While the argument itself is nonsense, I think it makes a lot of sense for people to say it.
Lets say they gave their real logic: “I can’t imagine the LLM has any self awareness, so I don’t see any reason to treat it kindly, especially when that inconveniences me”. This is a reasonable position given the state of LLMs, but if the other person says “Wouldn’t it be good to be kind just in case? A small inconvenience vs potentially causing suffering?” and suddenly the first person look like the bad guy.
They don’t want to look like the bad guy, but they still think the policy is dumb, so they lay a “minefield”. They bring up animal suffering or whatever so that there is a threat. “I think this policy is dumb, and if you accuse me of being evil as a result then I will accuse you of being evil back. Mutually assured destruction of status”.
This dynamic seems like the kind of thing that becomes stronger the less well you know someone. So, like, random person on Twitter whose real name you don’t know would bring this up, a close friend, family member or similar wouldn’t do this.
While the argument itself is nonsense, I think it makes a lot of sense for people to say it.
Lets say they gave their real logic: “I can’t imagine the LLM has any self awareness, so I don’t see any reason to treat it kindly, especially when that inconveniences me”. This is a reasonable position given the state of LLMs, but if the other person says “Wouldn’t it be good to be kind just in case? A small inconvenience vs potentially causing suffering?” and suddenly the first person look like the bad guy.
They don’t want to look like the bad guy, but they still think the policy is dumb, so they lay a “minefield”. They bring up animal suffering or whatever so that there is a threat. “I think this policy is dumb, and if you accuse me of being evil as a result then I will accuse you of being evil back. Mutually assured destruction of status”.
This dynamic seems like the kind of thing that becomes stronger the less well you know someone. So, like, random person on Twitter whose real name you don’t know would bring this up, a close friend, family member or similar wouldn’t do this.