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OpenAI is now everything it promised not to be: closed-source and for-profit

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Re: OpenAI is now everything it promised not to be: closed-source and for-profit

#101
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's lost himself in the fake popularity of being a social media celebrity. He started believing that having 100 million followers on a web site really means that a continent's worth of people adore you. For all his complaints about bots after he got cold feet on the Twitter purchase, he seems strangely naïve about how social media really works and what's real there. “This is ridiculous,” he said, according to multip…

I mean if its true and he has 100 million followers and he has only 10000ish impression then there is something seriously wrong. Because that flat out makes no sense. Even if you assume 60% bods, and 70% of users not reading their timeline.

Sure, something was wrong, but it’s important whether it was a anti-Elon conspiracy or just a buggy complex system. When you’ve gotten rid of most engineering staff, I’d bet on the latter.

Re: OpenAI is now everything it promised not to be: closed-source and for-profit

#102

Historically speaking, the pivot to capitalism occurs from financing arrangements. Financial obligations mandate attention, overriding charters or missions. Hospitals in America took on financing to replace decaying facilities and just like that turned towards for-profit healthcare. Universities as well. There is no escaping financial servitude because the organization never can earn enough to get out of its financia…

In the context of the u.s. system of capitalism, "non-profit" does not equate to "non-capitalist". The institutions still serve capital (if we look to Marx's conception of capital as a process) -- at the very least, in avoidance of taxes, R&D to ultimately increase productivity, pacification of potential insurgent action (e.g. Andrew Carnegie's intent). We should distinguish between the role of local, community run organizations and "non-profits" that receive millions in funding from venture _capitalists_.

A few discussions here https://www.teenvogue.com/story/non-profit-industrial-comple...

"Under the nonprofit-corporate complex, the absorption of radical movements is ensured through the establishment of patronage relationships between the state and/or private capital and social movements. Ideological repression and institutional subordination is based on “a bureaucratized management of fear that mitigates against the radical break with owning-class capital (read: foundation support) and hegemonic common sense (read: law and order).”

https://monthlyreview.org/2015/04/01/the-nonprofit-corporate...

Re: OpenAI is now everything it promised not to be: closed-source and for-profit

#103
post #39

Nice grift by Sam Altman taking all the donations and good will a non profit gets just to flip 180. He probably would have done the same with his crypto scam startup worldcoin if it would not have failed in every way before he could scam.

It's weird to me that this is even possible legally (turning a nonprofit into a for-profit).

Re: OpenAI is now everything it promised not to be: closed-source and for-profit

#104
In my view, the concern lies with the lack of transparency. Just be open about what you did and why you did it..

It is completely understandable a project of this nature would require galaxy brains (w/ very lucrative alternatives) and the capacity to burn billions prior to seeing any meaningful returns.

One could easily argue that pursuing a non-profit approach was ultimately ineffective, and that open-sourcing the project would make a for-profit model unfeasible.

However, Sam is choosing to be closed lipped about it, having only made vague references to the potential risks of open-sourcing the project several years ago.

Re: OpenAI is now everything it promised not to be: closed-source and for-profit

#106
post #16

Step by step, ever since the calling the diver a "pedo", every since the "funding secured" i've began to realise just how petty and pathetic elon is. Every opportunity he has he seems to show just how vindictive he really is. Man child who now has way too much money. Buying Twitter on a whim is the latest in a string of decisions which do not align with the "let's get to Mars and save earths environment" stuff he lik…

He's lost himself in the fake popularity of being a social media celebrity. He started believing that having 100 million followers on a web site really means that a continent's worth of people adore you. For all his complaints about bots after he got cold feet on the Twitter purchase, he seems strangely naïve about how social media really works and what's real there. “This is ridiculous,” he said, according to multip…

I consider him a casualty of social media addiction. In this case the alcoholic bought the bar.

Re: OpenAI is now everything it promised not to be: closed-source and for-profit

#108

This seems an important article, if for no other reason than it brings the betrayal of its foundational claim still brazenly present in OpenAI's name from the obscurity of HN comments going back years into the public light and the mainstream. They've achieved marvellous things, OpenAI, but the pivot and long-standing refusal to deal with it honestly leaves an unpleasant taste, and doesn't bode well for the future, es…

Seriously, is there anyone naive enough to have swallowed any of their trips? Corporations don't have ethical compasses, much less corporations founded by VCs aka professional salesmen.

Re: OpenAI is now everything it promised not to be: closed-source and for-profit

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve blocked him - it was getting too much and I really don’t care what his view on things are. I had a lot of admiration for him until he became more public - now, I think he is a cruel person who’s politics do not align one bit with me.

This is the problem in my view with people that use social media to post everything too much, who overshare. Elon could have been this guy that was doing cool stuff, super smart and doing some good stuff for the world, but now most people think he is a jerk. People that get known for their work, it's not really a good look for them to wade into politics or controversial topics they have no expertise or right to start…

Ahh but it gets attention and that is addictive.

Re: OpenAI is now everything it promised not to be: closed-source and for-profit

#110

The only way this kind of research could be done "in the open" is if it was funded by taxpayers' money. Except we have global corporations with elite fiscal layer teams, but no global government (giant lizzards are always disappointing) - so some global corporation was going to own it in the end, it was a matter of "time" and "US or Chinese". The time is now, he winner is US. Moving on. The next move is for (some) go…

Things like "public goods" are an outdated concept, with a distinctly 19th and 20th century feel. In our postmodern world the very idea is almost taboo. The few things that remain, do because they have been grandfathered in.

The hyper-capitalist global market owns everything and that is good.

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