I'm glad Steve featured the researcher's very interesting work this week. It doesn't seem like that long ago, that the late Kevin Mitnick was telling Leo and all of us watching about his social engineering exploits. That humans could be social engineered seemed crazy enough, but now we're talking about social engineering machines! But, I think the researcher's conclusions (and if I understood him correctly, Steve's own) might due well with a little tamping down by way of historical context.
A couple decades ago, these same sorts of arguments were being had over access to the internet. In those days, many people didn't have their own computers or home internet connection and so public libraries became the spots where people could access a computer with an internet connection and get online for free. The internet in those days was an even wilder place than it is today, and libraries and librarians became embroiled in the debate concerning internet filtering with the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) landing squarely on the side of freedom of speech, privacy and access to information. IFLA Manifesto 2002
While information was to be had in traditional forms (i.e. books) the internet made access to information faster, and as more and more people started having home internet connections, more private. Following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and subsequent incidents efforts were made to remove the Anarchist Cookbook from the internet. Arstechnica 2015 The Cookbook's own author, who had researched his book at the New York Public Library in 1971 also thought the book should go away. The Guardian 2013
Librarians also battled the the Patriot Act's section 215 that required that they turn over to the FBI library patron's "reading and computer records." Slate 2015
I can't say anything about the exploit code the Unit 42 researchers were able to generate. I didn't see it, and even if I had seen it, I wouldn't know what to do with it. But as for the Molotov cocktail, seriously?! It's harder to spell Molotov than it is to make the cocktail. A more problematic example, though, might be the instructions for fertilizer type bombs used in some major terror incidents (I being intentionally vague). Following those cases efforts were made to limit access to the precursor chemicals. Los Angeles Times 2011 As for toxins and bio-weapons, I don't think there's a great need to worry about the AIs dreaming up some new type. There are so many we already know about BBC 2018. One thing that's saving us is the technical (laboratory) skills required to make these things, but more importantly the vigilance of those tasked with protecting us. The Lancet 2019 CTC Sentinel 2020
I think we really need to separate what is really proscribed knowledge from specialized knowledge and that from what is common knowledge (in the case of Molotov cocktails). If the AI gets to the point where it will make the stuff for the bad guys (like the replicators in Star Trek TNG--which have safety restrictions on them), or I can say, "hey AI, do hack that guy", and the AI does it, then I'll be worried.
A couple decades ago, these same sorts of arguments were being had over access to the internet. In those days, many people didn't have their own computers or home internet connection and so public libraries became the spots where people could access a computer with an internet connection and get online for free. The internet in those days was an even wilder place than it is today, and libraries and librarians became embroiled in the debate concerning internet filtering with the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) landing squarely on the side of freedom of speech, privacy and access to information. IFLA Manifesto 2002
While information was to be had in traditional forms (i.e. books) the internet made access to information faster, and as more and more people started having home internet connections, more private. Following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and subsequent incidents efforts were made to remove the Anarchist Cookbook from the internet. Arstechnica 2015 The Cookbook's own author, who had researched his book at the New York Public Library in 1971 also thought the book should go away. The Guardian 2013
Librarians also battled the the Patriot Act's section 215 that required that they turn over to the FBI library patron's "reading and computer records." Slate 2015
I can't say anything about the exploit code the Unit 42 researchers were able to generate. I didn't see it, and even if I had seen it, I wouldn't know what to do with it. But as for the Molotov cocktail, seriously?! It's harder to spell Molotov than it is to make the cocktail. A more problematic example, though, might be the instructions for fertilizer type bombs used in some major terror incidents (I being intentionally vague). Following those cases efforts were made to limit access to the precursor chemicals. Los Angeles Times 2011 As for toxins and bio-weapons, I don't think there's a great need to worry about the AIs dreaming up some new type. There are so many we already know about BBC 2018. One thing that's saving us is the technical (laboratory) skills required to make these things, but more importantly the vigilance of those tasked with protecting us. The Lancet 2019 CTC Sentinel 2020
I think we really need to separate what is really proscribed knowledge from specialized knowledge and that from what is common knowledge (in the case of Molotov cocktails). If the AI gets to the point where it will make the stuff for the bad guys (like the replicators in Star Trek TNG--which have safety restrictions on them), or I can say, "hey AI, do hack that guy", and the AI does it, then I'll be worried.