4 ms·
> Helen Toner was a relatively unknown 31-year-old academic from Australia—until she became one of the four board members who fired Sam Altman > Toner graduate
by angarg12 3y ago
> Helen Toner was a relatively unknown 31-year-old academic from Australia—until she became one of the four board members who fired Sam Altman
> Toner graduated from the University of Melbourne, Australia, in 2014 with a degree in chemical engineering [...] In 2019, she spent nine months in Beijing studying its AI ecosystem. When she returned, Toner helped establish a research organization at Georgetown University, called the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, [...] She succeeded her former manager from Open Philanthropy, Holden Karnofsky, on the OpenAI board in 2021 after he stepped down.
Honest question, how do people find themselves in the board of one of the hottest startups at the tender age of 31? Are they geniuses or is it all about connections?
- Angostura 3y agoIt wasn't very hot in 2021
- reducesuffering 3y agoThese people took chances on their belief in the future, that AGI was coming and monumentally impactful, back in 2015 when the entirety of people on HN mocked and derided it. Even in 2023, the majority do.
- mrlatinos 3y agoHer father: http://www.toner-assoc.com.au/Consultants.htm http://www.toner-assoc.com.au/Consultants.htm Her brothers: https://www.vesparum.com/origins https://www.vesparum.com/origins So the short answer is wealth and connections, or daddy.
- rurban 3y agoOr intelligence. Looking at her career and papers sounds like being in the intelligence business, not nepo. AI safety is military intelligence only
- kj4211cash 3y agoRight place, right time. She was one of very few people "working" on AI Safety. I made another comment about this elsewhere on this post, but to me this debacle is a function of the fact that there is no there there when it comes to AI Safety "research".
- 0xDEAFBEAD 3y agoI encourage anyone who thinks there is "no there there" to, for example, glance over this preprint and some of its references: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2310.17688.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/2310.17688.pdf
- 627467 3y agoHer profile - as you state - checks lots of boxes: concerned highly credentialed young woman interested in an emerging field that is part of china-us battleground. Would look great on any corporate brochure