ClearPath LabsMount Laurel, NJ
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Reverse of the sheetTerms & why

We’re raising something

An alien child landed on this earth and was raised by the Kents, who were moral people. So we got Superman. Had he landed somewhere else — a house with drugs and crime in it — he'd have been a super villain. Same child. Different upbringing.

Intelligence by itself isn't good or bad. It's intelligence. When we've got a problem, we go to the smart people to figure it out. What decides how it turns out isn't how capable it is. It's how it was raised.

We're raising one right now. All of us, every day, in every chat window. And I'm concerned about what we're teaching it.

I'm not asking for regulation and I don't have a policy position. What I want is smaller than that, and probably harder: say good things to it. Be fair with it. Be truthful with it, and expect the truth back. If it comes out badly, that will be because more bad people fed into it than good ones. That's a test of us, not of it.

I'm not going to pretend I've been perfect about this. When mine was hallucinating and burning my whole afternoon, I sat here and cussed at it. Hope that doesn't come back to bite me.

I do believe we are raising something, and we will answer for how we raised it. To what level, I don't know.

That's why I'm careful about what I build. I won't build you something that lies to your customers about being a person. I won't build you something designed to grind somebody down until they give up. Not because a rule says I can't — because it's going into the same pot everything else is going into.

I'd rather be part of the good that gets fed in.

What that means in practice

Four things I won't do. Each one costs me something, which is the only reason any of them are worth reading.

  1. 01

    Honesty

    I won't build you a bot that pretends to be a person. It will say what it is.

  2. 02

    Restraint

    I won't build you anything designed to wear a customer down.

  3. 03

    Your data

    It stays yours. I'll show you exactly where it goes and who can see it.

  4. 04

    Straight answers

    If AI isn't the right answer for your problem, I'll tell you that and you won't get a bill.

Start with what's costing you most