Post #1741473

2026-04-22 09:28 UTC

@davidgerard @frog_reborn @nihilistic_capybara @zkat let's list all the unethical aspects of the current state-of-the-art LLMs e.g. trained using stolen content, no sharing of profit with corpus contributors, centralisation of wealth/power, carbon emissions, data centres spoiling potable water and driving up real-estate/utilities prices for locals, generation of CSAM and misinformation, plummeting average quality of software, making it harder for people to afford personal computers, lighting trillions of dollars on fire instead of spending that on humanitarian causes, ... etc (loads more factors to consider, of course) I can see how one model might be more or less problematic during training and more or less problematic during inference compared to other models e.g. if I train a model on my own computer using only my own content, and only from a battery charged by solar, then surely that's more ethical than using a subscription-only cloud-only model offered by OpenAI, right? e.g. if a model is trained in a data-centre, then it effectively has the LLM equivalent of "original sin" and a lot of harm was caused just by that very fact, but is using that model for inference on my local GPU is slightly more ethical than paying an ongoing subscription to Sam Altman, right? of course, most of the people using LLMs are doing so by choice, and would be perfectly fine if they did not use them, so harm minimisation here isn't really a redeeming argument but, there is likely a non-zero set of people with accessibility needs or other reasons, where they have less choice in their engagement of LLMs (compared to the majority), and for this group maybe it's more valid to consider a spectrum of LLM ethics 🤷

Replies (4)

@nihilistic_capybara@layer8.space 2026-04-22 10:55

@jokeyrhyme @davidgerard @frog_reborn @zkat ok fair those are all real issues I must admit. But I can not think of any industry that doesn't have the same or similar issues. I do not see anyone arguing for boycoting doctors. Imho you guys in america need to stop messing around prevent billionaires from fucking everyone. No amount of boycotting openai is gonna do that. They do not care anymore, they'll get your money anyways through government subsidies or military contracts.

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@nihilistic_capybara@layer8.space 2026-04-22 11:04

@jokeyrhyme @davidgerard @frog_reborn @zkat regarding the access to computers. We already have manufactured SO MUCH electronics we don't need more in my opinion. If you even noticed a price hike in ram you are probably buying too much shit and frankly part of the problem of ewaste and contributing to all the fun stuff you described.

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@nihilistic_capybara@layer8.space 2026-04-22 11:11

@jokeyrhyme @davidgerard @frog_reborn @zkat regarding csam. How do you not see that this is yet another example of the ruling class being able to do whatever they want. Musk allows Grok to just do whatever because he is legally immune. Boycotting e.g. openai will not stop musk from getting more money (your money from the government) to make his next gen CP bot.

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@nihilistic_capybara@layer8.space 2026-04-22 11:19

@jokeyrhyme @davidgerard @frog_reborn @zkat oh and last but not least "doing so by choice" You must be delusional if you still think that governments, militaries, and especially big companies will stop using llms. A bigger client of mine had this one guy running around the office practically whipping people into using chatgpt for their work because they wanted to show to their shareholders that they are modern. We are so beyond the point where this is optional. Have been for a while.

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