Comment by sillysaurusx
6 days ago
Huh? They literally did change the world. The world was one way before ChatGPT, and another way after.
It's not even a question of whether we "believe" him. It's a factual statement. Did you quote the wrong thing?
6 days ago
Huh? They literally did change the world. The world was one way before ChatGPT, and another way after.
It's not even a question of whether we "believe" him. It's a factual statement. Did you quote the wrong thing?
> They literally did change the world.
Yep. Thanks to OpenAI's manipulations, RAM prices are so high that dozens of markets are at risk. Possibly for years.
I could live w/o the changes they've brought.
ref: https://bizety.com/2025/12/28/the-dirty-dram-deal-how-openai...
The most profound way the world has been changed is the all out attack on labor. It doesn't matter if he says he wants to help people if his actions are and have been to hurt them as effectively and thoroughly as his station allows.
That's a different topic entirely, though. The question was "Is it true that Sam's company changed the world?" Anyone who can come up with an answer other than "Yes" is dramatically fooling themselves.
As for whether the change was a good thing, that's debatable. What isn't debatable is whether they've had an effect on the average person. Because the effect has been so profound that it's become routine national news.
GPT is the product-ified version of text transformers, which OpenAI didn't invent or really even contribute to the discovery of.
The world changed with Attention is All You Need, and OpenAI was just an early adopter. The biggest thing OpenAI contributed to the broader industry was their API schema.
The researcher in me appreciates you pointing that out. Still, the people who invented a technology often aren't the ones to make it widespread. The people who make it widespread deserve at least some of the credit, just like Apple got with Xerox's UI. https://blog.prototypr.io/how-xerox-invented-ux-ui-design-ap...
OpenAI can slake themselves tumescent with credit, for all I care. I'm mostly alarmed by how many people think the LLM is OpenAI's invention, and completely misunderstood outside of their walls.
Sam's "we must control AGI" narrative in this post seemingly stems from an egoist attachment to the brand, and not any world-changing executive decisions that he could take credit for.
This sounds like the "acchhshually the iphone wasn't the first touchscreen phone, we had the motorola x34 vr34 t435 that did that one year before". Sure. Does anyone remember that phone? No? Well, the iphone changed the world.
The iPhone was the product-ized version of the smartphone. Smartphones were not a new technology, Apple's implementation of it in the iPhone is not unique. Web browsing, caller ID and MP3 playback were not new or world-changing features for a mobile phone.
"the iPhone changed the world" and "ChatGPT changed the world" are indeed both midwit takes that will get you mocked in technical circles. Both products have a net negative impact on technological progress and directly contribute to the enshittification of their respective market segments.
You must sure live in a bubble.. Do you think ChatGPT has changed things for the majority of people who live on this planet? It has not.
It's changed them for me and everybody around me, and I live in Lake Saint Louis MO. Almost everyone says "yes" when I ask if they've used ChatGPT. That includes my therapist and a random AT&T rep I was calling to cancel my service.
The majority of people on the planet don't affect the outcome of the future. Professionals do, and that's the group with the most noticeable changes.
You can't possibly believe that ChatGPT didn't change the world, can you? I'm genuinely asking here. If someone can believe this when the outcome is this stark, then it discredits every argument that x YC startup didn't change the world.
Jesus did you re-read what you wrote before posting?
perhaps I live in a blue collar bubble but I do not know a single person in my personal and professional circle whose lives haven’t significantly changed with AI. just this week I helped three families setup https://github.com/mimurchison/claude-chief-of-staff because one family set it up. prompts are being shared like bread recipes during C19
I'm sorry I don't think automating your email and calendar is "changing your life significantly".. maybe that's just me.
I'm not denying AI is a great productivity tool, it really is!
But "changing the world" is like... electricity, or clean water, or radio.. things that anyone and everyone can set up and access for themselves.
Not a pay-as-you-go service that you (or most people) can only get from 3 for-profit companies who will only be raising the prices and walling up their gardens as times goes on.
1 reply →
> The world was one way before ChatGPT, and another way after.
If you narrow the scope of "world" to "tech world." In the overwhelming majority of every other sector and profession the impact has been zero. In most non-English speaking parts of the world the impact has been zero.
> It's a factual statement.
The world was one way before Marvel superhero movies and a another way after. That's a factual statement. Did we lose track of value?
This is just false. I live in Vietnam and I see people working and studying with ChatGPT in Vietnamese all the time. You must not live in a non-english country if you think there’s no impact. Everyone here knows about chatgpt.
About 10% of the world uses ChatGPT. About 20% of the world speaks English. Yourself included, which is no surprise, because apparently 40% of Vietnamese possess basic English skills. These numbers are all worth thinking about.
Further 70% of ChatGPT usage is non work related. If it's primary use is as a glorified search engine then what "impact" did it actually have?