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An Open Letter to Sam Altman

garymarcus.substack.com

1–10 of 33 posts

Re: An Open Letter to Sam Altman

#5
post #3

I'm out of the loop - what 7 trillion fundraising ask? Could someone summarize the context?

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/02/repor...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is in talks with investors to raise as much as $5 trillion to $7 trillion for AI chip manufacturing

Altman has reportedly met with a range of potential investors worldwide, including sovereign wealth funds and government entities, notably the United Arab Emirates, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, and representatives from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

the prospect of substantial UAE investment in a key tech industry raises potential geopolitical concerns, particularly regarding the US government's strategic priorities in semiconductor production and AI development.

Re: An Open Letter to Sam Altman

#9
I’m going out on a whim here but surely putting $7t towards solving something like food poverty in the undeveloped world, or subsidising renewable energy for the average person, would be of a much greater benefit to humanity than further lining the already bursting pockets of entitled individuals.

Call me old fashioned but having living, healthy humans is more valuable to humanity than an, albeit impressive, text generator

Re: An Open Letter to Sam Altman

#10
I fully agree with the sentiment, but I am bit... confused? with the section that raises possible concerns about the negatives of LLMs. In particular the "women" mention, without any ellaboration.

Am I missing something? It feels pretty lazy. Like an enumeration of things we are supposed to care about, rather than an effort to build a solid argumentation against Sam Altman's fundraising effort.

And I have other issues with how these potential problems are framed, as if something that happens kind of organically and not a symptom of an increasingly plutocratic system. But admittedly maybe that's me being uncharitable to the author.

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