Eliezer Yudkowsky on large language model economics

Re:Eliezer Yudkowsky on large language model economics by polygamous_bat on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @11:57AM (#35153596)

I understand your point, more or less, I just find it funny that people calling themselves "rationalists"/"objectivists"/whatever other funny name just keeps stacking up a bunch of "what if"s and freaking out about it.

As somewhat of a cynical person, I also find it funny that

> While I agree that the guy is somewhat shrill and his ideas are pretty out there, he really doesn't seem like a con artist from my standpoint.

I've heard this exact same sentiment about another popular Effective Altruist in the past year. I will let the reader guess which one.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Eliezer Yudkowsky on large language model economics by archon1410 on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @12:23PM (#35154001)

>"objectivists"/whatever other funny name just keeps stacking up a bunch of "what if"s and freaking out about it.

The Objectivists I know hate hypotheticals and refuge to engage with them with the same dismissive tone used in your comment.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Eliezer Yudkowsky on large language model economics by dragonwriter on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @12:29PM (#35154101)

The Objectivists I’ve encountered refuse to engage with lots of things, but still use hypotheticals themselves. They mostly phrase them as generalities with “When…” rather than with “If…”, but they are semantically equivalent.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Eliezer Yudkowsky on large language model economics by agentwiggles on Tuesday March 14, 2023 @01:01PM (#35154618)

> I've heard this exact same sentiment about another popular Effective Altruist in the past year. I will let the reader guess which one.

I may be missing something, as I don't really follow this "community" besides reading the occasional Slate Star Codex post or whatever.

But I don't see much ground for comparison here. SBF (who I assume you're referring to) was in much different position with regards to potential harm as a result of con man antics than EY is. (As far as I can tell).

SBF was managing billions of dollars. EY is not. If SBF turns out to be a scammer, real people lose money. If EY is a scammer... then so what? He publishes a bunch of blog posts crying doom about AI that suddenly look less sincere? To what end? I can't see a good reason at this time for assuming his reasons are anything less than what he claims they are.

[ Parent | on HN ]