Today's newsletter is about the battle for the future of OpenAI - how we got to this point, what happened so far, what happens next, and how this has become a battle between the growth-at-all-costs VCs and those who want a sustainable future for tech. tinyurl.com/wyat112023 - ThreadSky

edzitron.com • 475 days ago

Today's newsletter is about the battle for the future of OpenAI - how we got to this point, what happened so far, what happens next, and how this has become a battle between the growth-at-all-costs VCs and those who want a sustainable future for tech.
https://tinyurl.com/wyat112023

Comments

grogofgrog.bsky.social•471 days ago

https://nitter.net/emilymbender/status/1727922270855930354

interesting read on ai hype

theycallmemorty.bsky.social•475 days ago

World class headline

edzitron.com•475 days ago

Over the weekend, OpenAI - arguably the most important and significant AI company in the world - fired its CEO Sam Altman. They did so because OpenAI is controlled by a non-profit board of people without equity - and investors, theoretically, have no say.
https://tinyurl.com/wyat112023

edzitron.com•475 days ago

As of yet we still don't know why Altman was fired beyond a supposed lack of honesty with the board, though rumblings suggested that it vaguely had something to do with Sam using OpenAI's name to raise money for an AI chip company.
https://tinyurl.com/wyat112023

edzitron.com•475 days ago

OpenAI's vision is an average general intelligence that benefits humanity, which doesn't gel well with Silicon Valley's growth-at-all-costs model. And Altman has masterminded a cash-chewing unprofitable monster dependent on venture-backed welfare.
https://tinyurl.com/wyat112023

edzitron.com•475 days ago

There are other reasons that could've come into play. OpenAI is in crisis - competitors are growing, they are getting undercut, and Altman is clearly looking to build other companies outside of OpenAI's non-profit vision.
https://tinyurl.com/wyat112023

edzitron.com•475 days ago

This weekend began a reckoning where the venture community is forced to consider that the only thing that grows forever is cancer, one where their symbolic leader was torn down by those who don't want to burn money forever.

Altman is the e/acc martyr.
https://tinyurl.com/wyat112023

edzitron.com•475 days ago

What happens to OpenAI now isn't clear- Altman may join Microsoft, and OpenAI may see mass resignations. Altman was also OpenAI's master fundraiser and recuiter, and the former CEO of Twitch will have trouble rivaling the AI Barnum circus that Altman runs.
https://tinyurl.com/wyat112023

junlper.beer•475 days ago

the sam altman drama has genuinwly been so comical what a shit show of a company lol

xaviersonline.bsky.social•475 days ago

hi ooomfie

mikesand.bsky.social•475 days ago

Even the pro-AI tech people are saying this

edzitron.com•475 days ago

Bad year for Sams. First you got Sam bankman fried. Then Sam Altman. Did Sam smith do something? Probably.

shutupian.bsky.social•475 days ago

More like Sam bankman locked up amirite?

russbengtson.bsky.social•475 days ago

you're telling me sam fried this bankman?

edzitron.com•475 days ago

Yes

odannyboy.bsky.social•475 days ago

Someone keep an eye on Sam Elliott

canyounotmydude.bsky.social•475 days ago

The only thing Sam Smith did this year was release a pretty mid album in January and an okay song with Charlie XCX more recently.

dmleathley.bsky.social•474 days ago

They wore that massive jump suit thing at the Brit awards, ridiculed by all those people who forgot that wearing outlandish clothes is one role of a pop star.

josepho.bsky.social•474 days ago

Gonna use AI to write the docudrama and sell it to Hulu.

andres.rive.ro•474 days ago

It probably wouldn’t surprise anyone that this shitshow has Elons fingerprints all over it

fjerome.bsky.social•475 days ago

The worst people in the world are taking a victory lap on this

anyfreshfry.bsky.social•475 days ago

Something really ironic about a company who's main goal is to replace workers may disintegrate because their workers are leaving.

mcbarnicle.bsky.social•474 days ago

"cash-chewing unprofitable monster dependent on venture-backed welfare." 10/10

mhudson-illustration.com•475 days ago

Also, I really enjoyed you on Behind the Bastards, btw!

edzitron.com•475 days ago

Thank you so much! I'm so happy people liked it!

mhudson-illustration.com•475 days ago

I have generally seen it reported that OpenAI started as a non-profit and was eventually forced to pivot to revenue generation, but I have to say that as a professional artist, it seemed awfully convenient that they were hiding behind “fair use” as a “non profit” /1

mhudson-illustration.com•475 days ago

just aiming to train a harmless little learning model when they needed the plausible justification for stealing our art and data, but once they had it, suddenly they converted to a profit-seeking model and claimed they had no other option.

mhudson-illustration.com•475 days ago

It’s just so convenient that it doesn’t feel accidental, it feels like it was planned that way, but I don’t really know—as the tech bros would say, I’m just a dumb artist.

petersterne.com•474 days ago

Is it really a battle between growth-at-all-costs VCs and those who want a sustainable future for death or is it a battle between growth-at-all-costs VCs and effective altruist doomers who think the Terminator is the most important threat for society?

eke.bsky.social•475 days ago

this was helpful, considering how strange and arcane this whole thing has been, thanks for writing. feels like trying to understand the inner workings of the vatican but dumber

leigh-chantelle.bsky.social•475 days ago

Best heading for the OpenAI drama so far, @zitron.bsky.social!

davidgerard.co.uk•475 days ago

McCauley is Effective Ventures, but Toner was a speaker at EA Global in 2019 and is on some other EA board or other https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9SukBgSxyE The only one i couldn't find a smoking gun link for was D'Angelo

edzitron.com•475 days ago

it's a stretch

sharphall.org•475 days ago

Helen Toner worked for Open Philanthropy, "a research and grantmaking foundation that makes grants based on the doctrine of effective altruism" (wikipedia) and works for CSET, founded by an Open Phil grant. It doesn't get more EA than that, short of working for "the centre for effective altruism."

edzitron.com•475 days ago

where has any of that applied to this situation, though? Can you show me one shred of evidence that this is an EA thing versus either some combination of fear of growing too fast and complete dipshit moves? There is no EA in the original non-profit charter or anything

sharphall.org•475 days ago

I wasn't making that argument. Your post says there were no other individuals with any links to EA.

davidgerard.co.uk•474 days ago

You argued these people had nothing to do with EA though, and that's simply incorrect

davidgerard.co.uk•474 days ago

my own claim is that these people are part of the same AI doom cult whichever angle you come at it from, and I do think that's a lot of the weirdness going on here

Toner is also an AI doomer fwiw

EA is relevant because *it's the same cult*

midofo.bsky.social•474 days ago

It isn't really https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/11/21/helen-toner-australian-openai-board-member-sam-altman/

crumbleneedy.bsky.social•474 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/hugemantis.bsky.social/post/3kepkjmhm6d2u

davidgerard.co.uk•475 days ago

"toner effective altruism" turns up plenty of her being guts deep into this stuff, i am confident in calling her a dyed in the wool EA cultist

davidgerard.co.uk•475 days ago

open philanthropy project, givewell ...

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply