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   Simon Willison (simon@fedi.simonwillison.net)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2023 05:52:51 JST Simon Willison

   • Benj Edwards

   If you haven't been following the wild news out of OpenAI (short version: the board of the controlling non-profit fired CEO Sam Altman yesterday) this piece by @benjedwards is a really great summary of everything that's known so far https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/11/report-sutskever-led-board-coup-at-openai-that-ousted-altman-over-ai-safety-concerns/

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     Thomas Vander Wal (vanderwal@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2023 05:52:50 JST Thomas Vander Wal

     in reply to

     • Benj Edwards

     @simon @benjedwards This Ben Edwards piece is really good.

     Have you seen the Jeremy Howard strong hunch over on the bird sight. It hits some of the early conflicts around safety over commerce and why it went to a non-profit model. Also why what was shared at the event last week may have tipped things to oust sama.

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     band@octodon.social's status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2023 05:52:50 JST band

     in reply to

     • Thomas Vander Wal

     @vanderwal and for those, like me, who love organizational psychodynamics, the OpenAI turmoil is more than a soap-opera

   • Embed this notice
     band@octodon.social's status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2023 06:32:35 JST band

     in reply to

     • Thomas Vander Wal

     @vanderwal this comment by Dare Obasanjo also piqued my attention: https://mas.to/@carnage4life/111433530907134002

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     Thomas Vander Wal (vanderwal@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2023 06:32:36 JST Thomas Vander Wal

     in reply to

     • band

     @band The safety vs. commerce conflict seems like it ran / runs deep. It runs squarely at some questions and concerns I’ve had. There seems to have been two very much opposing understandings of reality at play.

     Oddly, it seems the commercial push was also at odds with itself in a few places, which is really odd, but not surprising.

     How it was handled is really nuts.

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     band@octodon.social's status on Monday, 20-Nov-2023 04:02:56 JST band

     in reply to

     • Thomas Vander Wal

     @vanderwal thanks for the thoughts, which fit with some of anil dash's recent comments. i like emily bender's suggestion of substituting "automation" for "ai", as it can clarify the discussions. augmentation of our own capabilities, for me, fits with what we humans always do. and as you know and say, technology is embedded in politics and morals. so here we are.

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     Thomas Vander Wal (vanderwal@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 20-Nov-2023 04:02:57 JST Thomas Vander Wal

     in reply to

     • band

     @band This is part of all of this that draws attention to many vastly conflicting tensions.

     The early-ish OpenAI of safety and a good path forward that drew my interest years back I had assumed had been fully shelved and caution kicked to the curb for commercial success.

     When Microsoft made their deal and dumped much of their internal efforts and their ethics teams, I figured old OAI was long gone. Seems it was in just frozen in carbon and now thawed.