Aral Balkan
@aral@mastodon.ar.al  ·  activity timestamp last month

Just got asked to sign an open letter to OpenAI asking for transparency on their announced restructuring. You’ll hear about it soon enough, no doubt, given some “big names” are attached to it.

While I agree with the premise of the letter, there’s no way I can sign it after seeing the level of cluelessness and perpetuation of harmful assumptions regurgitated in it. It’s depressing to see those supposedly pushing back against Big Tech’s AI grift having themselves accepted the core myths of this bullshit.

It starts:

“We write to you as the legal beneficiaries of your charitable mission.”

What charitable mission? Are you idiots? You’re talking to a ~$4B organisation.

“Your current structure includes important safeguards designed to ensure your technology serves humanity rather than merely generating profit…”

Oh, really, that’s news to me. I guess I must be missing how their current bullshit serves humanity.

“However, you have proposed a significant corporate restructuring that appears to weaken or eliminate many of these protections, and the public deserves to know the details.”

Ah, so they’re removing the smoke and mirrors, is that it?

Then a bunch of questions, including:

“Does OpenAI plan to commercialize AGI once developed?”

You do understand that there is NO path that leads from today’s mass bullshit factories that are LLMs to AGI, right? None. Zero. Nada. You’re playing right into their hands by taking this as given.

“We believe your response will help restore trust and establish whether OpenAI remains committed to its founding principles, or whether it is prioritizing private interests over its public mission.”

What trust? You trusted these assholes to begin with why exactly? Was it the asshat billionaire founder? How bloody naïve can you be?

“The stakes could not be higher. The decisions you make about governance, profit distribution, and accountability will shape not only OpenAI's future but also the future of society at large.”

Please, sirs, be kind.

No, fuck you. Why are we pleading? Burn this shit to the ground and dance on its smoldering remains.

“We look forward to your response and to working together to ensure AGI truly benefits everyone.”

🤦‍♂️

Yeah, no, I won’t be signing this. If this is what “resistance” looks like, we’re well and truly fucked.
Uli Kusterer (Not a kitteh)
@uliwitness@chaos.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last month
@aral How old is that letter?

I remember reading a year or so ago that OpenAI used to have a charitable charter, but after their boss provoked being ousted to then have shareholders insist he be brought back in and then cleaned house, I remember hearing that these rules in the charter would get removed.

I'm presuming they're of the impression that these clauses are still valid, or the removal took its way to wind through some bureaucracy and they're now trying to stop it one last time.