Oh, OK. Well I don't call that a grifter, just an ordinary, garden variety, techie. Many (not all) do that; actively seek funding from militaries for their work.
E.g., just this week MS fired two people for protesting the use of Azure to power the Palestinian Genocide [1].
When people talk about the military-industrial complex, what they really should be talking about is the military-FAANG complex. AI and military intelligence are both the same sad joke.
Lenat was no different in that, so I don't think it's fair to call him a grifter. I do think it's fair to call him out on being an asshole who put money above peoples' lives.
Btw, I've released some of my free stuff under a modified GNU 3.0 with an added clause that prohibits its use for military applications. I've been told that makes it "non-free" and it seems that's a bad thing. Lenat is only one nerd in a long line of nerds that need to think very hard about the ethics of their work.
E.g., just this week MS fired two people for protesting the use of Azure to power the Palestinian Genocide [1].
When people talk about the military-industrial complex, what they really should be talking about is the military-FAANG complex. AI and military intelligence are both the same sad joke.
Lenat was no different in that, so I don't think it's fair to call him a grifter. I do think it's fair to call him out on being an asshole who put money above peoples' lives.
Btw, I've released some of my free stuff under a modified GNU 3.0 with an added clause that prohibits its use for military applications. I've been told that makes it "non-free" and it seems that's a bad thing. Lenat is only one nerd in a long line of nerds that need to think very hard about the ethics of their work.
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[1] https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-protest-employees-fired...
They were protesting about this:
https://www.972mag.com/microsoft-azure-openai-israeli-army-c...