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The Fallout from the Weirdness at OpenAI

economist.com

21–30 of 91 posts

Re: The Fallout from the Weirdness at OpenAI

#21
Microsoft played the 5D chess so well they made it look seamless, like Kasparov playing 40 opponents simultaneously.

5 occurrences of "Microsoft" in the article body vs 9 "OpenAI".

To make my point clear; this weirdness was definitely caused by the OpenAI board deviating from everybody's plans, including a member of the board themselves.

From there, Microsoft strategically reacted to a black swan event. From MS's pov, this was a zero-day attack that would manifest itself in 2-5 years, Google vs FTC style, and the mitigation strategy was providing the appearance of welcome arms++ to the tyranny of a board that makes kneejerk decisions, and having those open arms be rejected by the (natural) out-pour of sentiment.

The end result is identical, and Microsoft turned a zero-day attack into an irrefutable defense for any future FTC lawsuit.

Re: The Fallout from the Weirdness at OpenAI

#22
post #3

Why do I get a feeling we are going to see an explosion of secular cults that have weird beliefs in AI and worship AGI?

Man, that has been a dream since I was a kid: to see humanity create better gods. It would be really cool to see these machine gods evolve over time too, and scripture and morality along with them. A version controlled religion for future historians (AI, humans, or otherwise) to study!

I’m not sure the gods human being have made so far have done anything apart from persuade people to kill each other over scratchy bits of land. Whether feeling-less AGI will be better for us primates is very uncertain!

Re: The Fallout from the Weirdness at OpenAI

#23
post #3

Why do I get a feeling we are going to see an explosion of secular cults that have weird beliefs in AI and worship AGI?

Secular cult = an oxymoron?

Why would it be an oxymoron? It's not secular in this case anyway as it's based on a supernatural interpretation of linear algebra.

Re: The Fallout from the Weirdness at OpenAI

#24
post #3

Why do I get a feeling we are going to see an explosion of secular cults that have weird beliefs in AI and worship AGI?

Didn't Anthony Levandowski already try that?

Thing is, it doesn't work. The primary purpose of religion is to tackle questions that are metaphysical in nature; to provide an explanation for the deep mysteries of life. To most believers, God isn't a comic book character that's worshipped solely because he is powerful -- He is worshipped as the first mover, the alpha and omega, beyond all constraint -- and the mere fact of His existence explains their own. (He created them in His image, etc.) An AI, however advanced, would be an infinitely lesser being; nothing more than a powerful agent, constrained and embedded alongside us in space and time.

Re: The Fallout from the Weirdness at OpenAI

#25

[flagged]

Of course it is.

FTX collapses (November 2-11, 2022), crypto hustle-scam is over, the decision is made to release whatever there is at the moment at OpenAI to start the next cycle, a few weeks later (November 30, 2022) there we go. Same thing as always: some investors -- mostly white males -- get filthy rich meanwhile some others get exploited -- this time it's Kenyan workers -- and many, many people get hoodwinked and then lose their shirt. Same story, different hype.

https://youtu.be/I6IQ_FOCE6I did everyone forget? I guess. At we got something out of web2.0 ... but we also got a genocide and a few warped elections / referendums out of it so the jury is still out how history will see it. Crypto was a net negative for humankind in every possible way (except a few people walked away with tons of money of course but at what cost) and now we are facing down this terrible wave of AI. Yay?

Re: The Fallout from the Weirdness at OpenAI

#26

The article makes the point that the corporate structure wasn't enough to rein in the human ambitions at OpenAI. But then it concludes that we need more... government regulation. When has that ever stopped the march of technology?

> When has that ever stopped the march of technology?

Fission reactors. Human cloning. Nuremberg code for medical ethics in general.

Re: The Fallout from the Weirdness at OpenAI

#28

The article makes the point that the corporate structure wasn't enough to rein in the human ambitions at OpenAI. But then it concludes that we need more... government regulation. When has that ever stopped the march of technology?

Last I checked you can't buy a rocket propelled grenade on Amazon.

Re: The Fallout from the Weirdness at OpenAI

#29
post #25

[flagged]

Of course it is. FTX collapses (November 2-11, 2022), crypto hustle-scam is over, the decision is made to release whatever there is at the moment at OpenAI to start the next cycle, a few weeks later (November 30, 2022) there we go. Same thing as always: some investors -- mostly white males -- get filthy rich meanwhile some others get exploited -- this time it's Kenyan workers -- and many, many people get hoodwinked a…

At least with anything AI there is something that anyone can use hands-on for actual legitimate work. Crypto/NFT failed to materialize any benefit beyond anonymous payments for drugs and other contraband.

Re: The Fallout from the Weirdness at OpenAI

#30
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, that has been a dream since I was a kid: to see humanity create better gods. It would be really cool to see these machine gods evolve over time too, and scripture and morality along with them. A version controlled religion for future historians (AI, humans, or otherwise) to study!

CyberLuther forks catholic_adonai_v7 because he is not happy with how they upcharge the operational costs.

Yes! This idea of a uniform hive mind always struck me as simplistic. I want gods that keep learning, keep experimenting, keep evolving, keep philosophizing.

All these forks and branches might eventually become different settlements, solar systems, multiverses... it's all information, and each world an experiment unto itself.

Morality can't be stuck in the pre-industrial era, and our current religions aren't really well suited for questions of matter and energy, consciousness as an emergent phenomenon, scaling thought past biological bottlenecks, etc.

I'm really excited about this future, even (or especially) if it means the end of human dominance. Life will find a way :D

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