Am I going to read this Anthropic + Vatican document?
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@lobingera Well an Anthropic cofounder was specifically thanked during the Pope's speech where he said that they will "work together to "find the way for humanity, in this time of artificial intelligence." Chris Olah wasn't a random attendee. The Vatican had been cultivating these relationships for many years.
@lobingera And why would they have this happen? Why would they specifically invite him?They could have chosen exploited data workers or any of Anthropic's victims but instead it was specifically them. Now why would that be acceptable?
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/pope-leo-address-human-dignity-age-ai-rcna345744
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Am I going to read this Anthropic + Vatican document?
No I'm not. All I know is that the Vatican is doing Vatican washing, just like green washing. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised as they have a venture capital arm that invests in Silicon Valley companies
@timnitGebru @nancylwayne George Harrison: “While the Pope owns fifty-one-percent of General Motors, and the stock exchange is the only thing he’s qualified to quote us.” - Awaiting on you All, 1970
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Am I going to read this Anthropic + Vatican document?
No I'm not. All I know is that the Vatican is doing Vatican washing, just like green washing. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised as they have a venture capital arm that invests in Silicon Valley companies
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@lobingera And why would they have this happen? Why would they specifically invite him?They could have chosen exploited data workers or any of Anthropic's victims but instead it was specifically them. Now why would that be acceptable?
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/pope-leo-address-human-dignity-age-ai-rcna345744
@timnitGebru hmm. My focus is more on the actual document, i just read the passages on the VN page linked downthread. To me this doesn't sound influenced by big tech.
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Am I going to read this Anthropic + Vatican document?
No I'm not. All I know is that the Vatican is doing Vatican washing, just like green washing. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised as they have a venture capital arm that invests in Silicon Valley companies
As I posted in reply to another thread on the "Magnifica humanitas", I continue to question how any self-described progressives can stay with an institution as oppressive as the Catholic Church.
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Am I going to read this Anthropic + Vatican document?
No I'm not. All I know is that the Vatican is doing Vatican washing, just like green washing. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised as they have a venture capital arm that invests in Silicon Valley companies
@timnitGebru I see what you mean that it is a risk that there is a consultant from Anthropic at the Vatican when the manifesto calling for massive fierce regulation of "AI" is being read out by the pope. But it may be that a touch of dialogue makes more sense than ideological 'purity'; it is a pretty strong statement, not the sort of thing Antrhopic itself is really standing behind. It is important for religious leaders not to be seen as fanatical
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Am I going to read this Anthropic + Vatican document?
No I'm not. All I know is that the Vatican is doing Vatican washing, just like green washing. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised as they have a venture capital arm that invests in Silicon Valley companies
The document itself reads great.
But so does a lot of scripture.
It's the actions that matter and bringing in Anthropic says much more than the words.
Read these excerpts below and remember to ask: "okay, now prove it."
Edit: there are supposed to be spacers between quotes but they keep getting Markdowned.
- - -Over the centuries, technological development has significantly improved the living conditions of humanity. At the same time, each phase of progress has also revealed the ambiguity of tools that can cause harm when not oriented toward the good.
- - -In the past, it was largely up to the State to guide and direct innovation. Today, however, the main drivers of development are private, often transnational, parties that are endowed with resources and the capacity to intervene that surpass those of many Governments.
- - -If we focus only on contingencies, we risk letting the succession of emergencies dictate the direction of our path.
- - -Scientific discoveries are talents entrusted to humanity so that they may bear fruit (cf. Mt 25:14-30). Technology has the power to heal, connect, educate and protect our common home; but it can also divide, exclude and generate new forms of injustice.
- - -Rebuilding today means recognizing that, precisely from the plurality of voices and visions which, even though they sometimes remind us of the confusion caused by the diversity of spoken languages, a bright possibility emerges. Indeed, this is the possibility of building together, of transforming diversity into a resource and of making listening and dialogue the common ground upon which to cultivate justice and fraternity.
- - -All too often, we place our hope in unlimited “upgrades,” in forms of progress that exacerbate inequalities, and in immediate solutions incapable of healing people’s wounds. As a result, while some pursue the illusion of unlimited self-assertion, many are deprived of basic necessities.
- - -We should not be intimidated by tensions or differences because they can become creative forces when guided by shared responsibility.
- - -We cannot condone naïve enthusiasms, nor fuel unfounded fears. Instead, let us establish standards for discernment — the dignity of the human person, the universal destination of goods, the preferential option for the poor, care for our common home and peace — and let us translate these standards into practices such as responsible planning, the assessment of human and social impact, the inclusion of the most vulnerable, the promotion of digital literacy and guiding research and industry toward justice and peace.
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Instead they partnered with Anthropic, like partnering with the Sackler family to discuss the harms of oxy.
@timnitGebru
I had known nothing about a connection to Anthropic.
And, yes, just having the dude there is all that anyone should need to see.
It's this exact kind of maneuvering that has my own dad believing every virtuous thing anyone says about Anthropic.
Thank you. -
Instead they partnered with Anthropic, like partnering with the Sackler family to discuss the harms of oxy.
@timnitGebru he did quote Gandalf, which is a plus, but I'm with you on the massive skepticism around this conflict of interest.
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Am I going to read this Anthropic + Vatican document?
No I'm not. All I know is that the Vatican is doing Vatican washing, just like green washing. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised as they have a venture capital arm that invests in Silicon Valley companies
@timnitGebru We need Christopher Hitchens, but he died of the Big C ages ago. His takedowns of religion and Catholicism in particular were epic. I was reading his work this AM even before learning of the Vatican idiocy you posted to the nasty networking site to skill up on polemic after witnessing EA using false dichotomy and victim blaming repeatedly over the weekend.
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@lobingera And why would they have this happen? Why would they specifically invite him?They could have chosen exploited data workers or any of Anthropic's victims but instead it was specifically them. Now why would that be acceptable?
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/pope-leo-address-human-dignity-age-ai-rcna345744
@timnitGebru @lobingera Maybe inviting him to read him a critique of AI is way more effective to lobby against AI?
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Now if the Vatican had partnered with the exploited data workers fighting for their rights, the people whose water is polluted fighting data centers, or the many other victims around the world, I would have written whatever they wrote.
If the Vatican told Anthropic to stop stealing data, exploiting labor, killing the environment, deceiving us with anthropomorphic designs and lying about product "capabilities, " then sure I would have read whatever they wrote.
@timnitGebru I think you really should read the whole thing first, I don’t think Anthropic is going to be so happy with it.
(A lot of religious people have ignored the Church Social Doctrine over the years, Anthropic CEO might do just that with the latest encyclical, but this is a serious takedown of inequalities, explicitly calling out gender inequalities (perhaps the first time the word "gender" is used positively in a church teaching.)
It also kind of relegates JP II theology of the body to the dustbin of history)
This text is about far more than just AI, btw.
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@timnitGebru @lobingera Maybe inviting him to read him a critique of AI is way more effective to lobby against AI?
@grodira @timnitGebru @lobingera And if there’s a working relationship is : the Vatican and the Pope wanted to ask a bunch of questions to an AI company to figure out what it is exactly they are up to, definitely not as their single source.
Anthropic tried to get on the Pope good side. I don’t think they really succeeded.
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Am I going to read this Anthropic + Vatican document?
No I'm not. All I know is that the Vatican is doing Vatican washing, just like green washing. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised as they have a venture capital arm that invests in Silicon Valley companies
@timnitGebru Shame, they seemed like such good folks otherwise.
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@timnitGebru I think you really should read the whole thing first, I don’t think Anthropic is going to be so happy with it.
(A lot of religious people have ignored the Church Social Doctrine over the years, Anthropic CEO might do just that with the latest encyclical, but this is a serious takedown of inequalities, explicitly calling out gender inequalities (perhaps the first time the word "gender" is used positively in a church teaching.)
It also kind of relegates JP II theology of the body to the dustbin of history)
This text is about far more than just AI, btw.
@Sobex @timnitGebru You really missed the whole point of what Timnit is saying.
It doesn’t matter what’s in it. The structure of the relationship – partnership – is what matters. They’ve already legitimised the company (for people for whom the Vatican can still legitimise anything, that is).
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@timnitGebru We need Christopher Hitchens, but he died of the Big C ages ago. His takedowns of religion and Catholicism in particular were epic. I was reading his work this AM even before learning of the Vatican idiocy you posted to the nasty networking site to skill up on polemic after witnessing EA using false dichotomy and victim blaming repeatedly over the weekend.
@timnitGebru 29 minutes in. A zinger most appropriate to the situation. The pattern fits. He even mentions Michael Moore, Robert Fisk and the Port Huron Statement of 1962 towards the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY5Ste5xRAA
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@timnitGebru 29 minutes in. A zinger most appropriate to the situation. The pattern fits. He even mentions Michael Moore, Robert Fisk and the Port Huron Statement of 1962 towards the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY5Ste5xRAA
@timnitGebru We need an "argument from poor design" for the ongoing global LLM mis-selling scam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_poor_design
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Am I going to read this Anthropic + Vatican document?
No I'm not. All I know is that the Vatican is doing Vatican washing, just like green washing. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised as they have a venture capital arm that invests in Silicon Valley companies
@timnitGebru
Catholic Church has always ingested what threatened them, good and bad. Hippies and dictators, saints and rapists. -
Am I going to read this Anthropic + Vatican document?
No I'm not. All I know is that the Vatican is doing Vatican washing, just like green washing. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised as they have a venture capital arm that invests in Silicon Valley companies
@timnitGebru Their engagement with Silicon Valley is not a venture capital firm.
Someone with your academic standing should at least read the Encyclica instead of indulging in guilt by association fallacies.
One might dismiss the belief set of the Ecclesia Catholica per se, but this Pontifex Maximus is well educated and intelligent. And dwelled and executed the duties of a member of the Jesuit order in Latin America.
