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Sam Altman Is Losing His Grip on Humanity

theatlantic.com

11–20 of 122 posts

Re: Sam Altman Is Losing His Grip on Humanity

#11
post #9

To some extend I think people are putting way to much weight on his exact words, and not why he says them. Altman is a man who is quickly running out of lies, so now he starts slinging random arguments that can't stand up to even the briefest of scrutiny. OpenAI is burning cash and fuel. There are results, and they are, to some extend, impressive, but not impressive enough to justify the cost and Altman are no longer…

[deleted]

Re: Sam Altman Is Losing His Grip on Humanity

#12
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say he's much different or worse than certain BBS sysadmins I knew in the early 90s... just that I'd never want those guys to be endowed with enough money and hardware to wreak their vision on the world

That's the problem though. One of those types did get that type of power.

Maybe I'm jaded, but I feel like a lot of them did for a moment. Gates, Jobs, Zuck, all got their days of glory and it's quickly that everyone realizes they're a giant misanthropic asshole. If the pot of gold at the end of Altman's quest turns out to be as big as what he's priced it at, then yes, he'll be one of history's most successful sociopaths. If not, he's just another in a long line.

Re: Sam Altman Is Losing His Grip on Humanity

#13
post #9

To some extend I think people are putting way to much weight on his exact words, and not why he says them. Altman is a man who is quickly running out of lies, so now he starts slinging random arguments that can't stand up to even the briefest of scrutiny. OpenAI is burning cash and fuel. There are results, and they are, to some extend, impressive, but not impressive enough to justify the cost and Altman are no longer…

I knew OpenAI was in trouble the instant they chose Altman over Ilya Sutskever.

Re: Sam Altman Is Losing His Grip on Humanity

#14
post #9

To some extend I think people are putting way to much weight on his exact words, and not why he says them. Altman is a man who is quickly running out of lies, so now he starts slinging random arguments that can't stand up to even the briefest of scrutiny. OpenAI is burning cash and fuel. There are results, and they are, to some extend, impressive, but not impressive enough to justify the cost and Altman are no longer…

There’s running out of words and there’s coming across like a complete psychopath who has lost all perspective.

Re: Sam Altman Is Losing His Grip on Humanity

#15
post #6

Altman strikes me as a dude who came from a special tier of toxic upbringing.

He is literally a manifestation of the phenomenon described in this book: https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.469826 "The Authoritarian Personality" tl;dr - the roots of the authoritarian personality grow fertile in the desire to be free of 'the filth of others'. Altman seems like he'd go crazy if he didn't keep his machine spectacularly clean ..

He was talking about education. I'm pretty sure about it.

Re: Sam Altman Is Losing His Grip on Humanity

#16
post #3

I'd like to point out that this article seems to focus on minutiae like how much energy a human brain takes to solve a problem, when the obvious question is: Which is more worthwhile to us as a species - even assuming the same inputs and energy and planetary damage? Spending that energy on fostering humans who can solve problems? Or on machines which render humans superfluous?

It's calling him out on his BS. That might work for mindless investors who want number go up. But he's actively making the world worse for people.

Nevermind hoarding 40% of the worlds silicone 'just because'.

It's like Musk's lofty and outright BS claims. "Well I'm rich so I can do and say what I like, give me your money".

When did bald face lies become the norm in business ?

Edit.. Im keeping silicone in there.

Re: Sam Altman Is Losing His Grip on Humanity

#17

Struggling to understand what this article is adding to the discourse other than a reflexive “Sam Altman bad” title.

It's not adding anything significant to the discourse if you read what we read all day, but it's of a piece with

https://harpers.org/archive/2026/03/childs-play-sam-kriss-ai...

and other things that are filtering to the mainstream non-technical intellectual readership that are flashing red lights about the personal nature of the people blowing air into this bubble, and that itself is significant.

Re: Sam Altman Is Losing His Grip on Humanity

#18
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the problem though. One of those types did get that type of power.

Not only one of those types, I can think of at least another one that's (IMHO) far worse than Altman. You know, the one with the social network everyone used to use before he turned it into a cesspool of disinformation, the one with the alternate Wikipedia, the obsession with the letter X?

That's my bad. I shouldn't have spoken in the singular tense. It's a rich tapestry of losers.

Re: Sam Altman Is Losing His Grip on Humanity

#20
post #3

I'd like to point out that this article seems to focus on minutiae like how much energy a human brain takes to solve a problem, when the obvious question is: Which is more worthwhile to us as a species - even assuming the same inputs and energy and planetary damage? Spending that energy on fostering humans who can solve problems? Or on machines which render humans superfluous?

Because we can't foster good humans, the latter is inevitable.
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