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Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

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Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#311

Post by ElFitz »

vidarh wrote: post #180
ElFitz wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What board? Midjourney has no investors. No shareholders. He’s only beholden to himself. And proud of it.

Midjourney is an incorporated company. It has a board and at least one shareholder. Whether or not they're all the same person is irrelevant to the point made, which is that this annoying notion people keep bringing up when a CEO makes a choice that they're somehow inherently required to do what maximises profit is false.

> As such, blaming the CEO in isolation may not be justified. Maybe the board made him.

You made a general point. I agree with your general point.

That last statement seemed to me to be about Midjourney specifically.

In which case, because of Midjourney’s peculiar situation for this kind of company, it would have been inaccurate.

And even if said statement wasn’t about Midjourney specifically, considering the subject at hand, pointing out it’s peculiar situation seemed relevant.

But again, I totally agree that no, even though it’s often expected of them, CEOs aren’t inherently required to maximise profit.

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#312

Post by doodlebugging »

thinkingemote wrote: post #119
doodlebugging wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a new thing here at all. This has been true since Tiananmen Square. They place their students in the position of having to report each other for speaking about it and use the threat of harm to their family back home to enforce it. Anyone like this greedy Midjourney guy who would bow down to that fat-ass Jinping needs the entire family to be forced to surrender their passports, be stripped of their citizenship, an…

There's an additional threat in that overseas students must report regularly to the party otherwise their funding will be cut and they will be sent home. (This applies to Chinese funded students not those funded by overseas grants etc)

Yes I have heard of that too. Thanks for reminding me of this additional pressure point.

I wonder whether US students studying abroad feel any pressure to serve as remote eyes and ears for US corporations or the government. My first guess is that they don't but that may be my own naive guess since the answer could depend on their chosen field of study and their source of capital for their education. 'I don't know the answer' is the correct reply that I have for that.

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#313

Post by alkonaut »

mjr00 wrote: post #302
alkonaut wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea what that is, and I hope I'm not passively taking a position in that dispute due to my business involvements (of which are none). I'm not arguing that everyone have an opinion on everything. I'm arguing that when you do business , you might be taking a side in something whether you would like to or not.

Google does business in both Japan and Korea. What's Google's stance on the Takeshima/Dokdo dispute?

I don’t think it matters to their business or customers. So while they may well be taking a stance without even knowing - no one cares. Few are demanding they leave either country (which is the interesting threshold here).

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#314

Post by lazyeye »

FpUser wrote: post #299
Steltek wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somewhere out there is a good copy-pasta dismissal of these boring reflexive "But look! A Western country did something similar that one time so that makes it okay for us to do!" responses.

To mind reader: >"that one time so that makes it okay for us to do" I am not "us". I live in Canada. And I am way more concerned with what we and the West in general are doing in human rights department then what China does. When I see the case dismissed and prosecutor loosing the job I'll be celebrating. I'll live it to China to sort their own shit.

Yes but China appears to be sorting our shit too.

And very effectively.

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#315

Post by vidarh »

ElFitz wrote: post #311
vidarh wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Midjourney is an incorporated company. It has a board and at least one shareholder. Whether or not they're all the same person is irrelevant to the point made, which is that this annoying notion people keep bringing up when a CEO makes a choice that they're somehow inherently required to do what maximises profit is false.

> As such, blaming the CEO in isolation may not be justified. Maybe the board made him. You made a general point. I agree with your general point. That last statement seemed to me to be about Midjourney specifically. In which case, because of Midjourney’s peculiar situation for this kind of company, it would have been inaccurate. And even if said statement wasn’t about Midjourney specifically, considering the subject…

It's not inaccurate, though. Midjourney, Inc. is a Delaware registered corporation. It has a board, and at least one shareholder. They can both be the same person as the CEO, but that doesnt change any of what I wrote.

I don't know, maybe you interpreted the last paragraph as making a specific claim about Midjourney, but it did not. It was part of the general point.

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#316

Post by FpUser »

lazyeye wrote: post #314
FpUser wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To mind reader: >"that one time so that makes it okay for us to do" I am not "us". I live in Canada. And I am way more concerned with what we and the West in general are doing in human rights department then what China does. When I see the case dismissed and prosecutor loosing the job I'll be celebrating. I'll live it to China to sort their own shit.

Yes but China appears to be sorting our shit too. And very effectively.

You are going to blame China for trying? Last time I checked we have Government with CSIS and other agencies. They should get of their asses and do their job.

Also restoring ability to make staff here rather than getting it from China will not hurt but I am afraid that we have pissed this away permanently.

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#317

Post by nojvek »

There's a fine line when it comes to AI. On one hand it's not great that OpenAI/MS/MJ get to decide what is okay and what isn't okay. On the other hand without filters, the possibility for misinformation, spam and inciting violence/drama/frustration is high since the cost to create tons of garbage is so low.

I'm more worried about AI supercharged bait-click content than GPT-5 singularity.

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#318

Post by mjr00 »

alkonaut wrote: post #313
mjr00 wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google does business in both Japan and Korea. What's Google's stance on the Takeshima/Dokdo dispute?

I don’t think it matters to their business or customers. So while they may well be taking a stance without even knowing - no one cares. Few are demanding they leave either country (which is the interesting threshold here).

> I don’t think it matters to their business or customers. So while they may well be taking a stance without even knowing - no one cares.

If Google came out and said "Dokdo is Korea territory" I absolutely guarantee there would be a complete shitstorm in Japan, probably ending with Google getting banned from Japan. You have absolutely no clue what a hot-button issue that is between those countries.

Your initial assertion is just wrong. Businesses stay out of politics all the time.

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#319

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

meghan_rain wrote: post #107
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that younger me had no business telling older me what he should or shouldn't do.

Sorry, I don't quite follow, can you elaborate?

Are you certain you'll hold any particular opinion for the rest or your life?

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#320

Post by lobocinza »

skywal_l wrote: post #250
mindcandy wrote: post #74

Everyone is crying Corporate Greed in here. And, I can understand why. But, here’s another perspective based on listening to David Holz answer all kinds of questions from random users for four hours a week for over a year during Midjourney’s “Office Hours”. AFAICT, Midjourney has no shareholders and David Holz is the farthest thing from a slick CEO. He’s a big dreamer hippie dork. He made all the money he cares to ha…

> ridiculing politicians in China is taboo, having people ridicule Xi on MJ would make it unwelcoming to people in China Your entire argument relies on this assumption that I have a hard time to believe. I know close to nothing of Chinese culture but the few Chinese people I know are not shy about criticizing their president or their political class in general. I mean, the "Winnie the pooh" meme comes from China!

People under censorship hates it even if they scared to say so publicly because they are affected by it. Ridiculing politicians in China is only a taboo because those politicians will make people disappear overnight regardless of what the Chinese people think.
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