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Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

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Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#661
post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has come to the point that hearing the expression "Effective Altruism" sends shivers down my spline.

Obviously we should all want our altruism to be effective. What is the other side of it? Wanting one's altruism to not really accomplish much? But with everything that has gone on, I cannot imagine wanting to be an Effective Altruist! The movement by that name seems to do and think some really weird stuff.

The "Think Globally, Act Locally" movement is the competing philosophy. It's deeply entrenched in our culture, and has absolutely dominated philanthropic giving for several decades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_globally,_act_locally

"Think Globally, Act Locally" leads to charities in wealthy cities getting disproportionately huge amounts of money for semi-frivolous things like symphony orchestras, while people in the global south are dying of preventable diseases.

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, what the board did in this instance was completely idiotic, even if you assign nothing but "good intentions" to their motives (that is, they were really just concerned about the original OpenAI charter of developing "safe AI for all" and thought Sam was too focused on commercialization), and it would have been idiotic even if they had done it a long time ago. There are tons of "Safe AI" think tanks and orgs that…

If it was to try to prevent the board becoming a useless vestigial organ incapable of meaningfully affecting the direction of the organization, it sure looks like they were right to be worried about that and acting on such concern wouldn’t be a mistake (doing it so late when the feared-state-of-things was already the actual state of things, yes, a mistake, except as a symbolic gesture). If it was for other reasons, y…

If you're going to make a symbolic gesture you don't cloak it in so much secrecy that nobody can even reasonably guess what you're trying to symbolize.

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#663
post #244

As I posted elsewhere, I think this is a conflict between Dustin Moskovitz and Sam Altman. Ilya may have been brought into this without his knowledge (which might explain why he retracted his position). Dustin Moskovitz was an early employee at FB, and the founder of Asana. He also created (along with plenty of MSFT bigwigs) a non-profit called Open Philanthropy, which was a early proponent of a form of Effective Alt…

It has come to the point that hearing the expression "Effective Altruism" sends shivers down my spline.

We will fix you to become more altruistic.

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#665
If anything has become clear after all this is that humanity is not ready for being the guardian of superintelligence.

These are supposed to be the top masterminds behind one of the most influential technologies of our lifetime, and perhaps history, and yet they're all behaving like petty children, with egos and personal interests pulling in all directions, and everyone doing their best to secure their piece of the pie.

We are so screwed.

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are more honest about how they feel online. They might not attack openly like that offline, but they do think those things. So you see people who refuse to acknowledge their mistakes fail upwards while those who do admit are often pushed down. How often do you see high level politicians admitting their mistakes? They almost never do since those who did never got that far.

I don't think people are more honest about how they feel online. I think that the venue makes one feel differently. Probably Honestly, I think the "never apologize or admit an error" thing is memetic bullshit that is repeated mindlessly, and that few people really believe, if challenged, that it's harmful to admit an error; they're saying it because it's a popular thing to say online. I've posted the same thing too,…

I think the big disconnect here is that you are thinking about personal relationships and not less personal ones. You should admit guilt with friends and family to mend those relationships, but in a less personal space like a company the same rules doesn't apply the onlookers do not react positively to acknowledge of guilt.

Ilya should have sent that message to Sam Altman in private instead of public.

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mental illness is the norm for child abuse victims. It's not like she has a demonstrated pattern of doing this with other people, and she has appeared internally consistent over the course of years, so it should at least be addressed instead of hand waved away.

Her accusations against him are for acts that supposedly happened when she was to young have formed long term memory of them. She also thinks he is hacking her WiFi and somehow shadow banning her on multiple social media sites he has no control over. It screams of paranoid delusions.

Since when can 4-year-olds not form memories? This is neither congruent with medical literature nor experience.

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#668

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://twitter.com/sama/status/1726594398098780570

Can anyone explain why when I go to https://twitter.com/sama I don't see the linked tweet, but if I navigate to https://twitter.com/sama/status/1726594398098780570 I can? Is this a nuance of like tweets being privatable? Or deleted tweets remaining directly navigable? Sorry probably something basic about how twitter functions.

It's there. There are 3 posts (not tweets anymore) and then there's that one.

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#669

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://twitter.com/sama/status/1726594398098780570

Can anyone explain why when I go to https://twitter.com/sama I don't see the linked tweet, but if I navigate to https://twitter.com/sama/status/1726594398098780570 I can? Is this a nuance of like tweets being privatable? Or deleted tweets remaining directly navigable? Sorry probably something basic about how twitter functions.

Are you logged in? The logged out view I've seen has been wildly varying, sometimes missing months of updates.

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#670

As I posted elsewhere, I think this is a conflict between Dustin Moskovitz and Sam Altman. Ilya may have been brought into this without his knowledge (which might explain why he retracted his position). Dustin Moskovitz was an early employee at FB, and the founder of Asana. He also created (along with plenty of MSFT bigwigs) a non-profit called Open Philanthropy, which was a early proponent of a form of Effective Alt…

A thing a sad, understated ongoing is that so many people are throwing vitriol at Ilya right now. If the speculation here is true, then he just chased by a mob over pure nonsense (well, at least purer than the nonsense premise beforehand). Gotta love seeing effective altruists take another one on the chin this year though.

The dude voted to fire Altman. He could have not done that. Actions have consequences.
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