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Sam lost the plot for me. He took too many interviews which led me to not trust him. Last straw came with him standing by Anthropic one day then throwing them u

by morcutt 6mo ago

Sam lost the plot for me. He took too many interviews which led me to not trust him. Last straw came with him standing by Anthropic one day then throwing them under the bus the next. He showed little awareness on why that is problematic.

tombert 6mo ago
That's why I changed as well. I got really irritated how Altman tried to get the social credit by having principles, only to change them the moment it was convenient.
jimbokun 6mo ago
I have appreciated Amodei’s brutal honesty about their intentions. On podcasts his attitude is basically “oh yeah all of you are basically fucked our products will take everyone’s jobs in a couple years.” Altman is a lot more coy and comes across as saying what’s politically expedient at any given point in time.
- bayarearefugee 6mo ago
  > On podcasts his attitude is basically “oh yeah all of you are basically fucked our products will take everyone’s jobs in a couple years.” I also appreciate his honesty, and don't really understand why the others don't emulate it because there's no cost to them to be honest. At every level of society we've decided to stick our heads in the sand and pretend like this very large tsunami isn't racing toward the coast, so as someone producing this technology you can be honest (and mostly ignored by people in denial), or be cagey and mistrusted (like Sam Altman).
  - nostrebored 6mo ago
    Because it isn’t honest, it is investor hype that these frontier labs need people to believe despite obviously hitting the sublinear part of the improvement curve. “It’s so dangerous, we’ve reached AGI, we just have to release models that are obviously incapable of abstraction for your safety”
- taurath 6mo ago
  We still think Amodei is honest and his hype recycling is not ultimately incredibly self serving?
- sifar 6mo ago
  Upton Sinclair[1] has something relevant for Amodei. Funnily enough, the same thing can be used against those who criticize his view on AI. I wonder if there is a word for this. [1] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/30/salary/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/30/salary/
palmotea 6mo ago
> Sam lost the plot for me. He took too many interviews which led me to not trust him. Last straw came with him standing by Anthropic one day then throwing them under the bus the next. He showed little awareness on why that is problematic. It should have become clear to all that he was an untrustworthy person when he was fired from OpenAI by its then-board. My understanding is their complaint was he was lying, untrustworthy, and manipulative; and enough stories came out at the time to confirm that.
- morcutt 6mo ago
  Yeah, it likely should have. I've however been on the receiving end of some very odd board behavior and most founders I know have a story or two as well. I don't always take board decisions at face value. Reality is often askew, personality disorders run rampant in places of power, and there can be unknown incentives at play.
saeranv 6mo ago
For me, it was when I found out Greg Brockman's MAGA donations. From wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Brockman#Personal_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Brockman#Personal_life): Brockman and his wife were the biggest donors to Donald Trump's Super PAC, MAGA Inc., in 2025 with each of them donating US$12.5 million. Brockman and his wife also donated $50 million to Leading the Future, a super PAC dedicated to AI deregulation that he helped found with Andreessen Horowitz co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.

by morcutt 6mo ago

tombert 6mo ago

That's why I changed as well. I got really irritated how Altman tried to get the social credit by having principles, only to change them the moment it was convenient.

jimbokun 6mo ago

I have appreciated Amodei’s brutal honesty about their intentions. On podcasts his attitude is basically “oh yeah all of you are basically fucked our products will take everyone’s jobs in a couple years.” Altman is a lot more coy and comes across as saying what’s politically expedient at any given point in time.

bayarearefugee 6mo ago
> On podcasts his attitude is basically “oh yeah all of you are basically fucked our products will take everyone’s jobs in a couple years.” I also appreciate his honesty, and don't really understand why the others don't emulate it because there's no cost to them to be honest. At every level of society we've decided to stick our heads in the sand and pretend like this very large tsunami isn't racing toward the coast, so as someone producing this technology you can be honest (and mostly ignored by people in denial), or be cagey and mistrusted (like Sam Altman).
- nostrebored 6mo ago
  Because it isn’t honest, it is investor hype that these frontier labs need people to believe despite obviously hitting the sublinear part of the improvement curve. “It’s so dangerous, we’ve reached AGI, we just have to release models that are obviously incapable of abstraction for your safety”
taurath 6mo ago
We still think Amodei is honest and his hype recycling is not ultimately incredibly self serving?
sifar 6mo ago
Upton Sinclair[1] has something relevant for Amodei. Funnily enough, the same thing can be used against those who criticize his view on AI. I wonder if there is a word for this. [1] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/30/salary/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/30/salary/

palmotea 6mo ago

> Sam lost the plot for me. He took too many interviews which led me to not trust him. Last straw came with him standing by Anthropic one day then throwing them under the bus the next. He showed little awareness on why that is problematic. It should have become clear to all that he was an untrustworthy person when he was fired from OpenAI by its then-board. My understanding is their complaint was he was lying, untrustworthy, and manipulative; and enough stories came out at the time to confirm that.

morcutt 6mo ago
Yeah, it likely should have. I've however been on the receiving end of some very odd board behavior and most founders I know have a story or two as well. I don't always take board decisions at face value. Reality is often askew, personality disorders run rampant in places of power, and there can be unknown incentives at play.

saeranv 6mo ago

For me, it was when I found out Greg Brockman's MAGA donations. From wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Brockman#Personal_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Brockman#Personal_life): Brockman and his wife were the biggest donors to Donald Trump's Super PAC, MAGA Inc., in 2025 with each of them donating US$12.5 million. Brockman and his wife also donated $50 million to Leading the Future, a super PAC dedicated to AI deregulation that he helped found with Andreessen Horowitz co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.