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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

#961

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Defense and offense don’t seem easily separated when it comes to military technology.

That's always an issue with weapons, but if you opt out then you don't have them when you might need them. It's a dangerous world out there. Luckily for us, technology is still more-often used for good. Explosives can kill your enemies, but they can also cut paths through mountains and bring together communities. IMO, the virtue signal where people refuse to work on defense technology is just self-identifying with th…

> Luckily for us, technology is still more-often used for good.

When you are on the other end of the cannon, or your heart is beating with those who are, you tend to not say that. Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Afghanistan…

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

#962

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how you can look at global warming, ocean acidification, falling biodiversity and other global trends and how little action is being done to slow these ill effects and not arrive at that sentiment. Yes, the world has scientists saying "hey, this is happening, maybe we should do something" but the lack of money into solutions shows the interest just isn't there. Being the smartest species on the planet isn…

Still better than any other species we know of and nature itself. Nature doesn't mind the Earth turning into a frozen wasteland, it's done it before. And it certainly doesn't care that we're rearranging some of its star stuff to power our cars.

> Still better than any other species we know of and nature itself.

What other species has affected life on a planetary level more than humans?

> Nature doesn't mind the Earth turning into a frozen wasteland, it's done it before.

Nature—as in _the planet_—doesn't, but living beings do, and humans in particular.

Some parts of the planet are already becoming inhospitable, agriculture more difficult, and clean water, air and other resources more scarce. Humans are migrating en masse from these areas, which is creating more political and social conflicts, more wars, more migrations, and so on. What do you think the situation will be in 10 years? 50 years?

We probably don't need to worry about an extinction level event. But millions of people losing their lives, and millions more living in abject conditions is certainly something we should worry about.

Going back on topic, AI will play a significant role in all of this. Whether it will be a net positive or negative is difficult to predict, but one thing is certain: people in power will seek control over AI, just as they seek control over everything else. And this is what we're seeing now with this OpenAI situation. The players are setting up the game board to ensure they stay in the game.

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

#963
post #333

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I don’t get it - aren’t Jews considered white?

The whole reductionist construct of "whiteness", beloved by so many contemporary scholars has little currency in the minds and hearts of many Americans educated before the wave of critical race theory. Earlier the preferred term for the exclusionary elites was WASP (white anglo-saxon protestants) and large swathes of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe plus the Irish were excluded, including my own ancestors.…

> The whole reductionist construct of "whiteness", beloved by so many contemporary scholars has little currency in the minds and hearts of many Americans educated before the wave of critical race theory

Whiteness and “white passing” is a bar that is literally centuries old. CRT is not the culprit for its current scrutiny or existence - it has been and continues to be a litmus test for who qualifies as the “in” and “out” groups.

As the old adage goes: “we know who we are by who we are not.” It’s an ugly side of humanity and not a recent issue.

Simply put, “whiteness” and “white passing” are the result of people who consider themselves white wanting to exclude and/or include certain groups because, generally speaking in the west, being white = wielding social, cultural, and political power.

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

#964

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Just about any technology advancement ever has weapons potential. If you want to take that reasoning, just quiver in fear at home and not develop anything. You have to be optimistic about humanity.

I disagree. All technological development changes human societies and imposes its rules upon them and rules over them, not the other way around. The combination of technology and human nature is an unstoppable deterministic force, one whose effects are so easily predicted when traced from… invention of cannons (?) in hindsight. No modern (organization-dependent) technology should have ever been developed. The people…

> Read some Ted Kaczynski

Your moral argument is to read the craziest writings of a serial killer?

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

#965

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole reductionist construct of "whiteness", beloved by so many contemporary scholars has little currency in the minds and hearts of many Americans educated before the wave of critical race theory. Earlier the preferred term for the exclusionary elites was WASP (white anglo-saxon protestants) and large swathes of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe plus the Irish were excluded, including my own ancestors.…

> The whole reductionist construct of "whiteness", beloved by so many contemporary scholars has little currency in the minds and hearts of many Americans educated before the wave of critical race theory Whiteness and “white passing” is a bar that is literally centuries old. CRT is not the culprit for its current scrutiny or existence - it has been and continues to be a litmus test for who qualifies as the “in” and “o…

I would suggest the scope and psychological relevance of the now fetishized term of "whiteness" in large parts of America was vanishingly small in the past. It had no significance in the slightest in my community or to my identity. It was all about religion, education, and European place of origin.

Moreover, and more interestingly, after I studied the Hausa language at university, and decided to travel on my own to live in Kano, Nigeria, I quickly was labeled by those around me a "bature" or European. But Americans with much darker skin than I were also called "bature", at times to their private despair. It our perceived, shared culture, not our skin color, that made the difference to Kano residents.

Having lived and worked in many countries in local institutions, often using the local language professionally, my own skin color and that of those around me is about as important as hair color, eye color, or handedness, that is, largely irrelevant. Culture, intelligence, and ethical standards are so much more important. The obsession with "whiteness" is as creepy as it is toxic.

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

#966

Wouldn’t this leave Satya in a really bad position? He just announced to much fanfare that Altman was joining MS.

"We are really excited to work with Sam, OpenAI 2.0, the team and the new board of directors who we strongly believe will achieve great things in partnership with Microsoft. We've already signed new deals to strengthen this relationship and more details will be coming soon." - Satya (probably)

24 hours later and the real life one was:

"We are encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board. We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance. Sam, Greg, and I have talked and agreed they have a key role to play along with the OAI leadership team in ensuring OAI continues to thrive and build on its mission. We look forward to building on our strong partnership and delivering the value of this next generation of AI to our customers and partners."

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

#967

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. All technological development changes human societies and imposes its rules upon them and rules over them, not the other way around. The combination of technology and human nature is an unstoppable deterministic force, one whose effects are so easily predicted when traced from… invention of cannons (?) in hindsight. No modern (organization-dependent) technology should have ever been developed. The people…

> Read some Ted Kaczynski Your moral argument is to read the craziest writings of a serial killer?

Your argument is to not read the ideas of someone because he did something bad? What’s the reason? Are you that gullible that you can’t evaluate them with your own mind and conscience and will start shooting everyone the moment you finish his manifesto?

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

#968
post #958

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No, it’s based on the fact that workers (often poor) generate all wealth, yet they don’t get to keep it. In China they do get to keep more proportionally, as a class. That only happens because they form the ruling class.

And yet workers in those societies tend to end up poorer in the absolute sense. Funny how that works.

If you pay attention to history, they started out far poorer and improved quicker than in comparable countries.

Just because revolutions are more likely to happen in poor countries doesn't mean the revolutions caused the poverty.

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

#969
post #950

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I genuinely believe, based on my experiences with ChatGPT, that it doesn't seem all that threatening or dangerous. I get we're in the part of the movie at the start before shit goes down but I just don't see all the fuss. I feel like it has enormous potential in terms of therapy and having "someone" to talk to that you can bounce ideas off and maybe can help gently correct you or prod you in the right direction. A lo…

@Obscurity4340 Interested in bouncing off ideas for therapy? Email is in my about box :)

Can you give me a little hint about it? Not that I wouldn't be happy to chat, just preliminarily curious before I reach out :)

@yonom Whatever you feel comfortably publicly sharing and then if I feel like I have anything of value in turn, I'll reach out privately :)

(taking care to avoid doxxing myself)

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

#970

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you talk about why you feel this way without using the word "safety"? Getting a little tired of the buzzword when there's so much value to ChatGPT and also its basically no different from when you, like, search stuff and the aearch engine does that summarize thing in my view

Well let's come back to reality. ChatGPT is in fact vastly different from Google summarizing a search. Maybe that's all you use it for but there's people building virtual girlfriend platforms, an API that an alarming amount of businesses are integrating into their standard workflows, and the damn thing can literally talk. It can talk to you. Google search summarizing gives a snippet about a search. You can't have a c…

This is definitely why I'm not in charge aha. Excellent points, you've given me volumes I need to further think about, although full disclosure, I am biased towards people having access for its potential self-therapeutic use.
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