back
14 comments
If Sam Altman told me what time it is, I'd check my (analog) watch. I don't trust anything that he says.
"guy who will benefit if everyone adopts AI is promoting AI"

Don't confuse this for anything more than what it is - a corporate leader delivering his marketing message.

The full quote is much better: “we are now, like, in the singularity”
<removes sunglasses>

Woah.

Sam Altman is a car salesman. Nothing more, nothing less.
At least when you give in to a car salesman, you leave with a car.
no doubt about the advancements in AI, but why resort to these PR stunts and statements when OpenAI should be focused on meaningful advances in tech and ethics.. goes the same for Anthropic. I prefer Microsoft and how elegantly Satya and Tim have handled AI
> but why resort to these PR stunts and statements

Obvious hyperbole is one of the best way to distract from more subtle malicious behaviour. If idiot Altman says stuff like this every day, then no one will pay attention when AI slowly replaces a lot of functions in society to the detriment of it. A lot of people just don't get that - they like to point out that AI claims ARE hyperbole to seem smart, whereas they are being taken the hardest because they don't realize that AI can cause just as much disruption even without any of the hyperbole.

Key point: AGI - actually, whether or not AI is truly intelligent is really irrelevant. The combination of AI + "smart and devious human" is already intelligent and can already be malicious.

Because OpenAI and Anthropic are hemorrhaging money so need all the investment and billions coming in that they can get. Easy way to do that is to have the big scary/groundbreaking comments and headlines so anyone with any money goes "Wow take my money before I miss the train!".
It depends. Is it just a PR stunt, or does Altman actually believe it? If he genuinely believes it, saying so may be unwise, may expose him to be deluded, but is not just PR (except maybe bad PR).
I think Dario Amodei, for all of his intelligence, believes the hype and is experiencing full-on AI delusions. His recent interviews and writings have taken on a distinctly religious tone (as have other tech leaders like Peter Thiel), which is a hallmark of delusional thinking. In his head, he is the creator of a sort of techno-deity, allowing him to think of himself as not only a man of consequence, but the greatest man of consequence to have ever lived.

On Altman, he's the opposite. I think he realizes that much of the tech world is engaged in delusional thinking and he's squeezing it for everything its worth. The injection of the word "like" in the middle of his statement ("We are now, like, in the singularity") betrays the fact that he doesn't believe a word of this. Even he has trouble saying it out loud.

We’ve been in the singularity since the 1950s; exponential grown can be flat for a long time.
Fun! Asking the "singularity" capable AI to fact check him on his claims, it calls BS on his claims.
“We need to IPO now!!”