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Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

blog.samaltman.com

521–530 of 1001 posts

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#521

What article is he referencing in the fourth paragraph? The New Yorker one? I got the impression that it was careful in its reporting and by no means one-sided. Seems pretty sleazy for him to associate that (based on no evidence!) with the violent attack.

A molotov thrown at a gate seems more symbolic than directly violent to my eyes.

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#522
post #31

Ah, the Elon manoeuvre: trying to make would-be assassins hesitate by using your own child as a shield.

It's like a baby on board bumper sticker. But for your house.

*gate. Sounds like it was thrown at his gate not his house.

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can someone help me to understand why OpenAI and Anthropic talks as if the future of humanity controlled by them? He wants to build the AI that makes people's lives better. Okay. Did the people ask? Do they have a say? It's all very easy for a billionaire to say when it's just him and a couple of people in his cohort in the driver's seat. Beyond that I'd like to simply know why he thinks any of this is his responsi…

Doesn't he famously have zero equity in OpenAI?

directly, yes. indirectly ..no

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#524
I've skimmed the thread here and I am now seriously considering leaving HN for the first time in about 15 years. Here are some quotes from what used to be a pretty interesting and thoughtful community:

> Ah, the Elon manoeuvre: trying to make would-be assassins hesitate by using your own child as a shield.

> the words and narratives that Sam Altman promoted caused so much fear and uncertainty and anger that someone thought their only option was to attempt a horrific crime.

> Sociopath who rides high ego wave and drinks his own kool aid, acting highly amorally and then complaints that his actions have some (benign) consequences.

> A cavalier attitude and allegiance to nothing but capital doesn't make you immune to basic human morals, and humanity will, rightly in my opinion, punish you whether you like it or not.

These comments are disgusting. The people who made them should be ashamed. But they are probably too stupid to be, assuming they are people and not bots, which I no longer feel certain of for all too many comments here.

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a marketing strategy. If it's almost certainly conscious and capable of ending the world if it desired (even if it isn't), imagine how good it could be at building your dream SaaS!

It turns out there is literally no amount of being publicly right about a longshot bet sufficient for people to conclude you hold your beliefs because you think they are true.

I'm sure they do believe they can successfully manipulate the market by lying to it. Elon Musk laid that groundwork a decade ago.

If you meant their "core mission" then every one of their actions belies their complete panic over the obvious failure of their technology.

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#526
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just their usual marketing I think that’s a very common element for most US tech corps. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, X etc - they’re all “making a dent in the universe”. It’s unfortunate when their employees and CEOs loose track of the line that separates marketing from reality

This seems like copium. All of those companies have indeed made quite an impact on society, not just in the United States, worldwide.

The marketing is about a positive impact, overall in reality its been negative.

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#527

Can someone help me to understand why OpenAI and Anthropic talks as if the future of humanity controlled by them? We have very strong open (weight) Chinese models possibly only 6 months behind of them, gene is out of the bottle, is 6 months of difference really that important? And they don’t have good reasons for that 6 months to stay that way. Am I missing something or are these just their usual marketing? I’m not a…

To be fair, the other 50% of the story is that we collectively listen.

It’s been a long while since I found a Chinese CEO’s post on HN.

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody has one. If labor stops having value the economy will stop working and society will break down far in advance of building the infrastructure necessary for the promised AI abundance. I like the idea of being ”post-scarcity” as much as the next guy, but I don’t understand how we get there. It’s a project in itself, it doesn’t just happen by magic, and nobody is actively trying to make it happen or has any logist…

It made me kind of angry when I saw Dario repeatedly claiming that AI would be taking all the programming jobs any minute now. His company supposedly is working for a better future, but he's giddily talking about something that could cause millions of people to lose their homes if it were true. Our governments have a habit of being reactive rather than proactive. People have floated the idea of UBI, but if UBI happen…

It's not surprising, Dario is an absolute ghoul. Exactly the same as Altman, peas in a pod.

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#529

[flagged]

Huh? They literally did change the world. The world was one way before ChatGPT, and another way after. It's not even a question of whether we "believe" him. It's a factual statement. Did you quote the wrong thing?

> The world was one way before ChatGPT, and another way after.

If you narrow the scope of "world" to "tech world." In the overwhelming majority of every other sector and profession the impact has been zero. In most non-English speaking parts of the world the impact has been zero.

> It's a factual statement.

The world was one way before Marvel superhero movies and a another way after. That's a factual statement. Did we lose track of value?

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#530
post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Violence is an extreme failure state. If your goal is to improve the system then you always want to move away from it. Probably a reasonable justification would be self-defense, committing violence to stop worse violence. (Preemptive violence is not self-defense.)

But that is the kicker. As the sister comment said it matters a great deal what others do. At some point a broken system enacts soft violence on people. So it isnt surprising people act out when they think survival is at stake. With healthcare, it really can be. But where is the line? When someone you know dies? 10 people? It is messy.

RadioLab did a phenomenal series on illegal immigration years ago. One thing that stuck out to me and has stayed with me ever since was an interview they did with a woman who had been deported multiple times, risked her life multiple times, denied a visa and asylum multiple times. They asked her why she kept trying to get across the border and she said that the alternative was death for her and her family.

Whether or not she was being honest I don't know. But it did make me realize that the broken system has created an all-or-nothing choice for so many people. No punishment or policy could ever outweigh the alternative for them, so you'll never be able to stop immigration, illegal or not.

I'm sure I'm not doing the argument justice, but your comment reminded me of it.

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