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Notes -
Does this mean I can now blame him for the annoying email from Microsoft egging me on to sign in and chat with Bing?
Because OpenAI sure seems to have dumped a lot of principles for the opportunity to "get there first and rake in the dough":
However AI eventually develops, right now as in this instance, I think it's being used as a tool to use our data and sell us crap:
And of course completely coincidentally all the answers will be "from our sponsors" - what airline, what hotel, what fun pubs and clubs and tours and restaurants, etc. to use and visit. Now we've told it that we have a bunch of people all wanting to visit someplace at a particular date. It can now suggest items for groups, plus collate that with our contacts lists and sell the same advertising to the 'friends'. Expect a deluge of "Hey Guy, you asked about ski trips? There's a great bargain on skiing gear to be found at this site!", maybe less blatant than Google's sponsored and paid-for search rankings, but just as devoted to parting us from our money.
If this is the smart shiny high-IQ future for humanity, Mr. Aaronson, it sure looks a lot like the existing old grubby commercial present.
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