Having read only Karen Hao's book, I came away thinking Sam Altman is a more complicated character than the demon of Hao's portrayal. The author actually comes away less sympathetic than Altman, with her dogmatic, preachy leftist politics infusing most of the book. While indicting Altman for dishonesty, she claimed that Venezuela's economic dysfunction was a result of the Trump administration's sanctions, never mind that Venezuela had been deteriorating for almost a decade before Trump became president under the mismanagement of its Chavez authoritarian leadership. She also is unconvincing portraying the main dangers of AI's output as indulging in right-wing conspiracies, thanks to its diet of internet sourced political opinion, as well as sexual degeneracy. But LLMs dine on the internet's left-wing political opinions as much as right-wing, there's no reason to believe it would filter only for right-wing extremism. Politically motivated lies like that from the author cause you to doubt the whole work as an exercise in leftist bias confirmation.
Most disconcerting is how much she is at pains to emphasize Altman's Jewish identity, as well as that of other AI leaders, a bit darkly suggestive of antisemitic tropes about Jews manipulating the world through nefarious forces (media, finance, government...), in this case, advanced technology. Except for the "black and brown" exploited heroes of the story in the Global South, a mantra she develops ad nauseam, she doesn't comment on the religion or ethnicity of any of the other characters in the book. She also barely mentions Altman's homosexual identity, as if recognizing that "disadvantaged" identity would distract from his demonic nature. Finally, she expounds endlessly on Altman's sister's complaints about her family, amplifying her accusation that her brother Sam molested her as a child, among myriad other abuses. Which is odd. Why would a gay man molest his sister? While it's possible, she offers no other evidence than his sister Annie's complaint.
Perhaps I'll try "The Optimist" on your recommendation. "Empire of AI" is a clear miss.
Hao went to MIT with a journalism and engineering degree she knows the tech and the people working on in and out, while Keachy has an MA in English Literature and BA in English and French from Stanford University. Both mention he dropped out of college and like Zuckerberg went straight into founding a mobile social network startup. If you recall, Zuckerberg is still trying to escape the whole "Metaverse is the new frontier ..lol" ------ I'm going with Hao as the more insightful pick on how I judge not just Altman, but provides a historical framework that helps understand why AI ROI is still NOT A PROVEN. - thats just me. :)
thanks for the summaries. I was planning on buying Karen's book but i found here arguments on a recent Hard Fork podcast to be very one sided and her ability to steelman the AI side as lacking.
The problem is not that Sam Altman incarnates Peter Thiel's vision, the problem is the army of AI Bros it creates. A massive movement of such scale of people who use AI and its leverage for self-interest seeking to be Venture capitalists as late-stage capitalism goes from Monopoly norms to tycoon characteristics without restraint for dystopian gut checks.
Having read only Karen Hao's book, I came away thinking Sam Altman is a more complicated character than the demon of Hao's portrayal. The author actually comes away less sympathetic than Altman, with her dogmatic, preachy leftist politics infusing most of the book. While indicting Altman for dishonesty, she claimed that Venezuela's economic dysfunction was a result of the Trump administration's sanctions, never mind that Venezuela had been deteriorating for almost a decade before Trump became president under the mismanagement of its Chavez authoritarian leadership. She also is unconvincing portraying the main dangers of AI's output as indulging in right-wing conspiracies, thanks to its diet of internet sourced political opinion, as well as sexual degeneracy. But LLMs dine on the internet's left-wing political opinions as much as right-wing, there's no reason to believe it would filter only for right-wing extremism. Politically motivated lies like that from the author cause you to doubt the whole work as an exercise in leftist bias confirmation.
Most disconcerting is how much she is at pains to emphasize Altman's Jewish identity, as well as that of other AI leaders, a bit darkly suggestive of antisemitic tropes about Jews manipulating the world through nefarious forces (media, finance, government...), in this case, advanced technology. Except for the "black and brown" exploited heroes of the story in the Global South, a mantra she develops ad nauseam, she doesn't comment on the religion or ethnicity of any of the other characters in the book. She also barely mentions Altman's homosexual identity, as if recognizing that "disadvantaged" identity would distract from his demonic nature. Finally, she expounds endlessly on Altman's sister's complaints about her family, amplifying her accusation that her brother Sam molested her as a child, among myriad other abuses. Which is odd. Why would a gay man molest his sister? While it's possible, she offers no other evidence than his sister Annie's complaint.
Perhaps I'll try "The Optimist" on your recommendation. "Empire of AI" is a clear miss.
Hao went to MIT with a journalism and engineering degree she knows the tech and the people working on in and out, while Keachy has an MA in English Literature and BA in English and French from Stanford University. Both mention he dropped out of college and like Zuckerberg went straight into founding a mobile social network startup. If you recall, Zuckerberg is still trying to escape the whole "Metaverse is the new frontier ..lol" ------ I'm going with Hao as the more insightful pick on how I judge not just Altman, but provides a historical framework that helps understand why AI ROI is still NOT A PROVEN. - thats just me. :)
thanks for the summaries. I was planning on buying Karen's book but i found here arguments on a recent Hard Fork podcast to be very one sided and her ability to steelman the AI side as lacking.
will checkout the optimist book!
The problem is not that Sam Altman incarnates Peter Thiel's vision, the problem is the army of AI Bros it creates. A massive movement of such scale of people who use AI and its leverage for self-interest seeking to be Venture capitalists as late-stage capitalism goes from Monopoly norms to tycoon characteristics without restraint for dystopian gut checks.