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The Contradictions of Sam Altman

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Re: The Contradictions of Sam Altman

#51

Post by drewcoo »

schiffern wrote: post #13
greyman wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would make him "socially-awkward"?

Sam or Elon? I'll assume you meant Sam. IMO Sam is mostly just shy and cerebral, but to many people that will come off as awkward and robotic. Watch his recent Lex Fridman interview. Personally I thought it was great, but I'm aware enough to realize that (sadly) many low-knowledge people will judge such demeanor harshly. Mark my words: the media will, 10 times out of 10, exploit that misconception , not correct it. "…

If you mean the one where the interviewer, Lex, was wearing a suit and Sam was in a hoodie, where Sam droned in a robotic monotone and often sat with crossed arms, staring downward . . . I think the knowledgeable people might also assume he's the next evil tech overlord. Or certainly distant and uncaring.

The only things missing were lighting from below and scenes of robots driving human slaves.

Re: The Contradictions of Sam Altman

#52

Post by leetharris »

HlessClaudesman wrote: post #23

Perhaps if more CEOs / controlling shareholders were criminally liable for damage caused by their products, like the Sackler family, they wouldn't be so gung-ho.

What a ridiculous take and a slippery slope.

Should car manufacturers be liable for drunk drivers? Should kitchen knife manufacturers be responsible for stabbings?

Your idea is great if you want your country to be left behind entirely in innovation.

Re: The Contradictions of Sam Altman

#53

Post by efficientsticks »

sampo wrote: post #39
efficientsticks wrote: post #28

> The goal, the company said, was to avoid a race toward building dangerous AI systems fueled by competition and instead prioritize the safety of humanity. > “You want to be there first and you want to be setting the norms,” he said. “That’s part of the reason why speed is a moral and ethical thing here.” Clearly having either not learned or ignored the lessons from Black Mirror and 1984, which is that others will co…

> lessons from Black Mirror and 1984 Those are works of fiction.

They’re dystopian fictions, ie. examples of what not to do. But experience has shown that the real-world often recreates dystopian visions by example.

So trying to be the first to show something in a well-meaning way can nonetheless have unfortunate consequences once the example is copied.

Re: The Contradictions of Sam Altman

#54

Post by version_five »

ftxbro wrote: post #41
mongol wrote: post #9

How did he become so rich? His Wikipedia page does not have much details on this.

Paul Graham is his Les Wexner. "Sam Altman, the co-founder of Loopt, had just finished his sophomore year when we funded them, and Loopt is probably the most promising of all the startups we've funded so far. But Sam Altman is a very unusual guy. Within about three minutes of meeting him, I remember thinking 'Ah, so this is what Bill Gates must have been like when he was 19.'" "Honestly, Sam is, along with Steve Jobs…

If anyone has read "Wild Sheep Chase" by Haruki Murukami, there was the idea of being possessed by the sheep which turned one into a forceful business man. I have only met a couple people like this, but as in the quote it's immediately obvious, and you see why they are where they are.

Re: The Contradictions of Sam Altman

#55

Post by ren_engineer »

antirez wrote: post #7

I believe you can't, at the same time, accuse OpenAI of benefitting of ideas mostly invented elsewhere, and also claim that they are in a predominant position. It does not make any sense, and they are not naturally positioned for a monopoly. Just other companies have to move their asses.

OpenAI acts like they are some underdog startup for PR purposes while actually having access to effectively unlimited resources due to their relationship with Microsoft, which rubs people the wrong way

Plenty of other companies had released GPT powered chat bots like ChatGPT, they just couldn't offer it for free because they didn't have a sweetheart deal with Microsoft for unlimited GPUs. Google did drop the ball though, they were afraid of reputation risk. Google should have used DeepMind or another spinoff to release their internal chatbot months ago

Re: The Contradictions of Sam Altman

#56

Post by schiffern »

phillryu wrote: post #19
schiffern wrote: post #3

Looks like the media has chosen Sam Altman as the next Elon Musk. This makes sense. He perfectly fits their cliche of a socially-awkward technologist, and he's trusting (foolish?) enough to make complex nuanced statements in public, which they can easily mine for out-of-context clickbait and vilification fodder.

When I compare the two Elon was (lucky?) to at least have a string of vision-fueled ventures that became a thing. What is Sam's history of visions? Loopt? Is Y Combinator considered in a new golden era after he took over? Did Worldcoin make any sense at all? I'm honestly hoping I'm entirely ignorant of his substance and would feel better if someone here can explain there's more to him than that… I would feel better k…

I'm not talking about the reality of Sam and Elon. I'm putting my ear to the ground and observing the way the media is (and will) portray them.

I wish that "actual reality" was all that mattered and not such low-knowledge "optics", but sadly we don't live in that world.

Re: The Contradictions of Sam Altman

#57

Post by wetmore »

phillryu wrote: post #19
schiffern wrote: post #3

Looks like the media has chosen Sam Altman as the next Elon Musk. This makes sense. He perfectly fits their cliche of a socially-awkward technologist, and he's trusting (foolish?) enough to make complex nuanced statements in public, which they can easily mine for out-of-context clickbait and vilification fodder.

When I compare the two Elon was (lucky?) to at least have a string of vision-fueled ventures that became a thing. What is Sam's history of visions? Loopt? Is Y Combinator considered in a new golden era after he took over? Did Worldcoin make any sense at all? I'm honestly hoping I'm entirely ignorant of his substance and would feel better if someone here can explain there's more to him than that… I would feel better k…

I'm with you, listening to his interview with Ezra Klein gave me the impression that he doesn't actually think that deeply about the possible impact of AI. He says it worries him, but then he seems to wave those worries away with really simplistic solutions that don't seem very tenable.

Re: The Contradictions of Sam Altman

#58

Post by xiphias2 »

sampo wrote: post #39
efficientsticks wrote: post #28

> The goal, the company said, was to avoid a race toward building dangerous AI systems fueled by competition and instead prioritize the safety of humanity. > “You want to be there first and you want to be setting the norms,” he said. “That’s part of the reason why speed is a moral and ethical thing here.” Clearly having either not learned or ignored the lessons from Black Mirror and 1984, which is that others will co…

> lessons from Black Mirror and 1984 Those are works of fiction.

Maybe because they are more digestible then reality. Reality is much much worse.

Re: The Contradictions of Sam Altman

#59

Post by ren_engineer »

gamesbrainiac wrote: post #4

I think there are some interesting questions: - Sam does not have equity in OpenAI. Does this mean he can potentially be removed at any point in time? - OpenAI's profit arm will funnel excess profit to its non-profit wing. If this is the case, who determines excess profit? - OpenAI's founding charter commits the company to abandoning research efforts if another project nears AGI development. If this happens, what hap…

he admits in the article to having equity via his investment fund, they are using semantics because he doesn't "personally" have equity. He also tries to downplay by saying it's an "immaterial" amount, but in reality that could be billions of dollars.

There's also nothing preventing Microsoft from gifting him billions in Microsoft stock so they can claim he's not motivated by profit with OpenAI despite indirectly making money off it.

You'd have to be extremely naïve to look at the decisions he's made at OpenAI and think it was all purely out of good will. Google and AWS both offer credits for academic and charity projects, why did Altman choose to go all in with Microsoft if it wasn't for money?

Re: The Contradictions of Sam Altman

#60

Post by nirushiv »

ftxbro wrote: post #31
m3kw9 wrote: post #8

OpenAI getting rich now everyone wants a piece and everyone fighting over it like a billion dollar inheretence fight. In a round about way, if GPT5 is nearly as advertised, watch the govt swoop in under national security guise

They've already swooped in. I mean the conspiracy argument would be that the $10B isn't a normal investment. It's a special government project investment facilitated by OpenAI board member and former clandestine CIA operative and cybersecurity executive Will Hurd through his role on the board of trustees of In-Q-Tel the investment arm of the CIA. It's funneled through Microsoft instead of through Google in part becau…

Please stop spreading FUD and unsubstantiated rumours all over this thread
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