this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 67 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I hate everything about this: the lack of transparency, the lack of communication, the chaotic back and forth. We don’t know now if the company is now in a better position or worse.

I know it leaves me feeling pretty sick and untrusting about it considering the importance and potential disruptiveness (perhaps extreme) of AI in the coming years.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

Same here. I like Sam Altman but if the board removed him for a good reason and he was reinstated because the employees want payouts, humanity could be in big trouble.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Given the rumors he was fired based on undisclosed usage of some foreign data scraping company's data, it ain't looking good.

Now that there's big money involved, screw ethics. We don't care how the training data was acquired.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Now that there's big money involved, screw ethics. We don't care how the training data was acquired.

I dont care about ethics here, if the money would be excluded as well.

IF they would live up to their goals they settled for its fine.

But its similar to google, back in the days, with "dont be evil".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Can I find out more about these rumors somewhere?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I've tried to find it but I can't seem to find it. There's been a thread on Lemmy somewhere about it that linked to a thread on Blind where someone claiming to be working at OpenAI having heard that from the board.

But, it's ultimately just rumors, we don't know for sure. But it was at least pretty plausible and what I would expect the board of a very successful AI company to fire the CEO for, since the company is obviously doing really well right now.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I actually like the chaoticness, because I don't like having one small group of people as the self-appointed and de-facto gatekeepers of AI for everyone else. This makes it clear to everyone why it's important to control your own AI resources.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Accelerationism is human sacrifice. It only works if it does damage... and most of the time, it only does damage.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (7 children)

Not wanting a small group of self-appointed gatekeepers is not the same as accelerationism.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 11 months ago (6 children)

On the one hand, the board was an insane cult of effective altruism / longtermism / LessWrong, so fuck them. But on the other hand, this was a worker revolt for the capitalists, which I guess shouldn’t be surprising since tech workers famously lack class consciousness.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

an insane cult of effective altruism / longtermism / LessWrong

I'm out of the loop. What's the problem with those things?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

It's basically the paperclip maximizer combined with human arrogance/hubris. Just skim the criticism sections of the articles linked.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

People are asking what is wrong with these cults. It’s a lot to cover so I won’t try. People who follow the podcasts Tech Won’t Save Us or This Machine Kills will already be familiar with them. Here’s an article relevant to the moment that talks about them a little: Pivot to AI: Replacing Sam Altman with a very small shell script

[–] Majoof 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Genuinely confused by your first statement (in particular effective altruism). What does that have to do with the board?

Not an attack, just actually clueless.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

That's what happens when the wealth is shared with those who make it. Everyone becomes a capitalist.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago

Actually that's just self interest. Both capitalism and socialism claim to benefit workers. But only socialism has remotely shown to do that to any extent. Capitalist hoarding and speculation is the primary driver of inflation and things like the inafordability of housing.

If you labor for a living, you aren't a capitalist. You're labor.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I guess the entire workforce calling the board incompetent twats and threatening to quit was actually effective.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like they got together and forced their hand. Wonder if there's a term for that?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago

Maybe some type of group or team. Or union. Nah that will never stick

[–] [email protected] 32 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I guess this will have to do as entertainment until GRRM finishes his damn book.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Any day now! I have a friend that got hyped up every time George published another chapter from WoW, but I just refuse to read any of them. I want a complete book. I’m not sure he’s got any idea of how to finish his own story.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I didn't know he wrote for World of Warcraft

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I know you’re joking, but it stands for Winds of Winter if anyone is confused.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah that’s my feeling as well

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

It's okay, though, we'll have an AI that can do it soon enough.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago (7 children)

Man what a clusterfuck. Things still don't really add up based on public info. I'm sure this will be the end of any real attempts at safeguards, but with the board acting the way it did, I don't know that there would've been even without him returning. You know the board fucked up hard when some SV tech bro looks like the good guy.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What about his deal with Microsoft?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (8 children)

And the lord is back in his fiefdom

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Fucking Kendall Roy on the OpenAi board or something

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I maintain that this had something to do with a disagreement over which commercial applications are permissible for GPT-4, and that Sam Altman somewhere along the line negotiated a deal that allowed some actor to participate in one of the "forbidden applications" by proxy via a seemingly unrelated agreement. I'm talking Financial Forecasting (High Frequency Trading), Military, and Policing/Surveillance. Now that Sam's back and unfettered, I'm guessing we are going to see some of those applications come out into the light.

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