5 ms·

Why is Sam Altman so obsessed with 'Her'? An investigation

26 points by grugagag 2y ago

metadat 2y ago
> Finally, Altman’s admiration is also a bit puzzling in that the AIs don’t ever really do anything amazing for society, even while they’re here. They distract lonely people for a while, fuck them, and vanish onto another plane of existence. That’s shaping up to be an increasingly plausible trajectory for OpenAI, too. Scathing.
- nephronaut 2y ago
  What an intriguing viewpoint! Never crossed my mind
- throwaway5959 2y ago
  Oh so the Elon trajectory.
ein0p 2y ago
Altman: mentions “Her” once on Twitter The guy nobody has ever heard of: “why is he so obsessed” Really, folks? Slow news day?
- atombender 2y ago
  You left out that Altman also just launched a real-world version of the AI featured in the film, including replicating the lead actor's voice without her consent. I'm not sure that qualifies as obsessed, but there's no doubt that he is aiming to specifically imitate the vision of the film, and ignoring (as the article points out) the irony of trying to replicate an AI that, in the end, abandons humanity.
  - ein0p 2y ago
    But it’s not the same voice, and it’s not “AI featured in the film”. GPT4 is not designed to sustain romantic relationships with humans, nor is it an “operating system”
    - atombender 2y ago
      The AI in the film is not designed to sustain romantic relationships either. It's sold as a "virtual assistant" that helps you on your computer. The original Sky voice (which was changed) is arguably as close as you can get to a synthetic Scarlett Johansson voice.
- sillyfluke 2y ago
  You can take issue with "obsessed", but it's a bit disingenuous to go to other end of the spectrum and misrepresent the entirety of the facts. In the least, Altman made it a product priority to strive for replicating the AI "experience" illustrated in the movie. How do you we know this? He first approached the actual actor voicing the AI in the movie way before the product launch.
  - ein0p 2y ago
    That’s one version of events, and the “made it product priority” part is not supported by evidence. What I think is more likely: they hired a voice actress that sounds like a “California woman of indeterminate age” and when the resulting model came out someone noticed that this sounds sort of like Johansson with a lot less vocal fry and decided to try and pay her off so she doesn’t raise hell.
    - metadat 2y ago
      > That’s one version of events, and the “made it product priority” part is not supported by evidence. What I think is more likely: they hired a voice actress that sounds like a “California woman of indeterminate age” and when the resulting model came out someone noticed that this sounds sort of like Johansson with a lot less vocal fry and decided to try and pay her off so she doesn’t raise hell. What are you talking about? The facts are: (1) OpenAI reached out to ScarJo initially and she declined. (2) They then reached out again a second time 2 days before ChatGPT-4o launched and she didn't respond. (3) OpenAI proceeded with the launch anyway.
      - ein0p 2y ago
        Did they reach out to her before or after hiring the voice artist for their TTS model? Credible sources suggest it was after. Do you think they’re stupid enough to use the actual voice of an A list actress without her permission? Before you answer, remember that we’re talking about one of the smartest teams ever assembled in the history of our species.

26 points by grugagag 2y ago

> Finally, Altman’s admiration is also a bit puzzling in that the AIs don’t ever really do anything amazing for society, even while they’re here. They distract lonely people for a while, fuck them, and vanish onto another plane of existence. That’s shaping up to be an increasingly plausible trajectory for OpenAI, too. Scathing.

nephronaut 2y ago
What an intriguing viewpoint! Never crossed my mind
throwaway5959 2y ago
Oh so the Elon trajectory.

ein0p 2y ago

Altman: mentions “Her” once on Twitter The guy nobody has ever heard of: “why is he so obsessed” Really, folks? Slow news day?

atombender 2y ago
You left out that Altman also just launched a real-world version of the AI featured in the film, including replicating the lead actor's voice without her consent. I'm not sure that qualifies as obsessed, but there's no doubt that he is aiming to specifically imitate the vision of the film, and ignoring (as the article points out) the irony of trying to replicate an AI that, in the end, abandons humanity.
- ein0p 2y ago
  But it’s not the same voice, and it’s not “AI featured in the film”. GPT4 is not designed to sustain romantic relationships with humans, nor is it an “operating system”
  - atombender 2y ago
    The AI in the film is not designed to sustain romantic relationships either. It's sold as a "virtual assistant" that helps you on your computer. The original Sky voice (which was changed) is arguably as close as you can get to a synthetic Scarlett Johansson voice.
sillyfluke 2y ago
You can take issue with "obsessed", but it's a bit disingenuous to go to other end of the spectrum and misrepresent the entirety of the facts. In the least, Altman made it a product priority to strive for replicating the AI "experience" illustrated in the movie. How do you we know this? He first approached the actual actor voicing the AI in the movie way before the product launch.
- ein0p 2y ago
  That’s one version of events, and the “made it product priority” part is not supported by evidence. What I think is more likely: they hired a voice actress that sounds like a “California woman of indeterminate age” and when the resulting model came out someone noticed that this sounds sort of like Johansson with a lot less vocal fry and decided to try and pay her off so she doesn’t raise hell.
  - metadat 2y ago
    > That’s one version of events, and the “made it product priority” part is not supported by evidence. What I think is more likely: they hired a voice actress that sounds like a “California woman of indeterminate age” and when the resulting model came out someone noticed that this sounds sort of like Johansson with a lot less vocal fry and decided to try and pay her off so she doesn’t raise hell. What are you talking about? The facts are: (1) OpenAI reached out to ScarJo initially and she declined. (2) They then reached out again a second time 2 days before ChatGPT-4o launched and she didn't respond. (3) OpenAI proceeded with the launch anyway.
    - ein0p 2y ago
      Did they reach out to her before or after hiring the voice artist for their TTS model? Credible sources suggest it was after. Do you think they’re stupid enough to use the actual voice of an A list actress without her permission? Before you answer, remember that we’re talking about one of the smartest teams ever assembled in the history of our species.