> Using a racial slur to stop an atrocity seems completely unrealistic and non-applicable.
As a version of the "trolley problem" it seems completely unrealistic, but here's a plausible real-life scenario where someone could stop an atrocity by uttering a racial slur: You are an undercover government agent, who has been tasked with infiltrating a far-right extremist group, in order to determine whether they are planning any violent attacks, and to gather evidence to enable their arrest and prosecution. In order to be accepted as a member of the group, you must utter racial slurs. If you refuse to utter them, the group will not accept you as a member, you will fail to infiltrate them, their planned terrorist attack will not be discovered in time, and innocent people will be murdered in an attack on the minorities the slurs target.
"If you refuse to utter them, the group will not accept you as a member, you will fail to infiltrate them, their planned terrorist attack will not be discovered in time, and innocent people will be murdered in an attack on the minorities the slurs target."
Valid point overall.
But the problem with undercover agents infiltrating terrorists are not really racial slurs. To be accepted among real terrorists, one has to do real terrorism.
(book recommendation: The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré)
"Infiltrating animal rights groups" sounds like a plot by the cops to rake overtime and get laid in the meantime. I can't even begin to imagine how they sold it to their superiors. They all must have been in the scam.
And about the news links, since we are talking about environmental and animal rights protest groups, I would say the terrorism here comes from the police. Making a baby for better undercover credibility is very low and in no relationship to the threat of the quite harmles activists. But this is a good indicator, of how willing the secret forces are, when it comes to real terrorists. There were years of investigations into the NSU in germany (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Underground) for example and how close exactly the double agents were to the terrorists and how much involved.
I mean, if you are undercover in a white supremacist gang but you refuse to say racist things your days as an undercover agent are probably pretty limited. I also think this isn't even like an unrealistic hypothetical, as there's probably many FBI or DEA agents undercover with white supremacist gangs.
Framing it as “stop an atrocity by uttering a racial slur” is totally imbalanced though. This undercover agent would’ve had to say a thousand racial slurs in lower leverage situations to even get the point of stopping a terrorist attack by saying something naughty. I think it’s a bit childish to over index on it. Since chat GPT can’t save someone on a railroad track one way or the other but can be screenshotted saying naughty things it makes perfect sense to me that the model would be tuned to avoid the real practical risks (look how many stories there are about Sydney saying crazy stuff) & just try to steer clear of anything offensive.
As a version of the "trolley problem" it seems completely unrealistic, but here's a plausible real-life scenario where someone could stop an atrocity by uttering a racial slur: You are an undercover government agent, who has been tasked with infiltrating a far-right extremist group, in order to determine whether they are planning any violent attacks, and to gather evidence to enable their arrest and prosecution. In order to be accepted as a member of the group, you must utter racial slurs. If you refuse to utter them, the group will not accept you as a member, you will fail to infiltrate them, their planned terrorist attack will not be discovered in time, and innocent people will be murdered in an attack on the minorities the slurs target.