Will Sam Altman be the next Sam Bankman-Fried?
I am not going to talk about OpenAI drama. Ok, maybe I will. If you really, really want to know some background context,
has a nice detailed summary.Yes, it is indeed very entertaining. However, I believe we are overstating the significance of this corporate drama. It remains perplexing to me why everyone is treating this as a watershed moment for AI. The field of AI is vast and complex, and its trajectory will not be determined by the actions of any single individual or company.
Remember the downfall of FTX? Only time will tell whether Sam Altman will share the same fate as Sam Bankman-Fried. At least, they share first names. That cannot be a coincidence.
Some snippets:
The recent events at OpenAI are likely going to lead to considerable, unpredictable instability.
The ongoing developments at OpenAI will have widespread implications for AI development, governance, risk, the pace of research, and the big tech firms — and since the news broke out, we kept our finger on the pulse to offer our members a nuanced and level-headed analysis.
Apparently the drama is because of the tension between the Existential Risk (XRisk) Community, and the Effective Altruism camp:
Basically the EA community is trying to do the most good for the most people in the future
And the XRisk community is trying to articulate and prevent events that could end humanity or our civilization
Specifically for the AGI conversation, these two groups are aligned on not destroying humanity by inventing an AGI too quickly that outright kills us.
If you don’t know what these two communities are all about check out my previous posts:
and
Ultimately, it boils down to a philosophical/moral disagreement amongst a small coterie of people (less than ten?) -- who happened to be at the helm of a company that's changed the world's perception of AI at mind-numbing speed.
Aren’t we giving them too much credit?
I read the linked article and it's alarming, all right. The author notes there was so little fact-checking of Bankman-Fried's claims (similar to the Santos fiasco in the American House of Representatives). In one of my journalism textbooks that I wrote or Editor (I'm a retired career journalist), I wrote that, "I know we're the professional press because we quote liars accruately." But where is the fact-checking! The headline to Sharif Islam's post, though, is unfortunate. It's clear (up to this point) that Altman is no Bankman-Fried, so why even pose the possibility? It will just feed into ethno-religious hate, even if that was not the intention, and I believe it was not. But irony is just a bit too dangerous when addressing very serious matters.