Maybe he's just a CEO doing the ethically responsible thing and not the purely self-serving thing for the sake of shareholders? (though as humans, the shareholders have some stake in humanity too)
I did an internship with ElementAI a while back. They had a full lobbying division to "come up with a legislative framework with the government for ethical AI". This is quite literally just a business strategy where you get to write the rules because lawmakers see you as "their guys" while challengers are seen as reckless.
It was already a thing in 2019 and it definitely is still a thing. Sam Altman just made the gambit that congress would see him as the honest and prudent guy. Seems like that just didn't work.
Not sarcasm! Though I agree this also helps build Open AI's moat against competitors... but that doesn't make Altman's statement not true. It's still self-serving, but I think if he was totally willing to lie he'd have made other self-serving statements, and not this particularly high-risk, shocking, and also true (IMHO) self-serving statement.
I can't imagine a valid ethical justification for not releasing the model training details which they withheld. I'd speculate that they did it only to slow their competitors, but I don't have to because "the competitive landscape" was the reason given right there in their paper.
There is (IMHO) no good reason to let OpenAI argue simultaneously for "this technology is too dangerous to be replicated" and for "... but if you have a credit card then you can use it right now".
The fact that we are bewildered instead of cherishing, and punishing instead of rewarding shows us what incentives lie in honesty nowadays. Sounds nihilistic but Sam could have done better for his company, by being untruthful
> Maybe he's just a CEO doing the ethically responsible thing
But he's not. As Scott Galloway put it, he's raising a gun to grandma's head and screaming "stop me before I shoot her!" He's saying ethically-responsible things. But simultaneously acting in contrast to his words.
Altman is doing an excellent job as a CEO. But that doesn't make him an angel. Just look at Worldcoin, his crypto project, and tell me you see the marks of a humanitarian.
