Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by r3trohack3r | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

r3trohack3r

Murder by computer keyboard: https://www.deseret.com/1997/7/6/19322063/mother-charged-wit...

Murder by ethernet cable: https://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/dead-woman-found-in-pa...

Murder by laptop: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/william-lynn-gunter-sentence...

Murder by cellphone charger: https://lawandcrime.com/crime/pennsylvania-man-admits-to-str...

Murder by desk lamp: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2009/01/08/man-beaten-to-death...

Stabbing by coffee mug: https://www.muscalaw.com/blog/north-port-two-women-attack-co...

View on HN

The fact that you had to find an article from three decades ago for an instance of killing with a keyboard is telling. All the others aren’t exactly that recent and are mostly isolated cases. Meanwhile, on gun related deaths, there are entire Wikipedia pages for it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-r...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_mass_shootings_in_the...

There are more mass shootings in the US per year than there are days in a year. It’s so bad they need pages for each individual year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_...

Meanwhile, pages of deaths perpetrated with household items are curiosities. You parent comment stands: tools are designed for specific purposes and are used for those purposes.

>The fact that you had to find an article from three decades ago for an instance of killing with a keyboard is telling

Yeah, is telling that modern keyboards weight a lot less nowadays, and nobody would use one as a weapon to hit someone else. ;)

The original IBM Model M was 2.3 Kg.

Thank you for the laugh, wasn’t expecting that. Though I have a modern external Apple keyboard, which is not that weighty but it is metal and fairly thin with sharp corners. It could do some damage.

My larger point is that nobody - nobody - defaults to telling us the coffee mug is unregulated, as AI allegedly ought to be. They always compare it to something much more commonly used as a weapon; something that, when asked to name a household object likely to be used as a weapon, the average person would guess.

Your point is that people make a stronger argument even when a weaker one would be sufficient?

Instead of comparing AI to any other tool, especially one closer to "useful with a computer", the common comparison is always a weapon of some kind.

If the design of tools are neutral, one tool should do as well as another in this common comparison. But the useful application of tools is inherent in their design.

If tools were neutral, as so many on this site claim, why is AI only ever compared to knives and hammers?

Parent has lots of links to other common objects causing harm, why are they never used as the example when tools are allegedly neutral? That would be a stronger argument opposing AI regulation - ethernet has less regulations that knives, but can still be used as a murder weapon

Hammers are kind of just the prototypical tool, but I've definitely also seen comparisons to keyboards, paintbrushes, and traditional digital tools.

> why are they never used as the example when tools are allegedly neutral? That would be a stronger argument opposing AI regulation

The argument is strongest if pointing to tools that have larger potential impact yet are still widely considered neutral and not/loosely regulated.

"We should consider AI a neutral tool and not heavily regulate it because we do the same for drink coasters" is not convincing, because there's not all that much you can do with a coaster.

Although…my gran's coasters were made of Waterford crystal, and could definitey do some damage. (-:

Reply on news.ycombinator.com