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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 20, 2024

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When not wanting AI to be controlled by sociopaths makes you "anti-progress"....

Look, AI is here whether we like it or not. There's not much that governments can or should do to control it. We simply don't have the regulatory tools, and Congress is comically out of their depth. But people like Sam Altman welcome regulation so they can slam the door shut on competitors and take all the value for themselves.

AI risk encompasses many scenarios. Obvious, the fast takeoff singularity attracts the most eyeballs. But that is not even the most likely risk.

Another very real risk is that one person or group is able to control the AI landscape. Whether that group is the Chinese Communist Party or OpenAI I don't want it. I don't want OpenAI to be the leaders because I believe that Sam Altman's actions (this is just a tiny example) make him unsuitable to lead the world's most important company.

I get that you hate Sam Altman and believe he is a sociopath. I don't understand where that hatred or conclusion are coming from, but I also don't particularly care. What I don't like is that your "fuck that guy" attitude seems to be motivating accusations of wrongdoing on other flimsy and pretextual grounds. It diminishes us to engage in that.