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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 20, 2024

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Sam Altman just loves to be a sociopath and then brag about it. His latest?

https://x.com/sama/status/1790075827666796666

"Her".

In case you've been living under a rock, this is in reference to the 2013 movie in which Scarlett Johansson plays the voice of an AI girlfriend. And it's also a reference to Open AI's new product, Chat GPT 4o, whose voice sounds just like... you guessed it, Scarlett Johansson.

This is no mistake. Open AI actually approached Ms. Johansson and asked her permission to use her voice. When she said no, they said fuck it and did it anyway.

https://x.com/BobbyAllyn/status/1792679435701014908

If Elon Musk is chaotic neutral, Sam Altman is increasingly proving himself to be lawful evil. It's not a good look.

How does using a voice that sounds like Scarlett Johansson's harm anyone? Perhaps it was illegal, but you shouldn't claim it was evil unless you can identify the harm done.

No one thing Sam Altman has done sticks out as evil. You have to have followed events for some time in order to get a feel for the pattern. I get SBF vibes from him. He does seem cleverer and more well-adjusted than SBF, but fundamentally he is making the same kind of gamble. Sam Altman thinks that there is a non-negligible probability that AGI will destroy the world, but he is building it anyway.

He does seem cleverer and more well-adjusted than SBF, but fundamentally he is making the same kind of gamble. Sam Altman thinks that there is a non-negligible probability that AGI will destroy the world, but he is building it anyway.

In what universe is this the same kind of gamble as placing double-or-nothing bets with other people's money until you inevitably bust?

SBF also affirmed that he would take the hypothetical bet that had something like a 51% chance of doubling world happiness and a 49% chance of destroying the earth.

He would sacrifice all of us on the altar of expected value.

https://bestinterest.blog/sbfs-stupid-bet/

Yes. When has Sam Altman suggested that he'd St. Petersburg Paradox us into oblivion?