You mean, exactly like there been, from Sam Altman's sister?

It would be like if AlphaGo could only win if the Go board was half as big. Not real fraud, but shows a clear willingness to cut corners and stretch ethics.

I would view it as the equivalent of making self-driving cars that are constrained to a single city. Sure, it doesn't have the full capability that a human would have. But who cares.

I have no good way of assessing what the likelihood is that her claims are true.

I would go as far as to say we completely underestimate what children understand and remember because we're the ones that chose to forget.

Conceivably the first part could happen without the second.

Frankly, I don't think we should ever give any credence to allegations that have absolutely no evidence. The road is too rocky. Most people have at least one person that dislikes them. The people that kind of attitude would affect generally have many. All it takes is one person willing to lie .

If you actually look at the totality of her claims, there are probably more reasons to be skeptical than to accept her words unconditionally. About the only thing you can say for sure is that something really unfortunate is either happening to her now, or has happened in her past, for which she is unlikely to bear all the responsibility.

We don't have to take everything potential victims say as fact and immediately act on it, but remaining open to the idea that those in power may be at fault, and not disregarding victims accusations goes a long way in supporting them.

Social media abuse claims are the female equivalent of SWATing. One well-published sob story sends a mob to kick down your door.

Don't be this naive. For your own sake, only consider believing such claims once a police report has been filed. Don't rush to judgment either way unless there's repercussions when the claimant is lying about it.

Coming from an "I believe the woman" background myself, I was pretty shocked.

[1] https://www.brown.edu/campus-life/health/services/promotion/...

Personally I welcome this shake up. Some of the things I’ve seen Altman write about are troubling.

It's a corollary to my theory that anybody that maintains close ties with their family and lives with them is a wholesome person.

Plenty of people maintain extremely close connections with their families while engaging in activies that are terrible for the world around them. Organized criminals. Terrorists. Business magnates. Political families. Corrupt police officers. Plenty of these groups are made out of tight-knit families.

It's common, dare I say human nature, to prioritize the needs of your family. That is honorable and important, but being a Good person requires caring about strangers too.

With the exception of the brothers in the mafia or brother terrorists, none of your examples would meet that standard.

Being close with your family does not mean you’re not a good person elsewhere. It does not mean you don’t care about strangers. That you’d jump to that conclusion or bring up terrorists as a counter example makes me question your own personal experiences.

All else being equal, I’d expect someone with close family bonds to the point of living with them as an adult, when they clearly have the economic means to do otherwise, as a sign of a good human. That’s been my personal experience and that’s how I see the world.

Alternative possibility: the family's a cult.

He won't be there in 6 months; this is just a crumb of continuity.

It's still the case for bolt- and lever-action rifles and similar stuff.

Other than the part about having enough money to build a bunker in New Zealand, I'd say "yes".

Normal people suck and are generally dumb as a brick (including me). Normal people don't extrapolate calamities and don't think ten steps ahead.

It's insurance. For someone with an average income, it's not worth the cost of the .01% chance you'll need it. For someone with more money than they know what to do with, it's worth it.

But as a general point, you can be both a "good person" and still do bad things. Or you can be a good person in some areas, and a not-so-good person (or even horrible person) in some other areas. People are complex.

Of course it's entirely possible that Altman is just a really good person, but I wouldn't be quick to make assumptions.

This works in two directions, by the way. In 2001 few would have expected that Bill Gates would spend much of his time on philanthropy. Is he a "good" or "bad" person? Well, he's both.

"Smart" does not mean "hard to fool;" they are different characteristics.

You can fool someone if you have important information that they don't have--even if they are extremely smart.

I certainly don't know him, but I see more reasons not to trust him than to trust him.

I ask that question leaving out any of the socio-economic and privacy concerns around that project.

What's sketchy about it is that they were offering money to largely poor and technologically naive populations in exchange for gathering very sensitive biometric data from them. Identifying data that cannot be changed and can be used to track them without their knowledge. Their stated goal is to have every person on Earth take part, to boot. The whole idea couldn't set off more alarm bells if it tried.

I give them style points for using truly dystopian-looking "orbs" to do it, though.

It forever tuned me in to the ethos of Silicon Valley. And I have tried paying back where I can.

I was in a Ph.D. program at a top CS school and there are ways to transition your visa when building a startup. It was that I was not sure if the transition or the startup would work out - that startup did not - but years later another one did.

I would probably not have taken the plunge out of academia and not achieved much else had it not been for him. And I am deeply grateful for that.

Never accused you of trying to illegally stay in the country or some such - I just referenced a famous South African Valley-man with a musky scent who did that.

A person I've known all my life I could swear and trust him with anything was found out to have violated extremely young children and other stuff.

Stop pretending you know people, people don't even know themselves.

"Good" is too blurry of a description, and I don't know Sam, but one thing I've learned (the hard way) is that you don't truly know someone unless you've had conflicts of interest with them and found mutually satisfying resolutions to them. If all you've had is mutually beneficial interactions, then of course everyone's going to be nice - it's in everyone's interests. You need to see how they act on nontrivial conflicts (either handling present ones, or mitigating/averting future ones) to really know if someone is a genuinely good person or not.

While this could hypothetically happen within an hour of meeting someone, it's more likely to take years or even decades... or might never even happen.

As I interview for new roles, it's a timely lesson, suggesting how to test what a new employer is -really- like.

This hits a spot. I had a really nice boss.. Until we got into a conflict, then she tried to blackmail me, pressure me and break me. I learned why some people who left our company needed months to get back on their feet. I got out quite well and managed to push back, but it was a tough period.

I had a feeling the man was a bit of a con, of course I won't say I know for sure. But some of his actions, like his notorious eye scanning crypto project, or the fact that he was 100% in support of UBI and wanted to advocate for it only to go to different governments wanting regulations (that only benefitted them)

People really really need to pay attention to their actions, not their words, jeezus. We'll have another rogue Elon Musk who was once idol worshipped as the incredibly "brilliant" man...turned out he does some stupid things too only now he amassed billions of dollars he can pay his way out of stupid things.

People never learn. Stop idolizing businessmen.

https://twitter.com/phuckfilosophy/status/163570439893983232...

And so do I, I'm his gay lover

I've never met the man, but I can say I have not been impressed by his words and attitude in public. I never got the sense or feeling that he's actually doing right by the world.

Ultimately it doesn't matter if he's a good or bad person; what matters is what he's done.

https://twitter.com/phuckfilosophy/status/163570439893983232...