actually articulating it, the way he leads you on and then assumes you'll take the implication for granted, an unearned "this is a very bad thing!", capped with a cryptic "You've been warned!"

[-] zaph@sh.itjust.works 20 points 7 months ago

worked at the nsa

hired to work for a company that scrubs the internet for data

Yeah definitely just conspiracy theory bs. Thanks, cop!

[-] utopiah@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago

I'm not sure what your credentials are in the surveillance "business" but I bet he's seen, and experienced, even contributed to, sadly, a lot more than a random stranger on the Internet.

I don't like that he hints as scenario rather than being clear about it. I don't like that a lot of his posts are political and seeding doubts about institutions... yet, again, based on his CV, he's seen a lot more than anybody I know and thus his perspective, even his warnings, do matter.

I'll still draw my own conclusions, and keep learning about the topic, both the technology and who funds it, but yes I'll be more wary since his tweet.

[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 8 points 7 months ago

This actually makes me think OpenAI is a straight up scam; this is the Elizabeth Holmes strategy.

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this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2024
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