I predict this isn't the last episode of this amazing soap opera.
We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO
241–250 of 1001 posts
Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO
#242At the end of the day, we still don't know what exactly happened and probably, never will. However, it seems clear there was a rift between Rapid Commercialization (Team Sam) and Upholding the Original Principles (Team Helen/Ilya). I think the tensions were brewing for quite a while, as it's evident from an article written even before GPT-3 [1]. > Over time, it has allowed a fierce competitiveness and mounting pressu…
What the general public thinks is irrelevant here. The deciding factor was the staff mutiny, without which the organization is an empty shell. And the staff sided with those who aim for rapid real world impact, with directly affects their career and stock options etc. It's also naive to think it was a struggle for principles. The rapid commercialization vs. principles is what the actors claim to rally their respectiv…
I think this is an oversimplification and that although the decel faction definitely lost, there are still three independent factions left standing:
https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=38375767
It will be super interesting to see the subtle struggles for influence between these three.
Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO
#243Still absolutely nothing from Tasha McCauley or Helen Toner, and now both are out of the board
Why would anyone care?
Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO
#244At the end of the day, we still don't know what exactly happened and probably, never will. However, it seems clear there was a rift between Rapid Commercialization (Team Sam) and Upholding the Original Principles (Team Helen/Ilya). I think the tensions were brewing for quite a while, as it's evident from an article written even before GPT-3 [1]. > Over time, it has allowed a fierce competitiveness and mounting pressu…
well said, I would note that both sides recognize that "AGI" will require new uncertain R&D breakthroughs beyond merely scaling up another order of magnitude in compute. given this, i think it's crazy to blow the resources of azure on trying more scale. rapid commercialization at least buys more time for the needed R&D breakthrough to happen.
do we really know that scaling compute an order of magnitude won't at least get us close? what other "simple" techniques might actually work with that kind of compute ? at least i was a bit surprised by these first sparks, that seemingly was a matter of enough compute.
Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO
#245So, the company has successfully trashed its goals and values, and is finally focused on making money?
Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO
#246At the end of the day, we still don't know what exactly happened and probably, never will. However, it seems clear there was a rift between Rapid Commercialization (Team Sam) and Upholding the Original Principles (Team Helen/Ilya). I think the tensions were brewing for quite a while, as it's evident from an article written even before GPT-3 [1]. > Over time, it has allowed a fierce competitiveness and mounting pressu…
I'm convinced there is a certain class of people who gravitate to positions of power, like "moderators", (partisan) journalists, etc. Now, the ultimate moderator role has now been created, more powerful than moderating 1000 subreddits - the AI safety job who will control what AI "thinks"/says for "safety" reasons.
Pretty soon AI will be an expert at subtly steering you toward thinking/voting for whatever the "safety" experts want.
It's probably convenient for them to have everyone focused on the fear of evil Skynet wiping out humanity, while everyone is distracted from the more likely scenario of people with an agenda controlling the advice given to you by your super intelligent assistant.
Because of X, we need to invade this country. Because of Y, we need to pass all these terrible laws limiting freedom. Because of Z, we need to make sure AI is "safe".
For this reason, I view "safe" AIs as more dangerous than "unsafe" ones.
Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO
#247At the end of the day, we still don't know what exactly happened and probably, never will. However, it seems clear there was a rift between Rapid Commercialization (Team Sam) and Upholding the Original Principles (Team Helen/Ilya). I think the tensions were brewing for quite a while, as it's evident from an article written even before GPT-3 [1]. > Over time, it has allowed a fierce competitiveness and mounting pressu…
> If you truly believed that Superhuman AI was near, and it could act with malice, won't you try to slow things down a bit?
No, if OpenAI is reaching singularity, so are Google, Meta, and Baidu etc. so proper course of action would be to loop in NSA/White House. You'll loop in Google, Meta, MSFT and will start mitigation steps. Slowing down OpenAI will hurt the company if assumption is wrong and won't help if it is true.
I believe this is more a fight of ego and power than principles and direction.
Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO
#248At the end of the day, we still don't know what exactly happened and probably, never will. However, it seems clear there was a rift between Rapid Commercialization (Team Sam) and Upholding the Original Principles (Team Helen/Ilya). I think the tensions were brewing for quite a while, as it's evident from an article written even before GPT-3 [1]. > Over time, it has allowed a fierce competitiveness and mounting pressu…
I bet Team Helen will jump slowly to Anthropic, there is no drama, and probably no mainstream news will report this but down-to-line OpenAI will shell off the former self and competitors will catch up.
Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO
#249At the end of the day, we still don't know what exactly happened and probably, never will. However, it seems clear there was a rift between Rapid Commercialization (Team Sam) and Upholding the Original Principles (Team Helen/Ilya). I think the tensions were brewing for quite a while, as it's evident from an article written even before GPT-3 [1]. > Over time, it has allowed a fierce competitiveness and mounting pressu…
Have you seen the Center for AI Safety letter? A lot of experts are worried AI safety could be an x-risk:
Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO
#250> We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo. > We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this. 1- So what was the point of this whole drama, and why couldn't you have settled like this adults? 2- Now what happens to Microsoft's role in all of thi…
Satya comes out great, making the absolute best of a given shitty situation, with a high stake of 10 B USD.
Microsoft is showing to investors that it is going to be an AI company, one way or the other.
Microsoft still has access to everything OpenAI does.
Microsoft has its friend, Sam, at the helm of OpenAI and with a more tighter grip on the company than ever.
Its still a win for Microsoft.