As far as I can disentangle from [1], OpenAI posits only moderate superhuman performance. The profit would come from a variant where OpenAI subsumes much but not all of the economy and does not bring things to post-scarcity. The nonprofit would take ownership of almost all of the generated wealth, but the investments would still have value since the traditional ownership structure might be left intact.
I don't buy the idea myself, but I could be misinterpreting.
Re:OpenAI LP
by felipemnoa on Monday March 11, 2019 @04:00PM
(#19362233)
>>3. Robot takeover
This is an interesting take of what could happen if humans loose control of such AI system [1]. [spoiler alert] The interesting part is that it isn't that the machines have revolted, but rather that from their point of view their masters have disappeared.
Re:OpenAI LP
by entangledqubit on Monday March 11, 2019 @05:02PM
(#19362794)
The sheer scale of machines running amok in this series is pretty fun. The source Manga is better than the movie.
re 1) there may be no scarcity of food and widgets but there is only so much beachfront land. Money probably won't be worthless.
I hear you, but not everyone wants beachfront land. Furthermore, I do believe it would be possible to give everyone a way to wake up and see a beach, particularly in a post-scarcity world. I mean, let your imagination run wild - filling out existent islands, artificial island, towers, etc.
But there will be always preference. Whenever there is preference for finite resources (even if that resource is "number of meter from celebrity X") there needs to be a method for allocation.. which currently is money.
>The fundamental idea of OpenAI LP is that investors and employees can get a capped return if we succeed at our mission
Is that the mission? Create AGI? If you create AGI, we have a myriad of sci-fi books that have explored what will happen.
1. Post-scarcity. AGI creates maximum efficiency in every single system in the world, from farming to distribution channels to bureaucracies. Money becomes worthless.
2. Immortal ruling class. Somehow a few in power manage to own total control over AGI without letting it/anyone else determine its fate. By leveraging "near-perfect efficiency," they become god-emperors of the planet. Money is meaningless to them.
3. Robot takeover. Money, and humanity, is gone.
Sure, silliness in fiction, but is there a reasonable alternative from the creation of actual, strong general artificial intelligence? I can't see a world with this entity in it that the question of "what happens to the investors' money" is a relevant question at all. Basically, if you succeed, why are we even talking about investor return?