Oh, then you're reading too much into "safe" and assuming it means "can never do any bad if used in any situation, must need an AI".
It's like the same way a software can look at a number that's going to control a water heater and determine whether it's a safe temperature for a human body or not. You the programmer chose some limits. When the user enters a number, it's an unsafe value by default, because you haven't validated it.
After you validate it, you have something which is 'safe' to pass around to anywhere in your code, like a security checkpoint says that random people are unsafe, and when they enter a building their details are checked, and then they are OK to enter and go anywhere inside the building.
You, the programmer, choose what things you consider safe and unsafe and those words mean validated or unvalidated, verified or unverified, checked or unchecked, approved or unapproved, known or unknown, outside or inside, or any other pair.
> it cannot make text safe generally-speaking by any meaning of safe
If something can't be done, ever, in any situation, that probably isn't what people are talking about doing.
It's like the same way a software can look at a number that's going to control a water heater and determine whether it's a safe temperature for a human body or not. You the programmer chose some limits. When the user enters a number, it's an unsafe value by default, because you haven't validated it.
After you validate it, you have something which is 'safe' to pass around to anywhere in your code, like a security checkpoint says that random people are unsafe, and when they enter a building their details are checked, and then they are OK to enter and go anywhere inside the building.
You, the programmer, choose what things you consider safe and unsafe and those words mean validated or unvalidated, verified or unverified, checked or unchecked, approved or unapproved, known or unknown, outside or inside, or any other pair.
> it cannot make text safe generally-speaking by any meaning of safe
If something can't be done, ever, in any situation, that probably isn't what people are talking about doing.