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

OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

mercurynews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 499 posts

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#81

Post by neilv »

DevX101 wrote: post #20

Anyone who's a whistleblower should compile key docs and put it in a "dead man's switch" service that releases your testimony/docs to multiple news agencies in the event of your untimely demise. The company you're whistle blowing against and their major shareholders should know this exists. Also, regularly post public video attesting to you current mental state.

I don't think it's that simple. Imagine that you have nonpublic information that would be harmful to party A.

* Enemies and competitors of A now have an incentive to kill you.

* If the info about A would move the market, someone who would like to profit from knowing the direction and timing now has an incentive to kill you.

* Risks about trustworthiness of this "service". What if the information is released accidentally. What if it's a honeypot for a hedge fund, spy agency, or a "fixer" service.

* You've potentially just flagged yourself as a more imminent threat to A.

* Attacks against loved ones seems to have been a thing. And doesn't trigger your deadman's switch.

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#82

Post by dang »

OutOfHere wrote: post #75
dang wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not that thoughtful. Copyright law is mostly harmful. Apparently he couldn't realize this simple conclusion. " Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[flagged]

The GP comment seems innocuous to me. Taking the thread on a generic tangent about copyright law, spiced with personal putdowns, is clearly not ok.

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#83

Post by lolinder »

bbqfog wrote: post #74
shusaku wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Isn't it the other way around since OpenAI is training their models on news company content? OpenAI has behaved extremely unethical the entire time it has existed. It's very likely there is foul play here, it fits the pattern.

[flagged]

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#84

Post by DevX101 »

aniviacat wrote: post #57
DevX101 wrote: post #20

Anyone who's a whistleblower should compile key docs and put it in a "dead man's switch" service that releases your testimony/docs to multiple news agencies in the event of your untimely demise. The company you're whistle blowing against and their major shareholders should know this exists. Also, regularly post public video attesting to you current mental state.

What would that accomplish? Are you saying they won't kill you because then the documents would be released? So you would never release the documents if they never kill you? Or are you saying you'll do this so the documents are guaranteed to be released, even if you're killed? In that case, why not just publish them right now?

The scenario I described is to ensure the whistleblower being alive or dead has minimal change in impact to the company. If there's a pending case that could wipe billions off a company's market cap and 1 person is a key witness in the outcome...well lots of powerful people now have an incentive if that witness were no longer around.

Why not just publish immediately? Publishing immediately likely violates NDA and could be prosecuted if you're not compelled to testify under oath. This is what Edward Snowden did and he's persona non grata from the US for the rest of his life.

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#85

Post by [deleted] »

BillFranklin wrote: post #60

There are some pretty callous comments on this thread. This is really sad. Suchir was just 26, and graduated from Berkeley 3 years ago. Here’s his personal site: https://suchir.net/ . I think he was pretty brave for standing up against what is generally perceived as an injustice being done by one of the biggest companies in the world, just a few years out of college. I’m not sure how many people in his position would…

[deleted]

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#86

Post by bbqfog »

lolinder wrote: post #83
bbqfog wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it the other way around since OpenAI is training their models on news company content? OpenAI has behaved extremely unethical the entire time it has existed. It's very likely there is foul play here, it fits the pattern.

[flagged]

I wasn't even talking about the copyright issues. I was talking about things like this and Sam Altman's sister's accusations. Things way beyond what any reasonable person would consider moral.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/openais-sam-altman-says-israel...

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#87

Post by lolinder »

BillFranklin wrote: post #60

There are some pretty callous comments on this thread. This is really sad. Suchir was just 26, and graduated from Berkeley 3 years ago. Here’s his personal site: https://suchir.net/ . I think he was pretty brave for standing up against what is generally perceived as an injustice being done by one of the biggest companies in the world, just a few years out of college. I’m not sure how many people in his position would…

I considered writing something more focused on him, but the rampant speculation was only going to get worse if no one pointed out the very intentional misleading implications baked into the headline. I stand by what I wrote, but thank you for adding to it by drawing attention away from the entirely-speculative villains and to the very real person who has died.

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#88

Post by atleastoptimal »

Everyone will naturally speculate about anything current or former OpenAI employees do, whether it’s if they resign, the statements they make, or in this case their own suicide. It’s only fair not to speculate too far given that since there are thousands of current and former OpenAI employees, they are subject to the same conditions as the general population.

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#90

Post by Maxatar »

karlgkk wrote: post #6
recursive wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some do. Some don't. What's the basis for your analysis? Keep in mind that some people actually do kill themselves.

It’s not even released if it’s suicide. Please don’t uselessly speculate until more info is released. My wishes are with his family

How can someone saying that both are possibilities and to not jump to conclusions off of such little info be uselessly speculating? And then you use it as an excuse to exclaim a mostly empty gesture as if all you were interested in was virtue signaling.

Very shameful on your part.

Post reply on HN