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John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

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Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#71
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are probably right, but if anyone can make a dent Carmak is the person.

Do game dev skills transfer to AGI? I know he's a smart guy, but I don't think that's a given.

Worked for Demis Hassabis

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#72
post #7

I wonder if Carmacks moral compass is in order. First he sticks around at Facebook, now he endangers humanity with AGI. And i'm only half joking.

There is a story in “Masters of Doom” about Carmack getting rid of his cat because “she was having a net negative effect on my life”.

That’s cold.

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#73
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what consensus? i think most researchers remain skeptical

Uh... no. Most researchers have moved their timelines to somewhere between 2030 and 2040. You can argue they're wrong, but there is absolutely a general consensus that AGI is going to be this generation.

And consensus is never wrong!

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#75

Recent Carmack YouTube interview with him saying the code for AGI will be simple: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xLi83prR5fg

I'm sure he the one that could write it in only a few blocks of x86 assembly and off you go

My understanding is that his point was that it’s if you knew what to write, as a single person, it is doable and compared to anything else at this point in time would have an impact on humanity like no other.

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#76
post #7

I wonder if Carmacks moral compass is in order. First he sticks around at Facebook, now he endangers humanity with AGI. And i'm only half joking.

I think he very clearly has an amoral attitude towards technology development -- "you can't stop progress." He does describe his own "hacker ethic" and whatever he develops he may make more open than OpenAI. though I think he has some moral compass around what he believes people should do or not do with technology. For example, he has publicly expressed admiration for electric cars / cleantech and SpaceX's decision t…

He also has a vastly different take on privacy than most of us seem to have. He thinks it'll eventually go away and it won't be bad when it does. I believe he talked about it in one of his quakecon keynotes.

As a LONG time admirer of Carmack (I got my EE degree and went into embedded systems and firmware design due in no small part to his influence), I feel like he's honest and forthright about his stances, but also disconnected from most average people (both due to his wealth and his personality) in such a way that he's out of touch.

He's not egotistical like Elon Musk. In fact he seems humble. He also seems to approach the topics in good faith... but some of his conclusions are... distressing.

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#77
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what consensus? i think most researchers remain skeptical

Uh... no. Most researchers have moved their timelines to somewhere between 2030 and 2040. You can argue they're wrong, but there is absolutely a general consensus that AGI is going to be this generation.

AGI has been 20-30 years away for some 70 years now...

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#78
post #72
post #7

I wonder if Carmacks moral compass is in order. First he sticks around at Facebook, now he endangers humanity with AGI. And i'm only half joking.

There is a story in “Masters of Doom” about Carmack getting rid of his cat because “she was having a net negative effect on my life”. That’s cold.

But then again, it's a cat.

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#79

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) — in other words, systems that could successfully perform any intellectual task that a human can. Not in my lifetime, not in this millennium. Possibly in the year 2,300. Weird way to blow $20 million.

$20 million is pretty much nothing when split among a handful of billionaires and the biggest VC firm in the world. Regardless of the project itself it is worth it to spend that money just to have Carmack's name attached to it and buy some future goodwill.

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#80

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) — in other words, systems that could successfully perform any intellectual task that a human can. Not in my lifetime, not in this millennium. Possibly in the year 2,300. Weird way to blow $20 million.

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they never expect to sit in. Not everything requires an immediate profit incentive to be a good idea.

A society does not grow great when an old man collects $20 million dollars for the fruit of a tree that he has no capability of planting in the first place.
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