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Ben Bernanke Joins Anthropic Oversight Trust

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Re: Ben Bernanke Joins Anthropic Oversight Trust

#81
post #35

He's 72 years old, I'm sure he has the best brains and everyone's best interests in mind. This is exactly what I want to see. I'm sure he will have very good opinions on technology and it's implications.

Hires like these are made for their brand rather than expertise. His job will be to attend galas, schmooze with investors and give legitimacy to the operation. The company will hire others to do the real work.

Re: Ben Bernanke Joins Anthropic Oversight Trust

#82
post #35

He's 72 years old, I'm sure he has the best brains and everyone's best interests in mind. This is exactly what I want to see. I'm sure he will have very good opinions on technology and it's implications.

Yeah, this seems like reputation renting similar to Larry Summers being put on the board of OpenAI, which turned out, um...very well I guess. For different reasons of course.

I guess it's better than him joining OpenAI, where I could see Altman being more "creative" with the books than Amodei. But I just don't Bernanke pushing back or blowing any whistles when things start smelling funny.

Re: Ben Bernanke Joins Anthropic Oversight Trust

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are certainly ecological costs, but in the long run, Earth's life will only survive if an advanced species like ours is able to transport it off the planet before the sun expands and boils away the ocean and atmosphere, in approximately 800 million years.

Fortunately, the rockets for that will be helped along with the GPU capacity to run rocket simulations on. GPUs not being used to run LLMs can be used instead for physics simulations to help make those rockets work.

I'm looking at the second and third order effects of technologies. LLMs massively increase the surplus capacity of human civilization, and it is this surplus capacity enables resources (including human capital) to be expended on developing frontier technologies like rockets that can accelerate the development of space-faring capabilities.

Re: Ben Bernanke Joins Anthropic Oversight Trust

#84
post #35

He's 72 years old, I'm sure he has the best brains and everyone's best interests in mind. This is exactly what I want to see. I'm sure he will have very good opinions on technology and it's implications.

He's just old enough to be part of congress. Give him another decade and he'll be ready to run for president.

Re: Ben Bernanke Joins Anthropic Oversight Trust

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's actually exactly how I feel about Anthropic. They play such a PR game, trying really really hard to be seen as the good guys. It feels as another satirical episode of Silicon Valley. It's very clear they are all money and power motivated while also pretending to do all of this for the good of humanity. I have rarely seen that level of hypocrisy and cultish behavior from leadership and employees there. I would…

The funny thing is it’s so transparent. Like… is that the point? They want us to know how dodgy they are, kind of as a “** you”? Often the point of propaganda is not to convince, it’s to demoralise. On the other hand I could also believe that they live in such a bubble they genuinely don’t understand how it comes across. Add in a non-negligible amount of neurodivergence and maybe that’s the simplest explanation

> On the other hand I could also believe that they live in such a bubble they genuinely don’t understand how it comes across. Add in a non-negligible amount of neurodivergence and maybe that’s the simplest explanation

I mean... if you put a bunch of anti-social people in charge of a dehumanizing technology what do you really expect as the outcome?

Re: Ben Bernanke Joins Anthropic Oversight Trust

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bjarne Stroustrup is 75 years old. I don't think that age per se tells us much.

What's Stroustrup up to these days though?

The C++ documentary released last month was great and featured him a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7tMxzSJ7w

Re: Ben Bernanke Joins Anthropic Oversight Trust

#87

The government response to the ‘08 crisis seems to have worked out better for most big banks (low taxing of negative externalities, growing larger and more profitable), than for regional banks (consolidated) and the bulk of Americans (low median wealth, rising costs of housing/living) Given the data on this[1], this is a confusing choice of hire to ensure AI gains are distributed equitably [1] https://economicprincip…

What gives you the idea that they want to distribute the gains from AI equitably?

Re: Ben Bernanke Joins Anthropic Oversight Trust

#88
post #7

Someone here recently said, “Dishonesty is a core value of Anthropic,” and that aligns with my experience of the company as a user. All their talk about AI safety since the company’s inception now feels like pure theater, given their conduct in everyday operations. It’s a shame how quickly their image has deteriorated.

That's actually exactly how I feel about Anthropic. They play such a PR game, trying really really hard to be seen as the good guys. It feels as another satirical episode of Silicon Valley. It's very clear they are all money and power motivated while also pretending to do all of this for the good of humanity. I have rarely seen that level of hypocrisy and cultish behavior from leadership and employees there. I would…

Palantir is a good guide. Their ad copy is frightening. "we will create the ultimate killers for total domination to make your enemies SUFFER"

Re: Ben Bernanke Joins Anthropic Oversight Trust

#89
post #81
post #35

He's 72 years old, I'm sure he has the best brains and everyone's best interests in mind. This is exactly what I want to see. I'm sure he will have very good opinions on technology and it's implications.

Hires like these are made for their brand rather than expertise. His job will be to attend galas, schmooze with investors and give legitimacy to the operation. The company will hire others to do the real work.

> The company will hire others to do the real work.

For 1/10th the pay, 10x the effort, and 0% of the credit!

Reminds me of Walter Isaacson, the Musk biographer. Supposedly he was hired by an investment bank after he made his fortune, and is a member of the American Philosophical Society [1]. Truly a one of a kind person: a biographer of famous people, an expert on financial markets, and a leading philosopher all at the same time!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Isaacson

Re: Ben Bernanke Joins Anthropic Oversight Trust

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can complain that the economics don't work out for you, but Theranos was a fraud, meaning they didn't have a product. Fable is very much a real thing that I can interact with over the Internet.

Has it ever been proven that the board knew that Theranos was fraudulent? I’m speaking broadly - of course they probably had their own suspicions.

Wouldn't that be exactly the board's fiduciary responsibility? To know?
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