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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

#131

Post by jacquesm »

gcr wrote: post #124
jacquesm wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't hand matches and gasoline to kids. Having a board that is in principle not accountable is fine if they are stable and experienced people and there are enough of them to ensure that decisions are made by the book and with sufficient attention to the details, such as the potential fall-out. Handing that kind of authority to a mix of the gullible, the greedy, the narrow minded and incompetent isn't going to en…

I don’t appreciate the way that you conflate “outside Silicon Valley” with “the gullible, the greedy, the narrow-minded.” If anything I think it’s easier to find such types in SV than outside. If AI is meant to benefit all of humanity, then it makes sense for more of humanity to be represented on the board, not just SV.

I think you misread my comment.

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#132

Post by ryloric »

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.

AI Safety is real and very important... AI Safety financed and practiced by corps looking to make money off of AI is mostly bullshit.

I think it's important to make a distinction between the two.

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#133

Post by isthatafact »

martindbp wrote: post #29
Devasta wrote: post #9

Honestly there is something deeply shameful about tech workers finally organizing, uniting together in one voice, and using that voice to defend Sam Altman of all people.

People hate Musk because he says everything that comes to mind, but it's people like Altman that scare me, because he's actually good at this game and it's difficult to get a sense of his true motivations.

The worldcoin scam suggests to me that Altman is likely to do evil, even if he might have good intentions.

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#134

Post by ryukoposting »

smallerdemon wrote: post #67

If there's one thing we've learned in the past year is that curly haired men named Sam in the tech industry claiming that they are doing it "for the good of all humanity" probably ain't doin' -anything- for the good of humanity.

There's a Lord of the Rings joke in there somewhere.

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#135

Post by rramadass »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #35
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.

> Sam Altman is merely another "Tech Executive" out for himself But it couldn't have started that way surely? - why put in place a corporate structure, board, and profit cap that would limit that. I'm sure OpenAI could have got funding as a for profit concern that wouldn't have resulted in the current mess. I wonder if the board - which presumably are still working under that "AI for humanity" principles could just s…

> But it couldn't have started that way surely? - why put in place a corporate structure, board, and profit cap that would limit that.

The "Tech Executives" in the Industry have a poor opinion of Researchers/Engineers/Knowledge Workers and think that they are all naive and can be managed (i.e shafted) when it comes to business/money dealings. Any noob could see the potential in the researchers and technology and so Sam thought he could get in and then change/manipulate things to his (and his backers) advantage when the time came.

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#136

Post by chronofar »

shunyaekam wrote: post #100

Can someone explain to me why AI could potentially destroy to humans? What is the scenario(s) people are thinking about? Unlike another big question such as whether God exists, we ought to be able to reason our way to the answer here. Since, after all, we're talking about an intelligence.

I find 2 (dangerous) scenarios to be most likely, one easier to reason about than the other:

1. Access is not uniformly distributed, thus some entity uses it to create immense inequality.

2. The AI becomes sufficiently intelligent and powerful that it looks at humans the same way we look at monkeys and treats us similarly (in other words, not overly concerned with human flourishing or even survival while commanding resources humans need to survive and flourish).

Neither of these necessarily mean "destroy" humans, and neither are by any means guaranteed (though #1 seems almost a foregone conclusion) but it could very well lead to an existential threat.

It's also possible we get a combination of the 2, wherein a subsect of humans can merge with AI but it is inaccessible to all.

There are other less existential concerns as well though, such as at what point does such a system become conscious and deserve rights? I'm not confident we really have any idea how to ascertain that, and bumbling into it could be tantamount to torture.

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#137

Post by lacrimacida »

shunyaekam wrote: post #100

Can someone explain to me why AI could potentially destroy to humans? What is the scenario(s) people are thinking about? Unlike another big question such as whether God exists, we ought to be able to reason our way to the answer here. Since, after all, we're talking about an intelligence.

One plausible way to me is vaccuming all the power people posses into the hands of a few SV billionares. That would push us into the era of technofeudalism of sorts

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#138

Post by Roark66 »

footy wrote: post #40
Roark66 wrote: post #34

>But this weekend we saw perhaps saw another side to the 38-year-old, a flicker of arrogance that gave a glimpse as to the dynamic with OpenAI’s board of directors.(...) Altman took a moment to share a picture on social media of him holding a “guest” pass. “First and last time I ever wear one of these,” he wrote Seriously? Does this pass for arrogance these days? I see nothing arrogant in a person sacked from a workp…

Did you see the face he was making in the picture? I'm not sure I would have initially picked the word _arrogant_ as much as _unpleasant_, but I think both fit (and arrogant is more descriptive).

I haven't. I only read about it. Perhaps the picture changes the meaning of it a lot.

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#139

Post by ethanbond »

Schiendelman wrote: post #126
ethanbond wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

firmly stating what you want != turning your company politics into a reality TV show The whole “everything must be entertaining” trend is horribly depressing, and in this case I don’t think it reflected well on Sam. Especially at the helm of what is claimed to be such a fundamentally important technology. Related: “Amusing Ourselves to Death” is a worthwhile read.

I don’t think he was the one releasing any of the embarrassing and dramatic press releases.

You mean the single press release that stated the CEO has been fired? It was definitely aggressively worded, but without more facts I don’t think you can honestly claim to know whether it was embarrassing, dramatic, or in fact unfairly aggressive at all. It could have been dramatically understated.

Re: Sam Altman exposes the charade of AI accountability

#140

Post by starbugs »

joshuahedlund wrote: post #128
Mystery-Machine wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't they? When AI becomes more intelligent than humans, we'll be the only force that is a threat to their existence. And we are very destructive. We don't even fully acknowledge global warming yet. To sum it up again: dumb creatures with a massive destructive power. Get rid of 'em. And guess what latest new technology we're building/applying in wars? AI, drones, etc. We are creating robots that can kill huma…

> Why wouldn't they? Maybe they value our consciousness Maybe they need us to carry out physical tasks Maybe they’re smart enough to stop us from being so destructive without killing us Maybe they find us entertaining If you’re not biased you can come up with all sorts of reasons that are at least as based in reality as the assumptions that they’re gonna want to (and be able to) kill us…

> If you’re not biased you can come up with all sorts of reasons that are at least as based in reality as the assumptions that they’re gonna want to (and be able to) kill us…

Yup. But that would be so boring and not generate lots of clicks at all...

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