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Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

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Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#61

Post by jacquesm »

anonymousDan wrote: post #58
jacquesm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The timeline is a bit murky about what happened when but it looks to me as if Altman was working for OpenAI until he got fired after which he took a job with OpenAI's major partner that he helped bring on board. That doesn't 100% rule out that there was more to this but the optics are mostly ok. It still doesn't resolve the problem that you probably don't want either Sam Altman or Microsoft to have an army of people…

If I was the OpenAI board and this goes ahead I would be investigating the possibility of taking legal action for this very reason.

I think the OpenAI board has enough trouble as it is but if they really want to ensure they are going to be sued for their actions over the last couple of days that would probably be the thing that would do it. I would absolutely welcome such a move because it would mean complete transparency about everything that has happened since Last Thursday and I think we would all benefit from such transparency.

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#63

Post by flappyeagle »

chx wrote: post #48
danielbln wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may be gaslighting yourself if you can't see the actual, tractable, current practical applications of this tech (and that includes local models you can run yourself).

That's the thing: there is no actual and tractable use of this tech. It's probabilistic so every answer it can give can only resemble the real one and only accidentally be the real one so you need to fact check it anyways and then why bother? Do consider the AI written mushroom hunting guides being sold on Amazon. Would you trust these literally with your life?

No but I don’t trust you with my life either. Are you useless then?

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#64

Post by 127 »

loveparade wrote: post #41
rramadass wrote: post #6

Finally! Somebody has said it plainly. Sam Altman is merely another "Tech Executive" out for himself and his buddies making money off of true path-breaking researchers. "AI Trailblazer", "Helping Humanity with AGI" etc. was all bullshit.

I think people have yet to realize that this whole AI Safety thing is complete BS. It's just another veil, like Effective Altruism, to get good PR and build a career around. The only people who truly believe this AI safety stuff are those with no technical knowledge or expertise.

False. AI alignment makes the LLM less effective. It's not pure virtue signaling if there's a cost. It's actual virtue.

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#65

Post by ekosz »

croes wrote: post #56
trosi wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They like money just like everyone else does. And you can't build AGI without a lot of money. The board screwed up. They could have negotiated with MS on another CEO. Instead they went behind everyone's backs and thought themselves omnipotent. Well, guess what.

>negotiated with MS Why? The board is from OpenAI, Inc. and MS isn't an investor of OpenAI, Inc.

Because if they wanted to keep their compute credits that they desperately need to achieve their mission, they cannot be randomly pissing off their biggest collaborators. Just because the board doesn't legally _need_ to work with their for-profit investors, doesn't mean they shouldn't.

Had they played this like adults they could have seen through a smooth transition and not be looking at a total collapse like they are now.

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#66

Post by yayr »

I am not sure, if the motives are much more simple:

1. there is a board member, who has at least 40m USD invested into a company, that is now effectively competing with OpenAi (i.e. Quora with poe.com) since the most recent announcements. ...and by the way has a history of sacking founders who don't agree with him.

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-sudden-mysterious-exit-o...

2. Whoever wants to make significant progress in foundation models needs massive compute, which a non-profit has a hard time simply getting donated.

So why should the obvious not be the case? Sam simply trying to get money with a viable business model, so that progress in AI research can actually get funded internally. This unfortunately crossed the business interests of a board member, who wants him out.

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#68

Post by alex_suzuki »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #52

Am I the only one who thinks that AI accountability is a fool's errand? The genie is out of the bottle and we know how to build these things now. I assume that AI will be put to every unethical/evil purpose possible (as humans often do) and it is only a matter of time. Maybe it's still worth trying?

I think it’s naive to assume otherwise.

Relevant cartoon by The Economist: https://www.economist.com/the-world-this-week/2023/11/02/kal...

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#69

Post by KingOfCoders »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #55
loveparade wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the same as some of the woke movements. Nobody wants to publicly speak out against AI safety BS because a Twitter mob who has made a career out of it will descend onto them and ruin their career. There is nothing to gain from speaking out against it, but you gain career opportunities by being part of the AI safety BS community. In fact, this has happened with Hinton (I think it was?) when he dared to e…

Well, I for one am speaking out against it (and against AI in general). I have a blog, Twitter, newsletter, and I even post warnings on my YouTube channel from time to time. I was part of a discussion that led my employer to commit to NOT using generative AI. No Twitter mob is going to stop me. They can descend all they want and pretend to be brave in front of a keyboard and screen. As far as I'm concerned, they're c…

"against AI safety"

You speak against AI and against AI safety? In what way? Wouldn't be speaking against AI enough? Or would AI safety mean laws to prevent AI existence? Like in the Algebraist? (though it is funny in that book how the powerful use AI when it suits them).

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#70

Post by polygamous_bat »

croes wrote: post #56
trosi wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They like money just like everyone else does. And you can't build AGI without a lot of money. The board screwed up. They could have negotiated with MS on another CEO. Instead they went behind everyone's backs and thought themselves omnipotent. Well, guess what.

>negotiated with MS Why? The board is from OpenAI, Inc. and MS isn't an investor of OpenAI, Inc.

Because he who controls the spice controls the universe.

(By spice I mean money here for those unfamiliar with the reference)

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