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Comment by Nasrudith | Hacker News Reader

You want to bake cookies yet refuse to take responsibility for the possibility of somebody choking on them, or sell cars without maling crashes impossible!

Impossible goals are an asinine standard and "responsibility" and "accountability" are the favorite weasel words of those who want absolute discretion to abuse power.

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Aren’t there lots of regulations on safety standards for food and for cars? I think you might have chosen the wrong examples.

Is Mercedes liable if I run over someone on purpose in a car they made?

That's a poor comparison to this case.

Would Mercedes be liable if the car (i.e. the algorithm) decided to run over someone?

Does the algorithm "decide" to show something, or is it operating mechanically, driven by the inputs of the user?

If it is operating mechanically, then it is following a process chosen by the developers who wrote the code. They work for the company, so the consequences are still the company's responsibility.

The car is following a process chosen by Mercedes' engineers (to go forward when the user presses the accelerator.) The newsfeed is likewise following a mechanistic process driven by user input (they wouldn't be showing misinformation if users weren't uploading and sharing them.)

If the Mercedes infotainment screen had shown you a curated recommendation that you run them over, prior to you doing so, they very possibly would (and should).

Lack of regulations isn't the industry's fault though. I GP's example is indeed relevant.

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