Discussion
So the "I left $AILab for ethical reasons" grift is starting up:
I understand wanting that bag, wanting to be in on a big thing. But if you thought OpenAI or Anthropic were okay a year ago or so, I really am not willing to give you any credit for leaving now.
Like how much fucking money did you make and how much did you sell your book (that will of course come) for?
To hell with this guy.
The only real question is, what did you do with your equity and stock options?
Rats abandoning a sinking ship.
However, we should not discount that the real reason they are leaving is because it can’t get laid
@tante Actually most of what might be called the United States' "culture" is broken. It was broken by design when corporations were given legal standing and knowledge was declared property. We've had a fine run. Let's be honest: some benefits have accrued to all of us (at great cost to others). But it doesn't change the fact that it's broken by design, and now the benefits are accruing to ever fewer and the bills are going to come due globally. Buckle up.
@tante I don't know the behind-the-scenes (e.g., maybe the writer was one of the few people who didn't sign to support un-firing Altman, and then they stayed because they were one of the few people who had any interest in ethics and safety to mitigate).
But it's funny when the language that sounds crafted by a PR firm appears self-referential:
> After I quit, I enlisted a PR firm, Spitfire Strategies, to help me navigate the attention and scrutiny that I realize I may now receive.
@tante All of this goes alike "I quit my warden job in the concentration camp, I discovered we were torturing and killing prisoners. I thought to be there only to do the good for the society".
It's not like doing an ordinary job that you discover you don't like, or with colleagues and management you find to not be your mates. This is being from the beginning in an utterly controversial activity, with questionnable objectives since its inception.
I can't stand this whining.
@tante nope, that person took years to realize what others understood quickly and choose to teach that others now.
An asshole, in this case, stays an asshole, even if slightly enlightened.
@tante I wrote that blog post a few weeks ago about the same topic: https://carette.xyz/posts/good_people_refuse_to_do_bad_things/
It has been posted to another news website and you can’t even imagine the number of “true, but I prefer money compared to ethics”.
Those guys are both dumb and dangerous.
They will have to be fast to sell their book, before everyone else does. But then again it's not like they would write it themselves, would it?
@tante have the ethical reasons for these people ever been anything other than hype in a trenchcoat? like, is it ever about the exploited workers in the global south that are intentionally exposed to violent sexual abuse material in the name of "safety" and "alignment," for example? i haven't seen it. guess anyone who cared about actual ethics quit long ago or never started
Ugh! I rolled my eyes so hard the earth lost its orbit. @tante
@tante I left the cult because the leaders were summoning Digital God too early. Here's my book on how Digital God should be summoned.
Really tired of the "I worked at the kitten crushing factory for years, made a fuckton of money and now I found my conscience and get to tour the stages of the world telling people how to be ethical" grift.
@tante This grated me so much in the Careless People Sarah Wynn-Williams. And yes, the generous healthcare will have helped the author raise her family, but yeah... it was a bit of a late exit.
@tante yes totally yes
@tante They never seem to want to leave BEFORE getting filthy rich. 🤔
And I get that he's a nice guy and many people know him and now push his article. But he made the decision to keep working for OpenAI after so much shit happened.
It doesn't matter that you worked with him once or that he's nice. Without actual remorse I don't give a shit.
@tante also you really just can't be "a nice guy" and work at that place until now. Except in the "Nice Guy Syndrome"-sense.
Strong "nicest camp guard who found his morals just the minute before it was liberated"-vibes.
You can't go work for a bad organization, make a whole lot of money and when things start to turn (and the house is paid off) jump ship and expect me to just take you in. That is not how any of this works. I need to see actual amends being made.
@tante
Somehow it's even worse than the "Are we the baddies?" bit...
@tante @onepict This article has some related discussion about the redemption arc: https://conversationalist.org/2020/03/05/the-prodigal-techbro/
> The moral hazard is clear; why would anyone do the right thing from the beginning when they can take the money, have their fun, and then, when the wind changes, convert their status and relative wealth into special pleading and a whole new career?
Plus much more gold further down the article about privilege and the biases in tech.
@tante and being so late to the conversation that is older than the company you worked for. Like, these companies are stuffed with TESCREAL hand-wringing weirdos
@tante But tante, if you’re mean to people who quit the kitten crushing factory, then people won’t quit the kitten crushing factory because they’re too worried about people being mean to them 😞 it’s basically the same as crushing a kitten
Install bonfire.cafe
Get the full app experience
@tante In American politics, the fascists take an "I was in the room the entire time, and I need to tell you that everything that you've heard is true...unless it makes me look bad" tour when things go badly for the party. I assume they're working from the same playbook...