5 ms·

Sam Altman Is Full of Shit

111 points by _tk_ 2y ago

mmastrac 2y ago
Title is a bit inflammatory. It will be interesting to see what happens when big tech starts battling big content again. The two titans of American industry occasionally spar, but it's a bit of a crapshoot who ends up winning -- Google beat the publishers, AI will probably beat them as well, the music industry lost to an overwhelming assault from all sides, but the movie industry has stayed fairly strong. I think that OpenAI might have made a bit of mistake trying to pull a fast one with someone in the motion picture industry. If there's a lot of truth to the story that SJ put out there, it'll cost OpenAI a bit. Long-term this will probably just be a blip and I'd give this story another month before it gets forgotten. Not a huge fan of Sam's antics, but this feels like everyone is a bit hyperfocused on a minor civil/ethics issue (of which there are more, I'm sure).
extr 2y ago
He really is. Listen to the interviews he's given lately, completely content-free, it's like he's GPT-4 himself. Perhaps that's not a fair way to judge someone's character, but even the most buttoned-up corporate mouthpieces comes off as genuine compared to him. It's much much harder to earn back the benefit of the doubt once you've lost it and he's pretty close to losing it entirely.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
zippyman55 2y ago
I have to concur with the title. I had thought he was a decent guy but that was just spin.
jameskilton 2y ago
Lest we also forget WorldCoin, where Sam thinks it's a good idea and ok to scan people's retinas for funny fake internet money. Oh and he decided to start the collection of retinas in sub-Saharan Africa, targeting people who have a higher chance of not knowing what this project really is. A project that has been banned in multiple countries already. Yeah, no, no-one should trust a single thing Sam Altman says or does.
- tim333 2y ago
  As a WorldCoiner it's not that bad. We're happy, Worldcoin is happy. It's only people not involved on forums who seem upset at us. And the odd politician but not actual users.
31337Logic 2y ago
> This was also the week where OpenAI dissolved its team focused on the long-term risks of AI, and Jan Leike, its former co-head, resigned claiming that he disagreed with the "core priorities" of OpenAI's leadership, saying that his team — which, to be clear, dealt with the safety implications of artificial intelligence — was "sailing against the wind" at OpenAI This is more than enough reason to be severely critical of companies that dissolve their ethics committees like this.
drcongo 2y ago
I'm really enjoying this blog. It's nice to know there's someone else out there that doesn't lionise these arseholes. HN can easily make you think otherwise.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
_tk_ 2y ago
How has this submission dropped from the front page to page 9?
- elorant 2y ago
  It could have been flagged by some. The title is quite harsh.
  - 93po 2y ago
    I flagged it because 1. As the general public we don't have the full picture, and Sam Altman (as far as I know) hasn't even had the opportunity to provide his own side to the story. 2. It's inflammatory clickbait 3. It's unkind 4. The author is being reactive, again without the full picture or knowing either person involved
    - CatWChainsaw 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - 93po 2y ago
        This is really unkind and this sort of discourse makes this website increasingly pretty boring to read. Please don't be unkind.
        CatWChainsaw 2y ago
        Addressing the "unkindness" but not the point is also boring. ETA thus far you have only responded to my comment to point out its "unkindness" but have not responded to the other two comments with the same points being made, which I find indicative of a desire to tone police over a desire to evaluate Altman's trustworthiness rationally by considering this most recent incident of duplicitous behavior in the context of all his past incidents of duplicitous behavior. (Like the one you yourself mentioned and proceeded to justify, so maybe you're not the most unbiased or trustworthy person to be moralizing here, actually.)
fudloss 2y ago
It warms my heart to see this sentiment shared more on HN. We're lucky that Scarlett Johansson is such a bad ass. She was the one who led the legal battle for streaming residuals, and now she's behind the first instance of successful push back against these unethical sociopaths. I wish I could thank her.
ahstilde 2y ago
Edward Zitron is on a roll raging against "the man" in tech - google, Facebook, OpenAI. I guess it's good for readership.
danielrm26 2y ago
The possibly good content in this article was ruined by the fact that the author hasn’t seen AI produce anything yet, and completely dismisses AI. His rant extends to all the big players building AI in a way that just seems anti-AI, with Altman being used because he’s topical. In other words I can’t trust the source—even if he might have some actual insights—because he’s outed himself as a hater. Haters hating things isn’t signal.

111 points by _tk_ 2y ago

Title is a bit inflammatory. It will be interesting to see what happens when big tech starts battling big content again. The two titans of American industry occasionally spar, but it's a bit of a crapshoot who ends up winning -- Google beat the publishers, AI will probably beat them as well, the music industry lost to an overwhelming assault from all sides, but the movie industry has stayed fairly strong. I think that OpenAI might have made a bit of mistake trying to pull a fast one with someone in the motion picture industry. If there's a lot of truth to the story that SJ put out there, it'll cost OpenAI a bit. Long-term this will probably just be a blip and I'd give this story another month before it gets forgotten. Not a huge fan of Sam's antics, but this feels like everyone is a bit hyperfocused on a minor civil/ethics issue (of which there are more, I'm sure).

extr 2y ago

He really is. Listen to the interviews he's given lately, completely content-free, it's like he's GPT-4 himself. Perhaps that's not a fair way to judge someone's character, but even the most buttoned-up corporate mouthpieces comes off as genuine compared to him. It's much much harder to earn back the benefit of the doubt once you've lost it and he's pretty close to losing it entirely.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

zippyman55 2y ago

I have to concur with the title. I had thought he was a decent guy but that was just spin.

jameskilton 2y ago

Lest we also forget WorldCoin, where Sam thinks it's a good idea and ok to scan people's retinas for funny fake internet money. Oh and he decided to start the collection of retinas in sub-Saharan Africa, targeting people who have a higher chance of not knowing what this project really is. A project that has been banned in multiple countries already. Yeah, no, no-one should trust a single thing Sam Altman says or does.

tim333 2y ago
As a WorldCoiner it's not that bad. We're happy, Worldcoin is happy. It's only people not involved on forums who seem upset at us. And the odd politician but not actual users.

31337Logic 2y ago

> This was also the week where OpenAI dissolved its team focused on the long-term risks of AI, and Jan Leike, its former co-head, resigned claiming that he disagreed with the "core priorities" of OpenAI's leadership, saying that his team — which, to be clear, dealt with the safety implications of artificial intelligence — was "sailing against the wind" at OpenAI This is more than enough reason to be severely critical of companies that dissolve their ethics committees like this.

drcongo 2y ago

I'm really enjoying this blog. It's nice to know there's someone else out there that doesn't lionise these arseholes. HN can easily make you think otherwise.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

_tk_ 2y ago

How has this submission dropped from the front page to page 9?

elorant 2y ago
It could have been flagged by some. The title is quite harsh.
- 93po 2y ago
  I flagged it because 1. As the general public we don't have the full picture, and Sam Altman (as far as I know) hasn't even had the opportunity to provide his own side to the story. 2. It's inflammatory clickbait 3. It's unkind 4. The author is being reactive, again without the full picture or knowing either person involved
  - CatWChainsaw 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - 93po 2y ago
      This is really unkind and this sort of discourse makes this website increasingly pretty boring to read. Please don't be unkind.
      - CatWChainsaw 2y ago
        Addressing the "unkindness" but not the point is also boring. ETA thus far you have only responded to my comment to point out its "unkindness" but have not responded to the other two comments with the same points being made, which I find indicative of a desire to tone police over a desire to evaluate Altman's trustworthiness rationally by considering this most recent incident of duplicitous behavior in the context of all his past incidents of duplicitous behavior. (Like the one you yourself mentioned and proceeded to justify, so maybe you're not the most unbiased or trustworthy person to be moralizing here, actually.)

fudloss 2y ago

It warms my heart to see this sentiment shared more on HN. We're lucky that Scarlett Johansson is such a bad ass. She was the one who led the legal battle for streaming residuals, and now she's behind the first instance of successful push back against these unethical sociopaths. I wish I could thank her.

ahstilde 2y ago

Edward Zitron is on a roll raging against "the man" in tech - google, Facebook, OpenAI. I guess it's good for readership.

danielrm26 2y ago

The possibly good content in this article was ruined by the fact that the author hasn’t seen AI produce anything yet, and completely dismisses AI. His rant extends to all the big players building AI in a way that just seems anti-AI, with Altman being used because he’s topical. In other words I can’t trust the source—even if he might have some actual insights—because he’s outed himself as a hater. Haters hating things isn’t signal.