Ephemeral Saboteurs. Much to the surprise of many people, even new engineers, we rarely do anything in the design of technology to prevent intentional misuse. We rely on post hoc enforcement actions (criminal law, civil law), social stigma, and the potential saboteur’s own fear of harm to deter that misuse. A lot of the anxiety around AI control of technology is probably related to the potential loss of those mechanisms. What do we do to a complex, electronic mind that cannot really be punished and lacks predictable human self-interest?
