I guess I see these visions more as things companies try to filter for, inculcate, and perhaps require of executives, rather than ideologies that a rank-and-file engineer is ethically required to adopt. Maybe Lightcone and SpaceX are exceptions, but employees at most companies have a variety of reasons for working there. I’d guess the most common motivation for AI engineers is money. Is it dishonorable for a cracked IC at OpenAI to take a promotion to manager where they’re less effective?
Ok, what if they are motivated by OpenAI’s stated mission: “to ensure that artificial general intelligence—AI systems that are generally smarter than humans—benefits all of humanity”? It doesn’t say you should defer to Sam Altman and act as if endowing GPT-5.5 with the capability to spy on Americans benefits all of humanity. While I don’t agree with everything in the OP, it seems perfectly reasonable for an OpenAI employee who wants to benefit all of humanity to take protest actions, including slacking off at work and focusing on office politics if this is better than quitting. Why not just leave? Well, you could become a whistleblower, or the office politics could pay off and let you influence OpenAI for the better.
I guess I see these visions more as things companies try to filter for, inculcate, and perhaps require of executives, rather than ideologies that a rank-and-file engineer is ethically required to adopt. Maybe Lightcone and SpaceX are exceptions, but employees at most companies have a variety of reasons for working there. I’d guess the most common motivation for AI engineers is money. Is it dishonorable for a cracked IC at OpenAI to take a promotion to manager where they’re less effective?
Ok, what if they are motivated by OpenAI’s stated mission: “to ensure that artificial general intelligence—AI systems that are generally smarter than humans—benefits all of humanity”? It doesn’t say you should defer to Sam Altman and act as if endowing GPT-5.5 with the capability to spy on Americans benefits all of humanity. While I don’t agree with everything in the OP, it seems perfectly reasonable for an OpenAI employee who wants to benefit all of humanity to take protest actions, including slacking off at work and focusing on office politics if this is better than quitting. Why not just leave? Well, you could become a whistleblower, or the office politics could pay off and let you influence OpenAI for the better.