4 ms·

Because they may turn out like him?

lenerdenator 3y ago
Heh. I'm not a part of the private St. Louis preparatory school and "drop out of Stanford when a VC tells you you're Jesus Christ" set. I doubt any of my potential offspring would be either. No, more because Altman is an even higher form of Silicon Valley creature than we've seen before. This is a segment of society that thinks that you can directly judge something's benefit to humanity based on the IPO it could have, and pretty much nothing else. They create sea changes in society knowing that it's going to be a very rough transition for people who don't have their levels of wealth to deal with the consequences. Previously, seeing was believing. Sure, there was Photoshop and CGI, but pictures aren't as telling as video, and most people didn't have the capital necessary to cook up anything they wanted using CGI. This, though... anyone could make up anything for any reason, with dire consequences. Just spitballing here, what if, say, political campaigns started releasing generated video of opponents in compromising positions with minors? Or videos were posted to social media designed to create a casus belli for a country? It won't matter for the companies making those tools; their stock prices will be fine. Well, at least until the EMP is set off near the data center. I don't want to be responsible for a human being coming up in what is essentially a 100% post-truth world.
- greggsy 3y ago
  > thinks that you can directly judge something's benefit to humanity based on the IPO it could have This is a deliberately cynical perspective along the tiresome ‘evil tech MBA overlord’ trope.
  - silverquiet 3y ago
    I don’t find it cynical enough actually; I always assumed the oligarchs see the proles as barely differentiated units of labor, much like we would see a colony of bees. Certainly that’s the way I’ve been treated for most of my life.
  - lenerdenator 3y ago
    I only adopted this perspective after having worked in a publicly-traded company that was acquired by Oracle, for what it's worth. So blame Larry.
- dkjaudyeqooe 3y ago
  Humans have never needed said technology to lie, deceive and mislead. Ignorance and human nature in general (eg confidence tricks) are a much more powerful weapons at any rate. But the most effective defense remains the same: critical thinking. Sadly, it's not very popular.
  - lenerdenator 3y ago
    I know we all need to think more critically, but existence now throws more situations and decisions at people than the human brain has the ability to deeply ponder and process within a reasonable amount of time. Thus, we either use more primal reactions (like fear) or sum up the decisions in abstractions like profit that aren't nearly the catch-all we pretend they are. That's part of why these technologies are so threatening.
davidmurdoch 3y ago
Because it's going to change the world in drastic ways, and it's very likely that it will be harder, in many ways, for the next generation than it was for us. The kids today will become adults in a world that is mostly foreign to all of us; there won't be precedent to fall back on or wisdom of elders to lean on. They won't recognize this or even mind that this is their reality, as it will just have always been this way for them (and the adults of today will complain about how good things used to be). And the generational cycle will continue.
- dkjaudyeqooe 3y ago
  My god, it's like the AI hype virus has infected your brain and enslaved it. LLMs are not the messiah, they're not the gateway to AGI, they not even that useful given their limitations. They are a very interesting data point on the path to the next data point. The idea that there will be some mass regression due to "AI" is ridiculous. It will only benefit humanity because humanity will learn to harness it for its benefit. (What humans do to other humans with technology is another matter.) Your ancestors made the same specious claims about the horseless carriage, TV, the pill, and countless other creations. The future is unknowable but there is no reason to think the next generation won't be better of than the current generation, just like it's been for many centuries (modulo various wars and disasters).
  - davidmurdoch 3y ago
    You are a bundle of joy, aren't you? You nearly said the same thing I did. Are you just looking for confrontation? Like, what are you trying to get at here? Is Sam Altman himself your personal Lord and Savior and you feel the need to prove it? These advancements will, from the perspective of adults having kids today, make things harder for their children. Just like it is for us now, which is why our parents think computers are hard to understand and also why they think home ownership is just as attainable for today's young adults as it was for them. But our children won't really mind, or even notice these difficulties as they will be very normal to them. Our ancestors were right. For them. Anyway, AI and LLMs will be primarily used to control and manipulate people. But that's not a new concept, it's just going to be more efficient.

Heh. I'm not a part of the private St. Louis preparatory school and "drop out of Stanford when a VC tells you you're Jesus Christ" set. I doubt any of my potential offspring would be either. No, more because Altman is an even higher form of Silicon Valley creature than we've seen before. This is a segment of society that thinks that you can directly judge something's benefit to humanity based on the IPO it could have, and pretty much nothing else. They create sea changes in society knowing that it's going to be a very rough transition for people who don't have their levels of wealth to deal with the consequences. Previously, seeing was believing. Sure, there was Photoshop and CGI, but pictures aren't as telling as video, and most people didn't have the capital necessary to cook up anything they wanted using CGI. This, though... anyone could make up anything for any reason, with dire consequences. Just spitballing here, what if, say, political campaigns started releasing generated video of opponents in compromising positions with minors? Or videos were posted to social media designed to create a casus belli for a country? It won't matter for the companies making those tools; their stock prices will be fine. Well, at least until the EMP is set off near the data center. I don't want to be responsible for a human being coming up in what is essentially a 100% post-truth world.

greggsy 3y ago
> thinks that you can directly judge something's benefit to humanity based on the IPO it could have This is a deliberately cynical perspective along the tiresome ‘evil tech MBA overlord’ trope.
- silverquiet 3y ago
  I don’t find it cynical enough actually; I always assumed the oligarchs see the proles as barely differentiated units of labor, much like we would see a colony of bees. Certainly that’s the way I’ve been treated for most of my life.
- lenerdenator 3y ago
  I only adopted this perspective after having worked in a publicly-traded company that was acquired by Oracle, for what it's worth. So blame Larry.
dkjaudyeqooe 3y ago
Humans have never needed said technology to lie, deceive and mislead. Ignorance and human nature in general (eg confidence tricks) are a much more powerful weapons at any rate. But the most effective defense remains the same: critical thinking. Sadly, it's not very popular.
- lenerdenator 3y ago
  I know we all need to think more critically, but existence now throws more situations and decisions at people than the human brain has the ability to deeply ponder and process within a reasonable amount of time. Thus, we either use more primal reactions (like fear) or sum up the decisions in abstractions like profit that aren't nearly the catch-all we pretend they are. That's part of why these technologies are so threatening.

davidmurdoch 3y ago

Because it's going to change the world in drastic ways, and it's very likely that it will be harder, in many ways, for the next generation than it was for us. The kids today will become adults in a world that is mostly foreign to all of us; there won't be precedent to fall back on or wisdom of elders to lean on. They won't recognize this or even mind that this is their reality, as it will just have always been this way for them (and the adults of today will complain about how good things used to be). And the generational cycle will continue.

dkjaudyeqooe 3y ago
My god, it's like the AI hype virus has infected your brain and enslaved it. LLMs are not the messiah, they're not the gateway to AGI, they not even that useful given their limitations. They are a very interesting data point on the path to the next data point. The idea that there will be some mass regression due to "AI" is ridiculous. It will only benefit humanity because humanity will learn to harness it for its benefit. (What humans do to other humans with technology is another matter.) Your ancestors made the same specious claims about the horseless carriage, TV, the pill, and countless other creations. The future is unknowable but there is no reason to think the next generation won't be better of than the current generation, just like it's been for many centuries (modulo various wars and disasters).
- davidmurdoch 3y ago
  You are a bundle of joy, aren't you? You nearly said the same thing I did. Are you just looking for confrontation? Like, what are you trying to get at here? Is Sam Altman himself your personal Lord and Savior and you feel the need to prove it? These advancements will, from the perspective of adults having kids today, make things harder for their children. Just like it is for us now, which is why our parents think computers are hard to understand and also why they think home ownership is just as attainable for today's young adults as it was for them. But our children won't really mind, or even notice these difficulties as they will be very normal to them. Our ancestors were right. For them. Anyway, AI and LLMs will be primarily used to control and manipulate people. But that's not a new concept, it's just going to be more efficient.