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The Pentagon has its eye on the leading AI company, which this week softened its ban on military use.

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[-] funkforager@sh.itjust.works 280 points 11 months ago

Remember when open ai was a nonprofit first and foremost, and we were supposed to trust they would make AI for good and not evil? Feels like it was only Thanksgiving…

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 129 points 11 months ago

I mean, there was all that drama where the board formed to prevent this from happening kicked out the CEO trying to do this stuff, then the board got booted out and replaced with a new board and brought back that CEO guy. So this was pretty much going to happen.

[-] hoshikarakitaridia@sh.itjust.works 68 points 11 months ago

And some people pointed it out even back then. There were signs that the employees were very loyal to Altmann, but Altmann didn't meet the security concerns of the board. So stuff like this was just a matter of time.

[-] deweydecibel@lemmy.world 33 points 11 months ago

People pointed this out as a point in Altmann's favor, too. "All the employees support him and want him back, he can't be a bad guy!"

Well, ya know what, I'm usually the last person to ever talk shit about the workers, but in this case, I feel like this isn't a good thing. I sincerely doubt the employees of that company that backed Altmann had taken any of the ethics of the tool they're creating into account. They're all career minded, they helped develop a tool that is going to make them a lot of money, and I guarantee the culture around that place is futurist as fuck. Altmann's removal put their future at risk. Of course they wanted him back.

And frankly I don't think you can spend years of your life building something like ChatGBT without having drunk the Koolaid yourself.

The truth is OpenAI, as a body, set out to make a deeply destructive tool, and the incentives are far, far too strong and numerous. Capitalism is corrosive to ethics; it has to be in enforced by a neutral regulatory body.

[-] SuckMyWang@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

The engineers are likely seeing this from an arms race point of view. Possibly something like the development of an a-bomb where it’s a race against nations and these people at the leading edge can see things we cannot. While money and capitalistic factors are at play, foreseeing your own possible destruction or demise by not being ahead of the game compared to china may be a motivating factor too.

[-] guacupado@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Bless your heart, sweet summer child.

[-] Sasha@lemmy.blahaj.zone 38 points 11 months ago

Effective altruism is just capitalism camoflauge, it's also just really bad at being camoflauge

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

helps you get a lot of community support and publicity during startup and then you don't have to give a damn about them once you take off

[-] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

Effective altruism could work if the calculation of "amount of good" an action creates wasn't performed by the person performing that action.

E.g. I feel I'm doing a lot of good buying this $30m penthouse in the Bahamas.

[-] littlebluespark@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

You had two chances to spell camouflage correctly and you missed twice? I mean. Points for consistency, at least? 🤪

[-] Sasha@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 11 months ago

I can't spell, don't blame me for relying on an ordinarily quite useful tool.

[-] littlebluespark@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

No judgement, autocorrect is my damn nemesis. 🤗🤘🏼

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[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Did they kick the CEO out for doing this or was it because of something else?

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 6 points 11 months ago

This summary article says the board stated:

"Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities," OpenAI's post said. "The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI."

The article also says:

Rumors and speculation swirled on social media, with tech industry heads, reporters, and onlookers trying to make sense of the situation based on what little information was provided in the board's announcement. Tech journalist Kara Swisher quickly reported that based on what information she had from sources, there was a "misalignment" between OpenAI's for-profit side, represented by Altman, and the nonprofit side, which is controlled by the board.

As far as I know the exact issue was not made public, but basically the board is there to make sure the company puts ethics over profits. Altman was hiding stuff from the board (presumably because they would consider it in conflict with their goal), and so the board fired him. But then there was an uproar from the investors, Microsoft almost ended up hiring half the company as they threatened to resign in droves, and in the end the board resigned and was replaced.

Does that answer the question?

[-] NounsAndWords@lemmy.world 54 points 11 months ago

I remember when they pretended to be that. The fact that the board got replaced when it tried to exert its own power proves it was a facade from the beginning. All the PR benefits of "taking safety seriously" with none of those pesky "safety vs profitability" concerns.

[-] guacupado@lemmy.world 29 points 11 months ago

I stopped having faith in nonprofits after seeing how much the successful ones pay their CEOs. They're just businesses riding the low-tax train until they're rich enough to not care anymore.

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[-] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

Which was always a big fat lie. I mean just look at who was involved in getting OpenAI started. Mostly super rich tech people meeting privately to divide the market among themselves like colonial powers divided their territories.

[-] Moira_Mayhem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 11 months ago

It seems to be a trend that any service that claims not to be evil is just waiting for the right moment to drop that pretense.

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

then some people realized they could monetize the shit out of it

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

“In 1882 I was in Vienna, where I met an American whom I had known in the States. He said: 'Hang your chemistry and electricity! If you want to make a pile of money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others' throats with greater facility.'”

Hiram Maxim

I wonder if something similar happened with openAI.

Forgot about NFTs and marketing. Invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others' throats more efficiently.

[-] wooki@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I wouldnt be too worried they’ve just made an over glorified word predictor and blender of peoples art

[-] pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

AKA the perfect propaganda tool to fuck up elections and make countries collapse into civil war and fascism. Like ours.

[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

Chatgpt would be a terrible propaganda tool. Also why do you need a better one? The existing ones work pretty well. Fox/Sky News and the internet troll army out of Russia.

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this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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