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Do you also worry about Boeing flight control software, nuclear reactor software, or XRay machine software?



Generally I don't. That said, reading the various reports on the 737-MAX suggests that Boeing has some work to do in this regard.

While all of the examples you give could conceivably be attached to the Internet, none of them update their core software over the Internet. That would be a non-starter for the agencies that regulate them. When I see things like "autopilot updates" delivered to a Tesla as an update, it feels to me that self driving is an example of a technology that is 'running ahead' of the regulators at the moment.

Consider Facebook, which is a popular bad guy here[1]. There have been "crank" bulletin board systems since the 70's at least, and before that with HAM radio operators riling each other up over various perceived slights and insults. In 2016 we got to see that with a precision advertisement targeting system, and way more insights into people than ever existed before, companies like Cambridge Analytica could precisely target individuals who were susceptible to a particular line of reasoning. CA essentially offered Radicalization As a Service. We are still dealing with that to this day. Was there any reason to worry about BBS software? Not when it was a self selecting group. But when the BBS became a billion BBSes all hosted on the same platform with clear insights into the demographics, fears, and hopes of all of those BBSes at once, that was something new. And it changed the risk profile and was weaponized against people.

It has always been desirable for groups to find somewhat like minded people in order to form a group for collective action. That is the 'demand' side of the question, but before Facebook it wasn't economic to do that at scale. With Facebook it did become economic to do that, and it gave anyone a new capability. Not all of those people have (or had) people's best interest at heart and so we get the bad as well as the good.

Prior to self driving cars with over the air updates, continuous network connectivity, and full access to all systems on a car, has their been the capability (actualized or not) for someone anywhere in the world to target a specific car and take control away from the driver. The previous poster child, for vehicles anyway, were cars with computers that controlled things like engine starting/stopping and brakes. One issue was that you had to be near the car to know which one you wanted to attack. Self driving cars finesse that by giving you an interior camera view. It is a different realm of problem.

[1] I don't consider Facebook a bad actor per se, I believe that the forces that motivate them (page engagement, ad clicks, ad sales, etc) find ways to be serviced. And those ways are not constrained by ethics.




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