alt Hacker NewsI'm not sure if you're trying to conclude that because a piece of technology was misused previously in a very bad way, that it will never be able to do good things because surely it was bad previously.
Reminds me of the 2000's crazy of "if you let kids play violent video games they will become unstable, violent psychopaths when they grow up". Thank God I was able to (rather easily) convince my mom that the idea that I would also steal a car and beat somebody to death with a golf club in real life just because that's what I did in GTA on my PlayStation, was completely absurd.
The difference is
1. there weren't numerous real-life killings where the murderer credits GTA for coaching them through the crime
2. Rockstar Games didn't publicly say "sorry about the murders, but don't worry, we'll add more safeguards to GTA 6 to prevent even more people dying. GTA 6 will be the most aligned GTA ever!"
When a company admits to having blood on its hands, is maybe the point where things stop being "absurd" and start becoming real. But hey, what do I know. Maybe if HN existed in 2005 you'd have people commenting "who needs real people when we have computers, would it be so bad if lonely people have GTA as their only friend?" And I'd be the crazy one for engaging with them.