5 ms·

The article refers to Tech Twitter, and that’s where the sexism is. People on Twitter are making degrading memes of her and posting weird, creepy, harassing co

The article refers to Tech Twitter, and that’s where the sexism is. People on Twitter are making degrading memes of her and posting weird, creepy, harassing comments like this: “Why does Helen Toner have shelf tits” https://x.com/smolfeelshaver/status/1726073304136450511?s=46 https://x.com/smolfeelshaver/status/1726073304136450511?s=46 Search for “Helen Toner” on Twitter and you will see she is being singled out for bullying by a bunch of weird creepy white dudes who I guess apparently work in tech. > I think the AI safety community is a little early and notoriety therein probably isn’t sufficient to qualify somebody to direct an $80 bn company. Normally you’d be right. In the specific case of OpenAI, however, their charter requires safety to be the number one priority of their directors, higher than making money or providing stable employment or anything else that a large company normally prioritizes. This is from OpenAI’s site: “each director must perform their fiduciary duties in furtherance of its mission—safe AGI that is broadly beneficial” https://openai.com/our-structure https://openai.com/our-structure

tg180 3y ago
In my opinion... If you want to be the titan of an industry and do things that put you at the center of media attention, you have to expect comments of this kind and not be surprised when they happen. Whether you are a man, a woman or anybody else. If you don't expect "not very nice" or ambivalent reactions from people, you are an amateur and you shouldn't be in the board of such a prominent company.
- upwardbound 3y ago
  True. I just think it’s messed up that she is equally qualified for this specific board (given the unusual fiduciary duty definition defined in the OpenAI charter I linked above) as e.g. Adam D’Angelo, and I don’t see a bunch of creepy people [note: I edited this part because fsckboy made a good point] hating on him despite him also being part of this same exact power struggle. What does founding Quora have to do with developing safe, beneficial AGI? If anything, Adam seems like more of a token board member than Helen, in that Adam is “token rich dude from early days at Google or Facebook”.
  - tg180 3y ago
    Being at the forefront of the development of new technologies means that you are sailing uncharted territory. It's my belief that in cases like this, previous qualifications are almost irrelevant. Of course you have to be competent on the subject matter, work hard, iterate and have luck.
  - fsckboy 3y ago
    >...creepy white dudes annnnd you just shredded your credibility with some casual bigotry
    - upwardbound 3y ago
      You’re right. I’m sorry for that blunder and I edited my comment to correct it.
    - optimalsolver 3y ago
      Why? He was right on the money.
      - TeMPOraL 3y ago
        Because despite a sudden popularity of viewing white people as sub-human or non-human, they are in fact human, and this made that remark explicitly sexist and racist.
  - lovich 3y ago
    He does seem token in that regard but it was a known quality of tokenism. Being a founder of Quora and a CTO at Facebook has enough cache to explain being on the board of directors for another tech company. I took Tasha and Helen being grouped together happening not due to being women but due to being relatively unknown
  - yallneedtoget 3y ago
    [flagged]
  - jacquesm 3y ago
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
samirillian 3y ago
I agreed with you up until I looked her up. Then Tasha McCauley, who I forgot was Joseph Gordon-Levitt's wife. Shivon Zillis, Elon Musk's whatever that is. So these three plus Mira Murati make 4 for 4 hot women governing OpenAI. I'm not a Data Scientist but that's a pattern. Not one ugly woman who has a concept of AI governance? Not one single George Elliot-looking genius?
- siva7 3y ago
  I noticed this too but it's easily explainable as a coincidence so calling it a pattern is a bit far stretched, especially when at least two of them have subject creds.
  - samirillian 3y ago
    Oh I def think it's a pattern but I don't know that it's a bad pattern. Honestly, being married to Joseph Gordon-Levitt is probably a good sign.
- yowzadave 3y ago
  Have you also mentally slotted all of the male board members into “hot” or “not” categories, or is this a treatment that only the women get?
  - samirillian 3y ago
    Honestly, maybe you're right and they're all hot, but I'm not attracted to men so I can't really say. I would be surprised if women/et al found Altman or Sutskever physically attractive but who knows maybe they are kinda cute. What do you think? Are you claiming that physical appearance has nothing to do with politics, or that we just shouldn't comment on it? I think it's pretty obvious that the OpenAI men aren't too attractive by most standards, as opposed to say US presidents, who are mostly sexually attractive.
- gettodachoppa 3y ago
  "hot women", not quite, they're just not ugly. Women are socially allowed to use artificial means to greatly improve their appearance. I'm referring to makeup and expensive hair treatments. Women from upper-middle or upper classes have even more of an advantage in using these. So if you're a thin woman, unless you were unlucky enough to be born disfigured, you're a single afternoon away of looking like a movie star. If Sam Altman was socially allowed to wear makeup and a wig, you'd call him a heartthrob.
wincy 3y ago
Okay some guy posted that with literally no likes? “Weird loner is weird on the internet, gets no engagement, news at 11”
nemo44x 3y ago
That’s a tweet with <500 views, a number of which I assume is because you linked it. > weird creepy white dudes… This is racism. And sexist. How do you know it’s white people or dudes?
- upwardbound 3y ago
  I don’t know about this tweet’s author. I mean that most of the people slandering her on Twitter are white men based on their profile pictures. But you’re right that I still shouldn’t stereotype; I’m sorry.

tg180 3y ago

In my opinion... If you want to be the titan of an industry and do things that put you at the center of media attention, you have to expect comments of this kind and not be surprised when they happen. Whether you are a man, a woman or anybody else. If you don't expect "not very nice" or ambivalent reactions from people, you are an amateur and you shouldn't be in the board of such a prominent company.

upwardbound 3y ago
True. I just think it’s messed up that she is equally qualified for this specific board (given the unusual fiduciary duty definition defined in the OpenAI charter I linked above) as e.g. Adam D’Angelo, and I don’t see a bunch of creepy people [note: I edited this part because fsckboy made a good point] hating on him despite him also being part of this same exact power struggle. What does founding Quora have to do with developing safe, beneficial AGI? If anything, Adam seems like more of a token board member than Helen, in that Adam is “token rich dude from early days at Google or Facebook”.
- tg180 3y ago
  Being at the forefront of the development of new technologies means that you are sailing uncharted territory. It's my belief that in cases like this, previous qualifications are almost irrelevant. Of course you have to be competent on the subject matter, work hard, iterate and have luck.
- fsckboy 3y ago
  >...creepy white dudes annnnd you just shredded your credibility with some casual bigotry
  - upwardbound 3y ago
    You’re right. I’m sorry for that blunder and I edited my comment to correct it.
  - optimalsolver 3y ago
    Why? He was right on the money.
    - TeMPOraL 3y ago
      Because despite a sudden popularity of viewing white people as sub-human or non-human, they are in fact human, and this made that remark explicitly sexist and racist.
- lovich 3y ago
  He does seem token in that regard but it was a known quality of tokenism. Being a founder of Quora and a CTO at Facebook has enough cache to explain being on the board of directors for another tech company. I took Tasha and Helen being grouped together happening not due to being women but due to being relatively unknown
- yallneedtoget 3y ago
  [flagged]
- jacquesm 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

samirillian 3y ago

I agreed with you up until I looked her up. Then Tasha McCauley, who I forgot was Joseph Gordon-Levitt's wife. Shivon Zillis, Elon Musk's whatever that is. So these three plus Mira Murati make 4 for 4 hot women governing OpenAI. I'm not a Data Scientist but that's a pattern. Not one ugly woman who has a concept of AI governance? Not one single George Elliot-looking genius?

siva7 3y ago
I noticed this too but it's easily explainable as a coincidence so calling it a pattern is a bit far stretched, especially when at least two of them have subject creds.
- samirillian 3y ago
  Oh I def think it's a pattern but I don't know that it's a bad pattern. Honestly, being married to Joseph Gordon-Levitt is probably a good sign.
yowzadave 3y ago
Have you also mentally slotted all of the male board members into “hot” or “not” categories, or is this a treatment that only the women get?
- samirillian 3y ago
  Honestly, maybe you're right and they're all hot, but I'm not attracted to men so I can't really say. I would be surprised if women/et al found Altman or Sutskever physically attractive but who knows maybe they are kinda cute. What do you think? Are you claiming that physical appearance has nothing to do with politics, or that we just shouldn't comment on it? I think it's pretty obvious that the OpenAI men aren't too attractive by most standards, as opposed to say US presidents, who are mostly sexually attractive.
gettodachoppa 3y ago
"hot women", not quite, they're just not ugly. Women are socially allowed to use artificial means to greatly improve their appearance. I'm referring to makeup and expensive hair treatments. Women from upper-middle or upper classes have even more of an advantage in using these. So if you're a thin woman, unless you were unlucky enough to be born disfigured, you're a single afternoon away of looking like a movie star. If Sam Altman was socially allowed to wear makeup and a wig, you'd call him a heartthrob.

wincy 3y ago

Okay some guy posted that with literally no likes? “Weird loner is weird on the internet, gets no engagement, news at 11”

nemo44x 3y ago

That’s a tweet with <500 views, a number of which I assume is because you linked it. > weird creepy white dudes… This is racism. And sexist. How do you know it’s white people or dudes?

upwardbound 3y ago
I don’t know about this tweet’s author. I mean that most of the people slandering her on Twitter are white men based on their profile pictures. But you’re right that I still shouldn’t stereotype; I’m sorry.