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nyc_data_geek1 parent
Have you never heard of the banality of evil? The nazis used IBM punch cards. IBM was in the death business, even if they weren't making bombs or nerve gas.
viraptor
Sure. Once OpenAI starts making something actually targetted towards the army at their request, that's a different thing. But as far as I understand, so far the army just bought a volume licence to a public service.

The actual line is:

> Advanced AI/ML Capabilities: Utilization of Microsoft's native AI services, including Azure AI Search, OpenAI tools, and Azure Synapse for unified analytics and big data processing.

nyc_data_geek1 OP
analytics and data processing by the military is by definition the death business
viraptor
And food supplies and healthcare and energy and transportation and housing and... At the US army scale, what isn't death business? There's almost every profession with some connection. As long as OpenAI sells what they normally sell to everyone anyway, I don't see a problem. The document doesn't even mention any special deals.
rpdillon
It really isn't, in my experience. What makes you think "everything military = death business"? The military tends to be mostly logistics, and ends up funneling resources to tons of efforts that benefit the nation as a whole. One such investment is CCDC SC, which was the subject of a 99 PI podcast, IIRC. They've worked for decades to research and operationalize shelf-stable foods, for example. These approaches have made it into civilian foods for the same reasons they are used in the military: convenience, especially under dire circumstances.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Capabilities_Developmen...

croes
Drug dealing is also mostly logistics, so they are not in the crime business?
rpdillon
You're conflating goals and means. Drug dealing is inherently criminal (because of how laws are written), but the military isn't inherently killing. Much of what the military spends time on is figuring out how not to fight.
nyc_data_geek1 OP
Amateurs speak of tactics, professionals speak of logistics.

That DoD research has civilian applications makes it no less intended for enforcing violent hegemony and killing people. Imagine if half of that went toward genuine civilian research, rather than research with a primary military application that may be be applicable to civilian domains.

nyc_data_geek1 OP
>>What makes you think "everything military = death business"?

mil·i·tar·y /ˈmiləˌterē/ adjective relating to or characteristic of soldiers or armed forces.

Hope this helps.

hughesjj
Because the army doesn't build levees on the missippi and gps & Internet are strictly used to murder people

Just like the Roman legions only built roads for murder conveyors and weren't ever used by normal citizens

Facial recognition with a proven bias against certain minorities being used for ICE? Yeah, I got a big problem with that.

Some private or low level staffer looking for some boilerplate language or editing feedback on a PowerPoint presentation? Using chatgpt as a better Google translate instead of getting more locals and their families into a precarious situation? Not a problem imo.

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TeaBrain
It helps to understand your misconception. Less than a fourth of the US armed forces are in or will ever get put into a combat role.

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