HishamMar 18
David Gerard

the "ethical AGI" side of OpenAI are yudkowsky believers, including the CTO who is now CEO

it is important to remember that yudkowsky's ideas are dumb and wrong and he has actually zero technological experience. he's an ideas guy.

this is gonna be fucking wild.

Nov 18, 2023 at 1:46pmWeb
Show threadSteffen ChristensenNov 18, 2023
@davidgerard Wait.
So this is going to be *dumber* than what came before?!!
Show threadDavid GerardNov 18, 2023
@Wikisteff oh yes
Show threadtanteNov 18, 2023
@davidgerard I'm really looking forward to see how much they fuck up. It's gonna be fun-
Show threadzenkatNov 18, 2023

@davidgerard Given how stupid this particular timeline appears to be, I would not at all be surprised if this was a boardroom coup by TESCREAL nutjobs.

I only hope they effectively accelerate the implosion of the company. The world has enough rich and powerful facists right now.

Show threadzenkatNov 18, 2023

@davidgerard Quotes from this article point in this general direction:

"This was the board doing its duty to the mission of the nonprofit, which is to make sure that OpenAI builds AGI that benefits all of humanity."

"Mission of the nonprofit" being the operative clause.

https://www.businessinsider.com/3-open-ai-researchers-resign-sam-altman-dismissal-ceo-2023-11

3 OpenAI researchers resign following Sam Altman's dismissal: report

Jakub Pachocki, Aleksander Madry, and Szymon Sidor told associates at OpenAI that they had quit, The Information reported.

Insider
Show threadDavid GerardNov 18, 2023
@zenkat "boardroom coup by TESCREAL nutjobs" is both much more innocuous than the announcement sounds and much funnier
Show threadzenkatNov 18, 2023

@davidgerard Only innocuous if you haven't read what some of those folks believe. They want to build a silicon god in their own image to birth trillions of synthetic puppets, and are willing to allow millions of deaths to further that goal.

Beware the true believers, they beget monsters.

Show threadPhDog 🇮🇪Nov 18, 2023

@davidgerard @zenkat

I thought Sam was a TESCREAL nutjob.

Show threadThe DoctorNov 18, 2023
@zenkat @davidgerard "Benefits all of humanity" is the single reason they're not going to get anything done. Almost all of the money put toward ai is to make more money for already rich people.
Show threadRobNov 18, 2023
@zenkat @davidgerard i mean they said they wanted to pause ai research for six months and this chaos is in practice about the best way one could actually set back big llm develoment by about six months
Show threadDrew BreunigNov 18, 2023
@davidgerard It’s new territory for HR: how do you handle a subset of your employees who literally believe they’re creating new life? How do you convince them to let you build an App Store atop your Frankenstein?
Show threadjohnbierceNov 18, 2023

@davidgerard oh lol I was thinking it would be something bland and mundane like Altman lying about how expensive ChatGPT is to run. This is so much more hilarious and stupid.

Time to get some popcorn!

Show threadRhizomatic ArcadeNov 18, 2023
@davidgerard oh I saw some insane conspiracy theories on LinkedIn that Sam was ousted because the company built and AGI and they couldn't agree how to announce it
Show threadllewellyNov 18, 2023
@davidgerard
it's a bit like a rollercoaster with rockets strapped to it, except people like yudkowsky aren't the ones in the roller coaster; the people in the roller coaster are practially all people whose views where never considered when it was built.
Show threadWilliam PietriNov 18, 2023

@davidgerard Looking at the their website, it says the board is "Greg Brockman (Chairman & President), Ilya Sutskever (Chief Scientist), and Sam Altman (CEO), and non-employees Adam D’Angelo, Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner".

It's funny that it still lists Altman and Brockman; this was not well executed.

How many of these other people are from the Yudkowsky crowd? I see McCauley has Singularity University and Future of Life Institute connections, so I'm guessing her.

Show threadDavid GerardNov 18, 2023
@williampietri oh yeah, that's cult shit
Show threadThe DoctorNov 18, 2023
@williampietri @davidgerard It looks like all but one.
Show threadVolineNov 18, 2023
@davidgerard
Excellent.🍿 I was hoping that the folks whose beat is the cryptocurrency fiasco would be covering this AI crap. The similarities and common characters really call for it.
Show threadcomrade porcupineNov 18, 2023
@davidgerard My only question about this shitty timeline we're on is when do we get to the Butlerian Jihad part?
Show threadking toot uncommonNov 18, 2023
@davidgerard Rocko's Modern Basilisk
Show threadJookiaNov 18, 2023
@davidgerard all i know about this guy is he got pissed off at the basilisk and wrote a 100 chapter harry potter fanfic that made less sense than the original books
Show threadMarc JacobsNov 18, 2023

@davidgerard I know it’s early days on this story. And I know the board of the nonprofit is not like a typical Silicon Valley BoD. But I still expect it’s about money, lying about money, lying about what the SW actually does, lying about how ~no people were actually working on safety, etc.

This is based on no actual knowledge, so … watching and waiting.

Show threadMarc JacobsNov 18, 2023
@davidgerard Which does not mean the BoD is not filled with wild-eyed true believers. Just to be clear on my previous post
Show threadkætNov 18, 2023
@davidgerard He's an ideas guy? *boggle* I assumed he had got through life so far by having elite skills in another area.
Show threadrecursive 🏳️‍🌈Nov 18, 2023
@davidgerard Oh, so they're going to produce a big-budget film based on Harry Potter fanfic?