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Comment by alecst | Hacker News Reader

If my dog bites you, you can say it bit you, or that I let it bite you, but those things can both be true.

Dogs are alive. AIs are not alive.

If my car rolls into you, you can say it rolled into you, or that I let it roll into you, but those things can both be true.

Okay, what are you getting at? You think the owner of a car isn't responsible for what the car does?

Not always?

In law, intent matters. You should look up the difference between murder and manslaughter for example. Each has multiple degrees as well.

The point is that it's a perfectly valid use of the English language to describe AI models as doing things, just as we do with all sorts of other clearly non-living things. This is true regardless of who carries the legal liability for those actions.

Yes, if my dog bites you, or if I drive my car into you, or if I dont put my parking brake on and it rolls down the hill and runs you over. I am the one who is responsible. Cops dont write a ticket to the off leash dog that ran across the street and sunk its teeth into my leg. They write it to the owner. Cops dont write a ticket to the car in neutral, they write it to the operator.

If a PERSON executes software, and that software breaks the law, the PERSON that executed the software should be held responsible. AI is software. It is not a sentient person who can be fined, thrown in jail, or held accountable.

Sure, but the news article wouldn't use the headline "Man uses family pet to bite innocent neighbor", as would be the case if we were to follow the suggestion in the comment at the top of this chain.

I would say that you were negligent in your responsibilities, and allowed the car to roll into me.

If your dog bites me I’d say it bit me, but that you assumed liability for your dogs actions. If the dog was a robot I’d say YOU attacked me using a robot.

There’s a difference between a tool and an animal that is sometimes deployed as a tool.

These aren't dogs, this is such a ludicrous analogy.

Is this your first metaphor?

Yeah but if I run you over with my car, I can't say my car ran you over.

Did you or your self-driving car that you instructed to take you home plow through that sweet old lady

Well, the law says that the person behind the wheel is responsible.

What if the car has no steering wheel?

Did you instruct the self-driving car to explore random nearby surfaces without safety features enabled?

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