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OpenAI

Top 25 OpenAI articles on Substack

Latest OpenAI Articles

How Things Work
May 23

Selling Your House For Firewood

Media companies are cutting deals with OpenAI that they will regret.
I am not a business guru. Nor will I ever be a business guru, due to rampant discrimination against socialists in the business world. But if I was a business guru, one my core guiding principles would be “do not plant the seeds for my own industry’s demise.” Sadly, it feels like this principle is being lost in my own industry toda…
Hamilton Nolan ∙ 81 LIKES
Leanne Potts
•
5d
Automate the CEOs.
Please print that on a t-shirt and sell it here. Another great piece.
Diana van Eyk
•
5d
You make very important points here, Hamilton.
Trust can never be generated by AI, and trust, I believe, is the new gold.
Marcus on AI
May 21

The OpenAI board was right

Even on little things, Sam is not consistently candid.
A week ago, OpenAI released an exciting new demo, featuring a voice character with a sexy breathy voice that was supposed to remind you of Scarlett Johansson’s AI agent character in the fabulous film Her. Lots of people gushed over it. (Some worried about the sexism, as well they should, but that’s a story for another day. And of course I daresay the de…
Gary Marcus ∙ 167 LIKES
Birgitte Rasine
•
8d
LinkedIn is alight with the ScarJo bombshell.
"No" means no, Sam. Be it in English, or every other language on the planet.
sean pan
•
8d
And these are the people who promise that they will give us a perfect world with UBI.
This is why we need to discuss what they are really doing and #PauseAI.
Don't Worry About the Vase
May 20

OpenAI: Exodus

Previously: OpenAI: Facts From a Weekend, OpenAI: The Battle of the Board, OpenAI: Leaks Confirm the Story, OpenAI: Altman Returns, OpenAI: The Board Expands. Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike have left OpenAI. This is almost exactly six months after Altman’s temporary firing and The Battle of the Board, the day after the release of GPT-4o, and soon after a n…
Zvi Mowshowitz ∙ 58 LIKES
kajota
•
May 20
This is one of the closest matches for the catch-22 in the novel Catch-22 that I've ever seen:
"If you were truly worried about this you would blow up your life and savings, in this way that I say would make sense, despite all explanations why it doesn’t.
You didn’t.
So clearly you are not worried.
Nothing to worry about.
You did.
So clearly you are an idiot.
Nothing to worry about."
Also, at this point, I'm fairly certain Sam Altman is a sociopath. If I were an AI doomer, this would really scare me.
Kevin
•
May 20
The equity clawback is not totally unheard of. Skype and Zynga and others have “played hardball” with equity contracts. It’s disappointing from an employee point of view though.
One important note is the whole nonprofit PPU structure already is much more controlled by the company than most cases. You don’t just exit at an IPO or acquisition, you are relying on future cooperation by OpenAI. If they want to play hardball with these contracts in the future, to make them less valuable to ex-employees, they will have many more opportunities to do so.
It does all seem like one thing. OpenAI has almost been torn apart by the struggles between the doomer faction and the product faction. Now the product faction seems to have won the struggle and is consolidating its political control.
Interconnects
May 15

OpenAI chases Her

ChatGPT left the textbox and where AI is leading society.
Tom and I recorded an episode of The Retort on OpenAI’s culture shift with this announcement — it’ll be out Friday. Subscribe if that sounds interesting!
Nathan Lambert ∙ 31 LIKES
✿ shit you should care about ✿
May 22

i'm obsessed with the fully conscious baby

+ ScarJo says ScarNO to OpenAI, and police have opened a probe into Matthew Perry's death
Um first of all HI to our 55 new paid supporters!!!! I’m so obsessed with you and adore having you over on Close Friends and in the book club chats!!!! If you wanna join the cutest fucking community on the internet, I’m still running a sexy 50% off sale because the cost of living sux 𓆩♡𓆪
shit you should care about ∙ 42 LIKES
Kiana
•
6d
red sauce and tomato sauce are the same but ketchup's different
Edtech Insiders
May 21

The Future of AI in Education: Google and OpenAI Strategies Unveiled

GPT-4o, Gemini integration with Google for Education, LearnLM, an exclusive interview with Shantanu Sinha, and more!
🚨 Follow us on LinkedIn to be the first to know about new events and content! 🚨 The Future of AI in Education: Google and OpenAI Strategies Unveiled By Ben Kornell
Sarah Morin, Alex Sarlin, and Ben Kornell ∙ 10 LIKES
Jacob Kantor
•
5d
!!!!!!
Marcus on AI
May 26

What should we learn from OpenAI’s mistakes and broken promises?

It’s increasingly clear that OpenAI has not been consistently candid. What follows from that?
A year ago, Sam Altman was treated like a head of state; OpenAI could do no wrong. But lately, he and they have made a lot of mistakes, and broken a lot of promises. Here’s just a small sample: OpenAI called itself open, and traded on the notion of being open, but even
Gary Marcus ∙ 133 LIKES
Susan Trefethen
•
2d
Citizen lack of awareness, understanding and interest is a real problem. We do not do our homework.
YZ
•
2d
Don't forget the plentiful of fanboys and sycophants who constantly sing OpenAI and ilks praises, sweeping the points you listed under the rug as small bumps on the road to their "greatness". They've certainly done their parts.
On a light note, just for a laugh, here is my recent interaction with Llama 3 the latest and greatest open source LLM from Meta. As expected I got correct solution for the classic farmer/wolf/goat/cabbage crossing river problem from Llama 3 as the problem must have been within the training set. I then asked a follow-up question "What if I have two wolves in this case?". Here is Llama 3's response:
"A twist! With two wolves, you can't leave them together with the goat, as they might harm it. Here's a solution:
1. Take a goat across the river first and leave it on the other side.
2. Go back to the original side and pick up one of the wolves.
3. Take the wolf across the river and leave it on the other side with the goat.
4. Go back to the original side and pick up the second wolf.
5. Take the second wolf across the river and leave it with the other wolf and the goat.
This way, you've never left the wolves together with the goat, and everyone is safe and sound on the other side!"
So this is the kind of system whose underlying technology will lead us to AGI? UBI? A bright future for humanity?
What a joke?
Linking Your Thinking
May 24

Is there something rotten at OpenAI?

Is it the AI or the people behind the AI we should be more worried about?
In the parable about the frog in the boiling pot, we're told the water starts out comfortable for the frog. It stays comfortable for just long enough for the frog to relax too much. Then, as the water starts to really heat up, it's too late for our frog.
Nick Milo ∙ 11 LIKES
Jensigne
•
3d
“Sam Altman just lied to our faces, but we’re cool with it.”
Who's this "we"? I'm not cool with it.
Daniel Salas
•
4d
Wow. Chatbots can be manipulated to protect their creators. Great insight, Nick.
Dwarkesh Podcast
May 15

John Schulman (OpenAI Cofounder) - Reasoning, RLHF, & Plan for 2027 AGI

how posttraining tames the shoggoth, and the nature of the progress to come...
Chatted with John Schulman (cofounder of OpenAI and led ChatGPT creation) how posttraining tames the shoggoth, and the nature of the progress to come... Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript
Dwarkesh Patel ∙ 19 LIKES
Colin Brown
•
May 17
Thanks Dwarkesh really appreciate this. Although I am beginning to feel a real "law of diminishing returns" on the topic of when will AGI arrive and what will we do so it would be great if future podcasts didn't dwell too much on this area. I don't think anyone can give a thorough answer at this stage so it feels like we just need to "feel our way towards it".
I enjoyed the bits when you guys talked about models, pre and post training. Less from a "moat" perspective and more in terms of what is possible / what will change / how these approaches will develop. Keep up the good work
Liberty
•
May 16
I enjoyed the interview, good stuff 👍
Chamath Palihapitiya
May 19

What I Read This Week...

Fake studies have flooded academic journals, TV advertising is in secular decline, and OpenAI loses key team members over 'superintelligent' AI safeguarding
Watch All-In E179 Read our 2023 Annual Letter Caught My Eye… Fake studies have flooded the publishers of top scientific journals, leading to thousands of retractions and millions of dollars in lost revenue. Where do these studies come from? Scientists are paying 'paper mills’ hundreds and even thousands of dollars to list fabricated papers in scientific j…
Chamath Palihapitiya ∙ 67 LIKES
Marko Bjegovic
•
May 19
For any1 interested, here are my Apr PCE estimates:
Torrance Stephens, PhD
•
4d
This says a lot about Biden. tinyurl.com/3d4ea6mp
Hope he never comes back to my school.
Exponential View by Azeem Azhar
May 19

🔮 The race to AI assistants; OpenAI exodus; GLP-1, risky films, insect protein ++ #474

An insider perspective on AI and exponential technologies
Hi, I’m Azeem Azhar. In this week’s edition, we explore Google and OpenAI product announcements and evaluate if they live up to the companies’ substantial investments. In the rest of today’s issue: Need to know: OpenAI loses the yin to its yang The latest departures at OpenAI could deepen a monoculture at the leading AI company.
Azeem Azhar and Nathan Warren ∙ 40 LIKES
Paola Bonomo
•
May 19
You quote Martin Wolf's review of Andrew Scott's latest book, The Longevity Imperative. I don't think I'm going to pick up the book because, even if the numbers are updated, the message appears to be pretty much the same as in the 2016 book he co-wrote with Lynda Gratton, The 100-Year Life (https://www.100yearlife.com/). Or is there something new that I'm missing?
Big Technology
May 17

OpenAI Wants To Get Big Fast, And Four More Takeaways From a Wild Week in AI News

Ignore the flirty bot, OpenAI’s big strategic play became clearer this week.
In a season of big AI news, few weeks have felt more significant than this one. OpenAI introduced its new GPT-4o model, Google unveiled a deeper AI vision, and Apple dropped more hints ahead of a massive AI-themed WWDC event. At Big Technology, we also hosted our first public event with Box CEO Aaron Levie, well-timed with the AI news. Our live podcast s…
Alex Kantrowitz ∙ 41 LIKES
Afonso Salcedo (Fonzie)
•
May 18
I’m personally really excited to see where this potential OpenAI/Apple partnership will lead us.
D R
•
May 17
I wouldn’t read too much into Satya Nadella not appearing at the OpenAI event. Sam Altman didn’t appear either so this was positioned as a smaller event than the DevDay one. Also, with Mustafa Suleyman being hired to lead the consumer-focused Microsoft AI unit, I suspect we will see him more at OpenAI stuff. Completely agree it was a big week for GenAI and Microsoft Build is on the 21st so more to come.
Marcus on AI
May 15

Chaos and tension at OpenAI

Safety seems to be taking a back seat
75 LIKES
Aaron Turner
•
May 15
So many questions! (A) Should the public be worried? -- The public should be worried (in particular) about any AI system that is deployed at scale, so whatever the major AI labs such as OpenAI are doing should be top of this list. All contemporary AI (including the major LLMs such as ChatGPT) is at best only minimally aligned with human values. BY DEFINITION, a minimally-aligned AI system will inexorably inflict societal harm (in parallel with any benefits) when deployed. Therefore a minimally-aligned AI system that is deployed at global scale (such as ChatGPT) will necessarily inflict societal harm at global scale (although it's difficult to predict in advance exactly what form that harm will take, we will doubtless gradually find out over the next 10-20 years). The only good news in this regard is that contemporary LLMs are simply too dumb by themselves to represent a significant x-risk. (B) Will the (new) board at OpenAI take note? -- Internally, for sure; these are not stupid people. (C) Will they do anything to address the situation? -- Only if they perceive it to be a problem relative to their (highly rationalised) objectives. It may take external pressure, such as robust legislation, to significantly temper their (and thus the company's) behaviour (ditto re the other AI labs of course). (D) Will OpenAI’s status as a nonprofit remain in good standing? -- In my assessment, OpenAI is already firmly under the control of profit-motivated interests. It's entirely possible however that key people within the company, even board members, have not quite worked this out yet. (E) Will [this] help Elon Musk’s case? -- Quite possibly. (F) Does Sam care? -- I believe he cares deeply. I also believe HE believes he's doing the right thing, which (when Kool-Aid is involved) is not necessarily the same thing as actually doing the right thing. (G) Is this what he wanted? -- I suspect not, but HE needs to work this out (ditto re the rest of the board). (H) Is OpenAI’s push to commercialization coming at the expense of AI safety? -- 10,000%.
Joy in HK
•
May 15
One has to look long and hard with a magnifying glass to find examples of a profitable business willing to offset revenue for safety concerns. Ford Pinto, anyone?
Men Yell at Me
May 24

Dingus of the week: Sam Altman

Siri, what is gaslighting?
Silicon Valley seems obsessed with finding ways to replace women. Grocery delivery. Food delivery. Laundry. Managing administrative tasks. All the things that Silicon Valley seeks to disrupt are roles that for a long time, and probably still for many of the tech bros, were done by mothers and wives.
lyz ∙ 302 LIKES
CKB
•
4d
Altman's denial of what he so clearly did reminds me of how toddlers will sometimes close their eyes and think you can't see them.
ASD
•
4d
I grew up in Silicon Valley and happen to be here visiting my parents right now. My mom volunteers at a blood bank. She says all the young tech bros that come in all ask her help finding girlfriends, not for sex but for cooking when their office cafeterias are closed on the weekend. SMH....This is a long way of offering an anecdote to say how right you and your analysis is, Lyz.
Understanding AI
11:24 AM

Johansson's beef with OpenAI points to unclear laws on voice cloning

No one is sure if it's legal to reproduce a celebrity's voice without permission.
Last September, users gained the ability to speak to ChatGPT using one of five voices dubbed Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper, and Sky. Then earlier this month, OpenAI announced a new model, GPT-4o, that could understand the user’s tone of voice and vary its own tone in response. Due out in the coming weeks, this feature should enable more lifelike conversa…
Timothy B Lee ∙ 26 LIKES
Carter Williams
•
11h
The F/A-18 Mission computer incorporated speech in 1980. Digitized from a real voice. With audio cues like "Pull Up" when too close to the ground. Years later, pilots who had been saved by the gentle female voice wanted to know the name of the woman behind the voice. We tried to figure it out, but Gene Adams, the inventor, had passed away by then. Not sure we ever did get to the bottom of it.
Malcolm Sharpe
•
6h
On the specific case of OpenAI and Johansson, it's worth listening to back-to-back comparisons to judge for yourself whether Sky actually sounds like Johansson. Here are two examples:
To my ear, they sound distinctly different.
Last Week in AI
May 20

Last Week in AI #271: Multimodal AI from Google and OpenAI, OpenAI's superalignment team disbanded, NHTSA investigates Waymo, and more!

Both OpenAI and Google announced real-time vision/voice AI assistants, OpenAI's superalignment team leads resign, NHTSA investigates Waymo among other self-driving companies
Top News Project Astra is the future of AI at Google Google's Project Astra, a real-time, multimodal AI assistant, is the future of AI at Google, according to Demis Hassabis, the head of Google DeepMind. Revealed at Google I/O, Astra can identify objects, answer questions, and assist with tasks in a conversational manner. The project is part of Google's G…
Last Week in AI ∙ 13 LIKES
BigTech and AI
May 21

OpenAI Stole Scarlett Johansson's Voice for GPT-4o

A Sam Altman gimmick/obsession gone terribly wrong.
Hello Everyone, This is an Op-Ed about OpenAI, the state of the internet and technological loneliness. The lengths Generative AI startups are going to is not a healthy sign for the future of the internet. Scarlett Johansson says that OpenAI asked her to be the voice behind ChatGPT — but that when she declined, the company went ahead and created a voice …
Michael Spencer ∙ 17 LIKES
Andrew Craton
•
1d
No. You missed the point on this one. The voice in fact is not her voice, and does not sound the same. Lots of voice actors can approximate her voice legally and also naturally have a voice with some similarities. She has no claim here. This is a case of an actor with the emotional range of a bot being jealous of an actual bot.
Tobias Mark Jensen
•
6d
Well-said.
The problem with guys like Sam Altman is that they always think the answer is more technology, no matter what the question is. However, there comes a tipping point, as I see it, where more automation does more harm than good and this is the point we are at now
The Free Press
May 22

The Butcher Is Dead. What Comes Next for Iran? Plus. . .

Ben Kawaller wages class war at the Kentucky Derby. Scarlett Johansson rages against the machine. And more.
On today’s Front Page from The Free Press: Ben Kawaller tries to ruin the Kentucky Derby; River Page makes sense of the fight between OpenAI and Scarlett Johansson; Eli Lake has more exclusive reporting on the ICC’s charges against Israel’s leaders; Suzy Weiss asks why Big Tech is censoring Winslow Homer; and much more.
Oliver Wiseman ∙ 337 LIKES
Lauren L
•
7d
"I did not grow up worrying about money, and that I atone for this sin by feeling terrible about it."
This mindset is why Conservatives are happier than Liberals. There is no purpose in feeling guilt over things you can't control,and frankly, it's selfish.
Rather than wallow in self-pity about not being born less fortunate, practice gratitude and give back to others.
B.
•
7d
"I soon discovered that politics at a horse race is about as welcome as flatulence at an orgy."
This business of trying to ferret out class shame at a sports event is childish. It's the Kentucky Derby, for heaven's sake, the oldest in the United States (with Westminster Kennel Club dog show a close runner up). It's a time for hats, ties, and mint juleps, and nothing wrong with it.
A little like asking your grandmother, who has spent six days preparing for Christmas dinner despite her aching back, whether she isn't ashamed that she has $60 to drop on the roast beef. And whether using the tablecloth her mother had embroidered isn't an unfortunate show of frivolity in hard times.
As for the hot dog seller: She's doing well. If she rears her kids right, they will do still better.
Humanity Redefined
May 24

OpenAI is in trouble... again - Weekly News Roundup - Issue #468

Plus: is Rabbit R1 a scam?; Humane is looking for a buyer; FDA clears Neuralink for a second human trial; Nvidia reports another big quarter; China builds the world's first drone carrier; and more!
Hello and welcome to Weekly News Roundup Issue #468. It was another week full of interesting announcements and developments. We’ve had the Microsoft Build conference, where the tech giant showcased new AI products and services. We’ve also had the AI Seoul Summit, where AI leaders discussed ways to enhance AI safety while fostering innovation, inclusivity…
Conrad Gray ∙ 6 LIKES
Meng Li
•
3d
Thank you for sharing, Exciting week in tech!
Paul Backhouse
•
4d
I wonder if the university commencement theme that reportedly aligned with hyped-up Sophia was "Built-in Robotic Obsolescence..."?
Hung Up
May 25

One Thing About Scarlett Johansson: Her Legal Action Wig is Always On

The Friday Post.
Live from New York … Hung Up! You can read an event recap here. The way men misunderstood Her, the 2013 Spike Jonze movie, should be studied. (I saw a movie about a mustache. My friend Hilton memorably calls Her a movie about a…
Hunter Harris ∙ 160 LIKES
Amy Kamp
•
4d
Fair enough but Courtney Love is the true white Azealia Banks
Anna
•
4d
They knew that voice sounded like her and retroactively tried to get her on board is my bet but ScarJo is about her coins, especially royalty coins, which she would not get if she voiced that chatbot. It’s almost as if, AI likeness without future payouts is one of the reasons the actors guild strike happened. 🤔 I thought tech bros were the brightest of us all. 🤭
To the Contrary
May 22

MAGA's Latest Brain Worm

And, of course, more dog pictures
I regret to inform you that we have not yet reached peak inanity. It was tempting to believe that the pilgrimages of the MAGA faithful to pay homage to Donald Trump’s hush money trial, and/or MTG’s unhinged rants about fake eyelashes were an indication that we were close to exhausting our capacity for eyerolls. No such luck.
Charlie Sykes ∙ 185 LIKES
Mike B.
•
6d
Thanks for first posting pics of an adorable puppy, a nice way to soften the blow of the content that followed. Charlie, what's that green object in your hand? At first I thought it was an unusual citrus fruit. Must be a dog toy or part of a leash.
Anyway, the brain worms...apparently these parasitic invertebrates trigger paranoia, disable higher brain function (assuming there was much to begin with), negate any communication filters, and ultimately transform the host into a psychopathic infant. Sadly there is no cure for these annelid cerebral leeches.
Alexandra Barcus
•
6d
Sometimes there is nothing left to be done in response but to put your head down and hold it tight in case it explodes from the nonsense.
Little pup was so cute with Pete!
Read Max
May 24

Things the guys who have my stolen phone have texted me to try to get me to unlock it

Plus: OpenAI's Scarlett Johansson theme-park ride, and bumper stickers... are they back?
Greetings from Read Max HQ! In today’s newsletter: A guest post from Veronica de Souza about making friends online (with the guys who stole your iPhone) An important trend-spotting question: Are bumper stickers back?? A new way of thinking about ChatGPT-4o following the news that Scarlett Johansson is considering suing OpenAI.
Max Read ∙ 65 LIKES
Randall Hayes
•
4d
Thank you, Veronica. That was great.
Nicholas G.
•
4d
Our old classmate is making bumper stickers for your phone, so those without an automobile can get in on the fun too. https://bumperstickers.blog
The Honest Broker
May 24

Let's Just Admit it: The Algorithms Are Broken

I'm begging the tech overlords to let us opt out from their dystopia
Have you tried to get information on a product or service from Google recently? Good luck with that. “Product recommendations broke Google,” declares tech journalist John Herrman, “and ate the Internet in the process.” That sounds like an extreme claim. But it’s painfully true. If you doubt it, just try finding something—anything!—on the dominant search e…
Ted Gioia ∙ 917 LIKES
A.P. Murphy
•
4d
The solution, at least on an individual basis, is never to use Google and its like.
Use DuckDuckGo for safe and secure searches, not Google.
Use VPNs and/or Tor to surf, so your data doesn't get trawled.
At the very least use an Adblock addon for your browser, plus apps to block unwanted scripts.
Never use streaming services for music or video content - use physical media or torrents.
Buy physical books or use an archive source to DL.
I do all these and I never get spammed with nonsense.
Life is so much more serene this way.
It makes me a pretty poor consumer and probably a bad citizen, true, but I get my stuff done without being bugged by spambots, AI slop or unwanted ads.
Jim Frazee
•
4d
"We value your privacy." Who hasn't seen this all over internet? Well, it turns out this Orwellian statement is partly true, because sites ARE making money off your privacy. Once an algorithm gets hold of you, it's the gift that keeps on giving.

Related OpenAI Substacks

Exponential View by Azeem Azhar
Men Yell at Me
By lyz
Big Technology
By Alex Kantrowitz
Interconnects
By Nathan Lambert
Dwarkesh Podcast
By Dwarkesh Patel
Last Week in AI
Hung Up
By Hunter Harris
The Free Press
By Bari Weiss
The Honest Broker
By Ted Gioia
Read Max
By Max Read
BigTech and AI
By Michael Spencer
Edtech Insiders
By Alex Sarlin
The Shortcut
By Matt Swider
Don't Worry About the Vase
By Zvi Mowshowitz
To the Contrary
By Charlie Sykes
Marcus on AI
By Gary Marcus
Chamath Palihapitiya
✿ shit you should care about ✿
By shit you should care about
LLM Watch
By Pascal Biese
Humanity Redefined
By Conrad Gray
Understanding AI
By Timothy B Lee
How Things Work
By Hamilton Nolan
Linking Your Thinking
By Nick Milo

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