It's a success story in the sense that there is a lot solid work being done. It is not a success story in the sense that currently, and for the foreseeable future, attack >> defense (but this was true in lots of other areas of warfare throughout various periods of history). We wouldn't consider armor research not a success story just because at some point flintlocks phased out heavy battlefield armor.
The fact that computer security is having a hard time solving a much easier problem with a ton more resources should worry people who are into AI safety.
We wouldn't consider armor research not a success story just because at some point flintlocks phased out heavy battlefield armor.
I think you missed the point of my examples. If flintlocks killed heavy battlefield armor, that was because they were genuinely superior and better at attack. But we are not in a 'machine gun vs bow and arrow' situation.
The Snowden leaks were a revelation not because the NSA had any sort of major unexpected breakthrough. They have not solved factoring. They do not have quantum computers. They have not made major progress on P=...
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