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

Sam Altman may control our future – can he be trusted?

newyorker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

761–770 of 1001 posts

Re: Sam Altman may control our future – can he be trusted?

#761

Post by throw4847285 »

rhubarbtree wrote: post #549
stevenwoo wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s also available via public libraries in USA via Libby if your local library system pays for a subscription, so it’s a way to support the magazine indirectly, since your local taxes pays for your library. The downside for weekly is you have to read it that week, no archive access.

Which edition? I looked at April 6th and can’t see the article.

The New Yorker posts digital articles in advance of the release of the print edition.

At the bottom of this article it says: Published in the print edition of the April 13, 2026, issue, with the headline “Moment of Truth.”

As someone who reads the print magazine every week, I always scroll down to check if the article will be published and skip it if so (so I can read it when my magazine arrives).

Re: Sam Altman may control our future – can he be trusted?

#763

Post by gerhardi »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #561
pesus wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for sharing this. I 100% believe it, and it lines up with my experience with other people who came from similar backgrounds as Sam Altman - i.e. white, rich, privileged, and attending elite universities. I will disagree with one part - I do believe it is racism. Most will never admit it publicly, but if they think you're one of them, it often comes out rather quickly, especially when alcohol is involved.

[flagged]

Have you seen him or a picture of him? Looks about as white as they come to me, putting his religious heritage aside.

Re: Sam Altman may control our future – can he be trusted?

#764

Post by cm2012 »

strgrd wrote: post #688

I remember reading these direct quotes from SA in 2016 from the New Yorker and thinking, yeah, this guy is just miserable: > “Well, I like racing cars. I have five, including two McLarens and an old Tesla. I like flying rented planes all over California. Oh, and one odd one—I prep for survival. My problem is that when my friends get drunk they talk about the ways the world will end. After a Dutch lab modified the H5N…

This doesn't seem like someone who's miserable at all to me. They seem like someone who has a wide variety of hobbies and is and is intellectually interested in futurism

Re: Sam Altman may control our future – can he be trusted?

#765

Post by tigershark »

jplusequalt wrote: post #714
RealityVoid wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think fundamentally, the concern is misplaced. The fact you need to work for wealth is a convention of our constraints. The change in constraints would lead to other means of distribution. It's easy to see if someone who believes more productivity is good would not see making jobs obsolete a real problem. Thew would see us adapting to the new conditions in a relatively short while.

>Thew would see us adapting to the new conditions in a relatively short while. Say ~5 million jobs in the next 10 years are automated away, which industries do those people move to? With college being exorbitantly expensive, that locks out many people from re-skilling in other fields. As people race to other industries, that forces down wages because now there is a larger pool to select from. How do we ensure people…

If you are speaking about the world, hundreds of millions in the next 5 years is probably closer to reality in my opinion. And from your question I think that you already know the answer.

Re: Sam Altman may control our future – can he be trusted?

#766

Post by pch00 »

mplanchard wrote: post #737
pch00 wrote: post #729

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That M-W entry literally says they're different words with different meanings: > They are in fact different words, but with sufficient overlap in meaning and form as to create uncertainty as to which should be used when. > We define ensure as “to make sure, certain, or safe” and one sense of insure, “to make certain especially by taking necessary measures and precautions,” is quite similar. But insure has the additio…

Definition 2: "to make certain especially by taking necessary measures and precautions" From the article: > He sent the final memos to the other board members as disappearing messages, to insure that no one else would ever see them. > Others were uncomfortable sharing concerns about Altman because they felt there was not a sufficient effort to insure anonymity. > [...] to insure that the technology was deployed safel…

I'm unconvinced but I'll ensure I do my homework before grammar-policing again :)

Re: Sam Altman may control our future – can he be trusted?

#767

Post by [deleted] »

andrewstuart wrote: post #460

Meh. I’m no particular fan of Altman but there’s nothing in this article particularly surprising or terrible. The whole AI safety thing has always seemed extreme to me and has turned out to be a storm in a teacup. All those prominent people who used to tell us how AI will end humanity seem to have stopped talking about it. I get the sense that Altman is not particularly like-able person but Bill Gates and Steve Jobs…

[deleted]

Re: Sam Altman may control our future – can he be trusted?

#768

Post by WarmWash »

arionhardison wrote: post #167
edbaskerville wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give more details? It wouldn't particularly surprise me if Sam Altman were racist, but I'm curious what the specific incident you observed was.

Yes, but first I want to be very clear on some things. 1. I could have hidden my identify behind a throwaway. I did not feel that would be appropriate when making this calim. 2. I am not looking for anything, literally at all. Any follow ups for blogs; anything that would benefit I will not answer. 3. This is NOT a new account, I am very easy to find; I am 6'1 140lbs I was working for a company called NationBuilder a…

Just to clarify, because I am not sure I am reading this correctly:

Your statement that he is terrified of black people is based on you (presumably a black person) running into him outside an event, and him reacting with fear/extreme caution when you approached him?

Not defending Sam, but if that is the case, then it's the kind of thing that Sam can hold up and say "Do you really think my critics are intellectually honest?"

Rock solid evidence is what brings people down. Stretched truths, assumptions, and careful half-truth wording, are all ammo the accused will use to strengthen their side.

Re: Sam Altman may control our future – can he be trusted?

#769

Post by loloquwowndueo »

LoganDark wrote: post #700
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly what “I have to go out of my way to override” covers, from my comment.

If you don't configure your software when you first start using it, I don't know what to tell you. This shouldn't be "out of your way". You should have set this when you first started using your browser. If you didn't for whatever reason, don't be surprised when autoplaying videos exist.

Dunno man, NOBODY likes auto playing videos, yet creators keep using them for reasons unknown. This is starting to sound a lot like victim blaming. Auto playing videos should not exist, period. End of story.
Post reply on HN