Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I think having my AI raise to me for intervention when it receives an email like the one you described is pretty reasonable, all things considered then.

edit: How would a human receiver know that they weren't being deceived or scammed? In what world would we expect this kind of email directly lead to calling emergency services?



> In what world would we expect this kind of email directly lead to calling emergency services?

Go through the examples I gave you (plus some more below, they're easy to find) and explain why these are not counter-examples to your skepticism.

If you want to be overly-focussed on the specific example rather than the general point, also consider that calling emergency services is no more costly than forwarding an email: I have called the fire brigade in the UK over a smoke alarm that wouldn't stop even though I couldn't see or smell fire, they came and… replaced the smoke alarm for free. I don't know if the US has a call-out charge for fire like I keep hearing it has for ambulances, but if you're a member of staff, it's not a "you" problem either way.

• Various cases of people dying because calls not treated seriously, and a fire where standard business practices locked the staff inside and then a fire happened: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49098781

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Denton and his blinking, demonstrating out-of-bound messaging

https://www.wosu.org/news-partners/2019-12-24/british-girl-f...

https://wtop.com/national/2019/11/woman-calls-911-to-report-...

• Page 44, section 6.8, regarding the use of email by people in the WTC after the 9/11 attack, while the buildings were on fire, some of them were trapped and died: https://fseg.gre.ac.uk/fire/odpm_fire_033353.pdf


So what point are you trying to make here? That AI should indiscriminately call for emergency services when prompted because a person would do that (which a person would absolutely NOT call emergency services on any message telling you to)?


Go through the examples I gave you and explain why these are not counter-examples to your skepticism.

Especially Denton and the 911 pizza given you say:

> which a person would absolutely NOT call emergency services on

Regarding this:

> That AI should indiscriminately call for emergency services when prompted because a person would do that

I'd rather it fail-safe. This means different things in different systems.


> I'd rather it fail-safe. This means different things in different systems.

Okay and to you, fail-safe means machines must summon emergency response whenever prompted, 100% of the time or at least in the contrived case of receiving an email from someone trapped in a fire in a server room?


> 100% of the time or at

That you're still asking "100% of the time", shows me you're missing the entire point that has been said repeatedly.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: