Preface for LessWrong: When I think back on my most cherished memories of this community, I return to those honoring defiance in pursuit of goodness:

Defying prestigious dogma and searching for raw truth;
Defying social pressure, acting alone to help someone while others watch;
Defying your self-expectations (your “role”), instead searching over lines of cause-and-effect to find a winning pathway;
Defying a powerful foe’s threats, because they only threaten since people like you cave;
Defying the specter of apparent impossibility because you can’t bear to lose.

I cannot return to you and say “I defied and then I won.” But I’m at least here to say “I defied.”

I recommend reading this article on my website since the embeds and typography work better there: click here.

Why I left Google DeepMind

In January, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers killed at least two people. In both cases, a federal agent grasped his gun, aimed it at a peaceful citizen, and shot them dead.

Left: A young woman wearing a dark beanie and a light patterned sweater sits in the driver's seat of a maroon car, her hand on the steering wheel as she looks out through the open window. Right: On a sunlit street, three masked agents in tactical gear stand over a man in a brown jacket who is on his hands and knees on the pavement. One agent grips his back while another points a gun at his head. — Left: Renée Good, moments before DHS killed her.
Right: Alex Pretti, moments before DHS killed him.

I learned that Google sells its Cloud services to the relevant agencies within DHS. I thought that was wrong. Federal agents should not be able to kill citizens in the street. I set out to find the most effective way to push my company to stop serving these agencies. My divestment campaign quickly broadened into an attempt to prevent Google from signing an unethical military AI deal, as the Pentagon started pressuring AI providers into military AI deals with no restrictions against use for killer robots or mass surveillance.^[1]

I wanted AI ethics commitments to hold under pressure. In particular, I wanted Google DeepMind (GDM) to maintain its existing commitment against supporting killer robots. Over several months, I asked many people to act. I asked senior people—respected people—people with reputations silvered by their concern about AI ethics and safety. Nearly all declined.

Take Stuart Russell, a famous AI researcher who spent over a decade crusading against autonomous weapons. I worked at his lab for years. At a conference, on-stage, he agreed to push his organization to make a statem...

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