Hacker News Reader

Comment by s1artibartfast | Hacker News Reader

Sure, but it shouldn't be government operating on the frontier of new technology

I don’t quite understand what the argument is. Government does as a matter of fact operate on the frontier of new technology. (It’s how we got the web.) Why shouldn’t it, exactly?

Also, the US has been involved in AI research since the 1940s. So it’s not exactly a new thing.

> don’t quite understand what the argument is

Government has, practically and relatively speaking, infinite resources and a monopoly on violence. You can’t compete with it in any true sense.

Set a track record of Sherlocking private industry and you won’t have one. In countries that regularly nationalise and expropriate, the government (and its cronies) have to do basically all private investment and innovation, and resultingly, there tends to be very little of the latter.

The argument is that there is a difference between fundamental research and trying to ship finished products and satisfy commercial demand.

The government was involved in basic internet research. It didnt try to operate pets.com

LLMs aren't finished products, though. And since they are basically a distillation of the collective works of all of humanity, it would make a lot of sense for them to wind up as public goods rather than some special advantage held by a select few.

Im not arguing that would be a bad spot eventually, like water or electricity distribution. Right now it's a highly Dynamic field though and changing On a monthly basis. I don't think it makes sense for the US government to try to Duke it out and drive all of the competitors out of business.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com