AWS (and many others) is also then war profiteering company with JWCC, C2E, WildandStormy, not to mention all the other defense contractors that rely on their computer power to design and operate mass surveillance and killing of people. Is your agenda selectively blind?

I have mixed feelings about it. I don't agree with how my country often ends up using these technologies, but defense tech and weaponry still seems pretty necessary. The US is not the only one doing this. Should they wait for their adversaries to have the upper hand? I don't think it's such a bad thing, as long as they can put the right people in charge. That's a whole other problem.

Oh wow that’s cool, I had no idea Palmer Lucky owned this. He pumps out quality tech. Im gonna check it out.

Good to see Kotaku's admirable journalistic practice of posting a list of histrionic tweets is alive and well

The article isn't "about" ModRetro, please engage with the actual material instead of off-topic political tirades.

> which makes human-killing robots

I mean, that's just defense companies in general now. Would you rather have your own soldiers dying in a war, rather than robots? Ukraine is using AI in their targeting, is that something you condemn?

This is no different from the invention of machine guns or artillery. Yes, it's sad that these things will be used in war to kill (more) people. But intentionally avoiding that technology means you're just handicapping your own military and sacrificing others' lives for your principles.

You're right, your family members should be the ones out there pulling the trigger.

I saw a video from the ModRetro YouTube channel a few days ago and thought it was AI because it only had 10,000 subscribers. They’ve been at it since March of 2024 and have less than 400,000 views spread across 54 videos. Strong attention economy recession indicator that even a memeified billionaire can’t get organic attention on a platform like that.

This is the same concept as "separating art from the artist". i.e. can you appreciate the creation without associating it with the personal foibles of the creator?

If you went around scrutinizing the personal failings of every single creator and deciding not to support their art, you would cut yourself off from a huge chunk of human creation. Creators and builders are disproportionately imperfect people.

Harvey Weinstein, for example, is a serial abuser and genuinely evil person. He also was involved in an enormous number of Hollywood productions. Do you go out of your way to make sure to never watch or consume media associated with him? My guess is probably not. It's impractical and also I think the net benefit of this mindset, where we only allow people with certain moral characteristics to succeed, is a loss for society.

No one should be surprised that this comment doesn't go over well on HN. But the multiple people replying to you like "Oh? Cool I'm gonna buy more now that I know it signals that I love war" is really disgusting. And they're all identical, like you've activated something in their programming.

And ? Are you upset that Google/Microsoft/Oracle sells their tech to the military? Xbox controller is used on nuclear subs too.

also not a good look using kotaku as a source, were you aware of their poor journalistic standards?

I'd take a step back and assess whether the media you are consuming is dictating what to think and feel rather than from free will.

Nobody cares bro

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Thanks for the heads up. I wouldn't have checked it out otherwise. Palmer Luckey has done some cool shit. And Anduril is super impressive.