this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2023
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Technology

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[–] makyo@lemmy.world 58 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I hate everything about this: the lack of transparency, the lack of communication, the chaotic back and forth. We don’t know now if the company is now in a better position or worse.

I know it leaves me feeling pretty sick and untrusting about it considering the importance and potential disruptiveness (perhaps extreme) of AI in the coming years.

[–] Bipta@kbin.social 13 points 2 years ago

Same here. I like Sam Altman but if the board removed him for a good reason and he was reinstated because the employees want payouts, humanity could be in big trouble.

[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Given the rumors he was fired based on undisclosed usage of some foreign data scraping company's data, it ain't looking good.

Now that there's big money involved, screw ethics. We don't care how the training data was acquired.

Now that there's big money involved, screw ethics. We don't care how the training data was acquired.

I dont care about ethics here, if the money would be excluded as well.

IF they would live up to their goals they settled for its fine.

But its similar to google, back in the days, with "dont be evil".

[–] devils_advocate@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Can I find out more about these rumors somewhere?

[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 2 points 2 years ago

I've tried to find it but I can't seem to find it. There's been a thread on Lemmy somewhere about it that linked to a thread on Blind where someone claiming to be working at OpenAI having heard that from the board.

But, it's ultimately just rumors, we don't know for sure. But it was at least pretty plausible and what I would expect the board of a very successful AI company to fire the CEO for, since the company is obviously doing really well right now.

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[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I actually like the chaoticness, because I don't like having one small group of people as the self-appointed and de-facto gatekeepers of AI for everyone else. This makes it clear to everyone why it's important to control your own AI resources.

[–] makyo@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm with you there, I just hope the general public come to that realization.

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Just like it did with climate change?

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[–] davel@lemmy.ml 47 points 2 years ago (5 children)

On the one hand, the board was an insane cult of effective altruism / longtermism / LessWrong, so fuck them. But on the other hand, this was a worker revolt for the capitalists, which I guess shouldn’t be surprising since tech workers famously lack class consciousness.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

an insane cult of effective altruism / longtermism / LessWrong

I'm out of the loop. What's the problem with those things?

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 10 points 2 years ago

It's basically the paperclip maximizer combined with human arrogance/hubris. Just skim the criticism sections of the articles linked.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

People are asking what is wrong with these cults. It’s a lot to cover so I won’t try. People who follow the podcasts Tech Won’t Save Us or This Machine Kills will already be familiar with them. Here’s an article relevant to the moment that talks about them a little: Pivot to AI: Replacing Sam Altman with a very small shell script

[–] Majoof@aussie.zone 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Genuinely confused by your first statement (in particular effective altruism). What does that have to do with the board?

Not an attack, just actually clueless.

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[–] Bipta@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's what happens when the wealth is shared with those who make it. Everyone becomes a capitalist.

[–] Eldritch@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago

Actually that's just self interest. Both capitalism and socialism claim to benefit workers. But only socialism has remotely shown to do that to any extent. Capitalist hoarding and speculation is the primary driver of inflation and things like the inafordability of housing.

If you labor for a living, you aren't a capitalist. You're labor.

[–] HairHeel@programming.dev 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

famously lack class consciousness

How much money do you suppose the average OpenAI employee makes? What class do you imagine they’re part of?

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I’m sure the developers make the lower half of six figures, but they still have to sell their labor to survive, so they’re still working class.

I’ve been an SF Bay Area software developer for almost thirty years, so I know them well. I consider us members of the professional–managerial class (PMC). We generally think we’re “above” the working class (we’re not), and so we seldom have any sense of solidarity with the rest of the working class (or even each other), and we think unionization is for those other people and not us.

When Hillary Clinton talked about the “basket of deplorables,” she was talking to her PMC donors & voters about the rest of the working class, and we eat that shit up. Most of my peers have still learned no lessons from her election defeat, preferring to blame debunked RussiaGate conspiracy theories.

[–] Diplomjodler@feddit.de 30 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I guess this will have to do as entertainment until GRRM finishes his damn book.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Any day now! I have a friend that got hyped up every time George published another chapter from WoW, but I just refuse to read any of them. I want a complete book. I’m not sure he’s got any idea of how to finish his own story.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I didn't know he wrote for World of Warcraft

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I know you’re joking, but it stands for Winds of Winter if anyone is confused.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah that’s my feeling as well

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

It's okay, though, we'll have an AI that can do it soon enough.

[–] BitSound@lemmy.world 29 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Man what a clusterfuck. Things still don't really add up based on public info. I'm sure this will be the end of any real attempts at safeguards, but with the board acting the way it did, I don't know that there would've been even without him returning. You know the board fucked up hard when some SV tech bro looks like the good guy.

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[–] davel@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 years ago
[–] OprahsedCreature@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

And the lord is back in his fiefdom

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Because 95% of the people that worked for him demanded it.

[–] OprahsedCreature@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago (6 children)
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[–] Nougat@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What about his deal with Microsoft?

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[–] fragnoli@lemmy.one 4 points 2 years ago

Fucking Kendall Roy on the OpenAi board or something

[–] KinNectar@kbin.run 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I maintain that this had something to do with a disagreement over which commercial applications are permissible for GPT-4, and that Sam Altman somewhere along the line negotiated a deal that allowed some actor to participate in one of the "forbidden applications" by proxy via a seemingly unrelated agreement. I'm talking Financial Forecasting (High Frequency Trading), Military, and Policing/Surveillance. Now that Sam's back and unfettered, I'm guessing we are going to see some of those applications come out into the light.

[–] ultranaut@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Why do you maintain this? None of the details that have come out so far have suggested this, or not that I have seen.

[–] skulblaka@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (3 children)

So where's all the folks coming out of the woodwork to tell us this isn't Technology news, then? They sure want to shit all over the comments whenever Musk is the subject, but here, in this nearly identical situation? Crickets, naturally. I've heard no other single piece of news out of this instance for five days other than the personal schedule of Sam Altman. It was good to hear about what happened once. Now we're on post 63 of the same news.

Don't get me wrong, I dislike Elongated Muskrat as much as the next guy. But there's an extremely vocal minority here that love to invade the comments on every post of anything he's done to cry about how that isn't technology news. I generally like to argue that yes, it is technology news that Twitter has refactored how their verification mark works, or that advertisers are pulling out due to offensively alt-right content being promoted by Muskrat. I also think this situation with Altman is legitimate technology news, I just like to point out hypocrisy when I see it.

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

A wild Elon Musk rant has appeared, complaining about how people are complaining about how Elon Musk is irrelevant, in a thread that has nothing to do with Elon Musk.

I really have no idea how to take this.

[–] brihuang95@sopuli.xyz 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

people should write in their diaries more often

[–] Algaroth@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Pretty sure those became blogs.

[–] maxprime@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 years ago

I see your point but this is completely different. Altman is not on the front page of every news site every day like Elon is, so I’m not sick of looking at his face like I am with Elon.

Also, being fired as CEO of one of the fastest growing (and according to many) one of the most important companies in the world, and then being hired back 3 days later is a pretty big deal and is worthy of my attention. If there are a handful of articles about it, I’m okay with that, at least for now.

[–] ShustOne@lemmy.one 6 points 2 years ago

Why is Elon Musk in this comment? He's not Technology news. Get this content out of here!

Is that what you want? But seriously the only time I see complaining is when it's not actual tech news, just some random ass tweet he put out.

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