Both articles are practically useless. All they do is reprint statements from either side, neither of which is concrete about the specifics of what supposedly happened. I.e. OpenAI says they "confirmed that these individuals mishandled sensitive information outside established company procedures".
What sensitive information? Mishandled how? Which company procedures? It's all utterly vague and impossible for an outsider to form any opinion on. All people can do is guess and apply their own pre-existing opinions. E.g. if you don't like OpenAI, you assume they're lying. Who's to say they're not? There's no solid evidence provided either way.
What I really want is journalists who do the legwork to get to the bottom of stories like this: Establish sources inside the company and use them to report on the real details of what's happened, triangulating multiple accounts and leaked documents to back-up or invalidate either side's claims. Without any of that, these stories are just gossip.
I was referring to longtermism and transhumanism which are actually super popular among AI safety crowd. Basically, you do not worry all that much about currently living people. If they suffer or die, it does not matter much. Climate change now does not matter, lies or radicalization does not matter, suicides, hacks what have you does not matter.
What does matter is super long term view. If godlike AI in the future makes remaining people super super happy and makes them merge with tech to evolve and go to the stars, you have won. That matters more then short term nonsense like "people now".
You worry about godlike AI either not emerging at all or emerging as a bad god. That is safety.
Leopold Aschenbrenner said the exact same thing after he was fired from OpenAI. It's a great excuse to explain a sudden loss of employment to others so you're still employable.
It's probably the case they are all lying to some extent including OpenAI. Determining the truth is always tricky. Hard to pass judgement here when it's all just he said vs she said.
I think when it is one at a time, that's reasonable to suspect.
But the odds of three people working on the same thing, and it is the riskiest, most publicly embarrassing event in the company's history? So, all three of those people just happened to "do something" to get themselves fired at once?
Seems they're well aware they got fired for sharing private company information with 3rd parties, the submission article contains their admission of this:
> Those of us who work on safety see risks before anyone else, and we rely on close collaboration with outside experts to work out how to address them
I too see it as my life-given goal to help other humans. But I realize that sometimes this means breaking the rules and standing for the consequences of that. I'm not sure why they think OpenAI somehow would be OK with them sharing private company information with random 3rd parties that the company didn't approve sharing data with.
Soon you will learn on HN that they fired themselves as part of a marketing campaign before IPO.
which is true
Evidence?
A year ago I’d have made the joke that someone would say
“AI companies solve millennium problem to do hype marketing and cash in IPO before the bubble pops”.
But it’s not a joke. This was and is a very common sentiment.
[flagged]
2 replies →
The BBC link is fine, but the TechCrunch article contains all of that information and more.
Except, the BBC headline is more respectful and clear as to what happened..TC is a bit vague
Both articles are practically useless. All they do is reprint statements from either side, neither of which is concrete about the specifics of what supposedly happened. I.e. OpenAI says they "confirmed that these individuals mishandled sensitive information outside established company procedures".
What sensitive information? Mishandled how? Which company procedures? It's all utterly vague and impossible for an outsider to form any opinion on. All people can do is guess and apply their own pre-existing opinions. E.g. if you don't like OpenAI, you assume they're lying. Who's to say they're not? There's no solid evidence provided either way.
What I really want is journalists who do the legwork to get to the bottom of stories like this: Establish sources inside the company and use them to report on the real details of what's happened, triangulating multiple accounts and leaked documents to back-up or invalidate either side's claims. Without any of that, these stories are just gossip.
Why do we care about the composition of the headlines?
1 reply →
Ok, but considering how weird definitions of "safety" are floating out of these companies, it does not mean much.
I guess I'll ask what weird definitions of safety you've been seeing.
There's at least three major things that have been described as safety:
1) Won't end humanity. 2) Won't tell users to kill themselves. 3) Won't leak your corporate secrets to competitors.
2 replies →
I was referring to longtermism and transhumanism which are actually super popular among AI safety crowd. Basically, you do not worry all that much about currently living people. If they suffer or die, it does not matter much. Climate change now does not matter, lies or radicalization does not matter, suicides, hacks what have you does not matter.
What does matter is super long term view. If godlike AI in the future makes remaining people super super happy and makes them merge with tech to evolve and go to the stars, you have won. That matters more then short term nonsense like "people now".
You worry about godlike AI either not emerging at all or emerging as a bad god. That is safety.
1 reply →
Leopold Aschenbrenner said the exact same thing after he was fired from OpenAI. It's a great excuse to explain a sudden loss of employment to others so you're still employable.
It's probably the case they are all lying to some extent including OpenAI. Determining the truth is always tricky. Hard to pass judgement here when it's all just he said vs she said.
I think when it is one at a time, that's reasonable to suspect.
But the odds of three people working on the same thing, and it is the riskiest, most publicly embarrassing event in the company's history? So, all three of those people just happened to "do something" to get themselves fired at once?
For you it is embarrassing. For Ed Zitronites it is embarrassing for them. Because their premise lied on not AI being powerful but incapable.
Seems they're well aware they got fired for sharing private company information with 3rd parties, the submission article contains their admission of this:
> Those of us who work on safety see risks before anyone else, and we rely on close collaboration with outside experts to work out how to address them
I too see it as my life-given goal to help other humans. But I realize that sometimes this means breaking the rules and standing for the consequences of that. I'm not sure why they think OpenAI somehow would be OK with them sharing private company information with random 3rd parties that the company didn't approve sharing data with.
To be fair that is nearly exactly how openai makes its money. What's good for the gander is good for the goose.
Where is the admission?
"we rely on close collaboration with outside experts "
1 reply →
[dead]