Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Reflections on OpenAI

calv.info

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 446 posts

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#21

Post by vouaobrasil »

i000 wrote: post #17
vouaobrasil wrote: post #4

> The thing that I appreciate most is that the company is that it "walks the walk" in terms of distributing the benefits of AI. Cutting edge models aren't reserved for some enterprise-grade tier with an annual agreement. Anybody in the world can jump onto ChatGPT and get an answer, even if they aren't logged in. I would argue that there are very few benefits of AI, if any at all. What it actually does is create a pri…

[flagged]

Nobody decides, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't discuss and figure out if there is an optimal point.

Edit: And I think you might dislike automobiles if you were one of the people living right next to a tyre factory in Brazil, which outputs an extremely disgusting rubber smell on an almost daily basis. Especially if you bought your house before the factory was built, and you don't drive much.

But you probably live in North America and don't give a darn about that.

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#22

Post by vouaobrasil »

ookblah wrote: post #16
vouaobrasil wrote: post #4

> The thing that I appreciate most is that the company is that it "walks the walk" in terms of distributing the benefits of AI. Cutting edge models aren't reserved for some enterprise-grade tier with an annual agreement. Anybody in the world can jump onto ChatGPT and get an answer, even if they aren't logged in. I would argue that there are very few benefits of AI, if any at all. What it actually does is create a pri…

i don't really understand this thought process. all technology has it's advantages and drawbacks and we are currently going through the hype and growing pains process. you could just as well argue the internet, phones, tv, cars, all adhere to the exact same prisoner's dilemma situation you talk about. you could just as well use AI to rubber duck or ease your mental load than treat it like some rat-race to efficiency.

True, but it is meaningful to understand whether the "quantity" advantages - drawbacks decreases over time, which I believe it does.

And we should indeed apply the logic to other inventions: some are more worth using than others, whereas in today's society, we just use all of them due to the mechanisms of the prisoner's dilemma. The Amish, on the other hand, apply deliberation on whether to use certain technologies, which is a far better approach.

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#23

Post by vouaobrasil »

christiangenco wrote: post #20
vouaobrasil wrote: post #4

> The thing that I appreciate most is that the company is that it "walks the walk" in terms of distributing the benefits of AI. Cutting edge models aren't reserved for some enterprise-grade tier with an annual agreement. Anybody in the world can jump onto ChatGPT and get an answer, even if they aren't logged in. I would argue that there are very few benefits of AI, if any at all. What it actually does is create a pri…

> I would argue that there are very few benefits of AI, if any at all. What it actually does is create a prisoner's dilemma situation where some use it to become more efficient only because it makes them faster and then others do the same to keep up. But I think everyone would be FAR better off without AI. Personally, my life has significantly improved in meaningful ways with AI. Apart from the obvious work benefits…

A few programmers being better off does not make an entire society better off. In fact, I'd argue that you shipping code 10x faster just means in the long run that consumerism is being accelerated at a similar rate because that is what most code is used for, eventually.

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#24

Post by simonw »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #4

> The thing that I appreciate most is that the company is that it "walks the walk" in terms of distributing the benefits of AI. Cutting edge models aren't reserved for some enterprise-grade tier with an annual agreement. Anybody in the world can jump onto ChatGPT and get an answer, even if they aren't logged in. I would argue that there are very few benefits of AI, if any at all. What it actually does is create a pri…

"I would argue that there are very few benefits of AI, if any at all."

OK, if you're going to say things like this I'm going to insist you clarify which subset of "AI" you mean.

Presumably you're OK with the last few decades of machine learning algorithms for things like spam detection, search relevance etc.

I'll assume your problem is with the last few years of "generative AI" - a loose term for models that output text and images instead of purely being used for classification.

Are predictive text keyboards on a phone OK (tiny LLMs)? How about translation engines like Google Translate?

Vision LLMs to help with wildlife camera trap analysis? How about to help with visual impairments navigate the world?

I suspect your problem isn't with "AI", it's with the way specific AI systems are being built and applied. I think we can have much more constructive conversations if we move beyond blanket labeling "AI" as the problem.

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#26

Post by simonw »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #23
christiangenco wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would argue that there are very few benefits of AI, if any at all. What it actually does is create a prisoner's dilemma situation where some use it to become more efficient only because it makes them faster and then others do the same to keep up. But I think everyone would be FAR better off without AI. Personally, my life has significantly improved in meaningful ways with AI. Apart from the obvious work benefits…

A few programmers being better off does not make an entire society better off. In fact, I'd argue that you shipping code 10x faster just means in the long run that consumerism is being accelerated at a similar rate because that is what most code is used for, eventually.

I spent much of my career working on open source software that helped other engineers ship code 10x faster. Should I feel bad about the impact my work there had on accelerating consumerism?

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#27

Post by i000 »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #21
i000 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Nobody decides, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't discuss and figure out if there is an optimal point. Edit: And I think you might dislike automobiles if you were one of the people living right next to a tyre factory in Brazil, which outputs an extremely disgusting rubber smell on an almost daily basis. Especially if you bought your house before the factory was built, and you don't drive much. But you probably live…

I think this is pretty much how many Amish communities function. As for me, I prefer making decisions on how to use technology in my own life on my own.

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#28

Post by upghost »

Granted the "OpenAI is not a monolith" comment, interesting that use of AI assisted coding was a curious omission from the article -- no mention if encouraged or discouraged.

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#29

Post by randometc »

tptacek wrote: post #10
randometc wrote: post #6

What’s the GTM role referenced a couple of times in the post?

Go-to-market. Outbound marketing and sales, pipeline definition, analytics.

That’s how I imagined it, kind of a hybrid of what I’ve seen called Product Marketing Manager and Product Analyst, but other replies and OpenAI job postings indicate maybe it’s a different role, more hands on building, getting from research to consumer product maybe?

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#30

Post by vouaobrasil »

simonw wrote: post #24
vouaobrasil wrote: post #4

> The thing that I appreciate most is that the company is that it "walks the walk" in terms of distributing the benefits of AI. Cutting edge models aren't reserved for some enterprise-grade tier with an annual agreement. Anybody in the world can jump onto ChatGPT and get an answer, even if they aren't logged in. I would argue that there are very few benefits of AI, if any at all. What it actually does is create a pri…

"I would argue that there are very few benefits of AI, if any at all." OK, if you're going to say things like this I'm going to insist you clarify which subset of "AI" you mean. Presumably you're OK with the last few decades of machine learning algorithms for things like spam detection, search relevance etc. I'll assume your problem is with the last few years of "generative AI" - a loose term for models that output t…

1. Here is the subset: any algorithm, which is learning based, trained on a large data set, and modifies or generates content.

2. I would argue that translation engines have their positives and negatives, but a lot of them are negative, because they lead to translators losing their jobs, and a loss in general for the magical qualities of language learning.

3. Predictive text: I think people should not be presented with possible next words, and think of them on their own, because that means they will be more thoughtful in their writing and less automatic. Also, with a higher barrier to writing something, they will probably write less and what they do write will be of greater significance.

4. I am against all LLMs, including wildlife camera trap analysis. There is an overabundance of hiding behind research when we really already know the problem fairly well. It's a fringe piece of conservation research anyway.

5. Visual impairments: one can always appeal to helping the disabled and impaired, but I think the tradeoff is not worth the technological enslavement.

6. My problem is categorically with AI, not with how it is applied, PRECISELY BECAUSE AI cannot be applied in an ethical way, since human beings en masse will inevitably have a sufficient number of bad actors to make the net effect always negative. It's human nature.

Post reply on HN