Yes, anyone and everyone should have a right to refuse contracts with the government. Is that difficult to understand? If you find it difficult to understand then perhaps democracy and capitalism isn't for you.

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HarHarVeryFunny 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Maybe, but only in a very idealistic, unrealistic, sense.

Could you imagine a hypothetical where we're at war and a private company has a potentially war-ending tech (nuclear weapon say) that they refuse to sell to the government?

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hardbass 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yes I can, and I'd lose faith in the government and loyalty and willpower to fight if that company refused and the government forcibly usurped it.

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HarHarVeryFunny 3 hours ago | parent [-]

What if the private company had a vaccine to prevent a pandemic?

The job of a government is to look after the interests of the people who elected it... Is there no point that you think the rights/needs of the many should outweigh the ideological rights of the individual?

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hardbass 3 hours ago | parent [-]

If the individual doesn't have rights, then the many don't have either for many is composed of individuals. And yes, I will have the same opinion on that private company. But morally you can see the difference between a company refusing to help in making unaided killbots vs a company releasing a vaccine?

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HarHarVeryFunny 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Sure - I agree with Anthropic's position here, but at the same time it makes sense that the military doesn't want to use them, and there are certainly situations where the government needs to be given the powers to do what they are elected to do, but hopefully limited to extraordinary justified situations.

	▲	hardbass 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		And with trumps government, I have little faith if it will be a controlled careful and limited decision.

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1234letshaveatw 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's absurd. Imagine Henry Ford blocking support for the US Army in the 40s

	▲	hardbass 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Henry Ford should have the full right to do so. The USA isn't involved in a world war now in any case. The only "wars" it is involved it right now are ones it started itself pointlessly.

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fragmede 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes, if they think the government is going to be irresponsible with it, and their weaponized smallpox is liable to cause a global pandemic that will also kill many of their countrymen, it seems entirely reasonable for the company not to sell it, or be forced to sell it either.

In the abstract though, we're just playing the "what if" game. If a company had the nuclear bomb near the end of World war II instead of the government holding it via the Manhattan Project is a different scenario than we're facing today, and if the government in question is the USA, Ukraine, the Nazis, or Russia also makes a difference. The weapon is also hard to abstract away. AI isn't a nuclear bomb, nor is it a weaponized virus/bacteria or a chemical weapon like anthrax or sarin, nor is it simply propaganda leaflefts distributed by airdrop.

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1234letshaveatw 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Perhaps. Good luck skipping out on paying your taxes or filling out the census

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hardbass 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If you can only make such absurd examples then you have failed. Paying taxes are not a contract between me and the government. They are a forced fee extracted of me. Everyone should be worried about the government threatening to issue supply chain risks if they don't like you rejecting a contract with them.

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colejohnson66 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Paying taxes is a tad different than being a DoD contractor.

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1234letshaveatw 3 hours ago | parent [-]

both fall under the umbrella of civic duties

	▲	hardbass 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Its not a fucking civic duty for my company to be forced into entering contracts with the government. Its my civic right to tell the government to pound sand without fearing forceful retaliation.