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Comment by suddenlybananas

17 hours ago

>Brubeck's comments were weird at face value

This is an odd way to gloss over threats.

I put it like that because of Brubeck's own words on the matter. You're acting like we've gotten email receipts here. I'm not really interested in going over a he-said she-said about strangers.

  • Brubeck has admitted what he said, but claims he immediately retracted it as a "poor choice of words".

    Given Buckmaster's telling, this seems beyond "poor choice of words"... It was a veiled threat, that he then doubled down on with his "If you don’t want me to be nice, then I don’t have to be nice." follow-up.

    **

    I said that if OpenAI released its result in the way proposed I would go public with what happened. The reply was, “Why would you ruin your career?” I replied that I am an academic, and asked why he thought going public would ruin my career. The reply was, “If you don’t want me to be nice, then I don’t have to be nice.”

    **

    FWIW there are also other people on Twitter, such as this DeepMind researcher, saying this is a pattern for Brubeck.

    https://x.com/dheeraj_nagaraj/status/2097266146445774924?s=2...

    • Can you specify what leverage you think Brubeck has over an independent professor's career in order to make threats?

      I see none, and consequently Brubeck's explanation makes more sense to me. I understand he meant these words, which he supposedly retracted on the spot, in a "why would you ruin your career with this behavior / turning down the opportunity I am offering" way.

      You don't think that is the likely explanation?

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