Episode Details

(Written quickly for Inkhaven, I hope someone someday makes a better case for this than I will here)

Kelsey Piper on Twitter:

me: it's not okay to hit your sister
5yo: is it okay to kill Vladimir Putin?
me: ...yes, if you were in a situation where it was somehow relevant it's okay to kill Vladimir Putin
5yo: well, my sister is WORSE than Vladimir Putin

Now, I do think Vladimir Putin is probably a pretty bad man all things considered. I personally am sympathetic to the current equilibria among major nation states to not assassinate leaders of foreign nations, so I am not actually sure whether it would be okay for Kelsey's 5-year old to kill Vladimir Putin, but I am pretty on board with thinking he has done some pretty terrible things, and probably lacks important aspects of a good moral compass.

But in AI discussions, I often see this concern extended into a much stronger statement: "Even if Vladimir Putin had all the things he wanted in the world, and was under no pressure to maintain his control over Russia, and could choose to make himself smarter and wiser, and could learn any fact [...]

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
April 17th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FGpDwLwtPfJ3qYbea/vladimir-putin-s-cev-is-probably-pretty-good

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.