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Sam Alman is back as the CEO of open AI following that Whirlwind of chaos last week which I think we did a very good
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job covering it um open ai's board is getting a major rehaul with nearly all of its members replaced not all of them
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though the initial board includes Brett Taylor's chairman former treasury secretary Larry Summers where did he
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come from and Adam D'Angelo the only current board member remaining I understand he was quite stubborn about
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that uh Sam appears to be ready to head back to work posting on X with the new board and with sacha's support I'm
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looking forward to returning to Ai and building on our strong partnership with Microsoft it was interesting that was
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his first tweet um what how do you look at back looking back at it who's the winners losers Etc I hate to use that
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reductive a term but it really there really a lot was happening here I think in the fullness of time that the thing
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that happened here or what I've been thinking a lot about is that if you think about the initial mission of open
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AI I don't even think it was supposed to be a company I think they initially saw
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it as a research institute or a think tank that would help that would would study and analyze and make
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recommendations around the possibilities and more importantly the dangers of AI and then they discovered we're really
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good at this and then all of a sudden it was a company that became worth $90 billion so if you look at the
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shareholder side of this and the products and the value the economic value they create call that capital and
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then you look at the structure and a big component of the structure and a big part of their mission was to think about
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Humanity or AI in the context of humanity so at a very reductive analysis you have capital versus humanity and I
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would argue that Capital literally literally smothered Humanity in its sleep whether you think it was a good
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decision or a bad decision but when there was 90 billion in an amazing product and the leader in the most
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exciting new technology emerged all that fun nice stuff important stuff about humanity and the fears of AI that
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got smothered in its sleep I'm not sure it got smothered Scott I think it got let's put this over and I get it I get
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it I get it it's like let's put this over here on the Shelf it'll just be very interesting to see how this moment
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ages because if and and it all comes back to the same thing for me and that is for profit companies are so amazing
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at generating profits they shouldn't be trusted to anything else they shouldn't be trusted to do anything else Fair what
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are they called social purpose um compan companes no private benefit social benefit companies ESG investing I think
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it's the ultimate Cheryl San bergian move where we're going to pretend that capitalism and the market can work
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things out on their own that when people buy Patagonia or they buy dolphin friendly tuna or they learn about
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transparency or some fake organization says that Southwest Airlines is an ESG investment it dilutes the need for
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Democratic institutions to regulate these organiz organizations I I you picked one company who I do think Rous
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convoluted Patagonia I think and I think people who buy there buy there I think that's a success successful
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version of that but go ahead and so does Ben and Jerry's I would argue that constitutes less than 0.1% of the market
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yes I would agree the majority of research shows around ESG or social mining companies they're tiebreakers the
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consumers aren't willing to pay for them but they will if they're the exact same
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product at the exact same price they'll go with the one that more that doesn't you know that lets Dolphins out of its
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Nets or whatever but this is and I I think it's a time we come to grips with the fact that a lot of this you know
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social benefit organization or ESG jazz hands is just that to that point there should be an FDA that says when your mom
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rewrites an opinion on a failed drug and then takes it public with a spack and you sell all of your to run to to
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get a billion dollars maybe there should be more government over side I look I I
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worry that I worry that at the end of the day we need to democratic institutions need to regulate these
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companies and that all these Byzantine structures and virtue signaling are nothing but a San bergian move to serve
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as a a ma a weapon of mass distraction from the fact that for-profit companies are this amazing part of capitalism they
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grow they innovate they're full body contact so let's get the government in there in other words and then let's
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let's tax them at a fair rate and not let them take their IP offshore so they can avoid taxes and then let's use those
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taxes to hire outstanding people who try to prevent a tragedy to the commons and
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regulate these companies yep I agree let me ask you a different question though is this board structure obviously
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Microsoft is getting a board seat uh sa Adella posted about a board changes uh noting we believe this is the first
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essential step the path to more stable well-informed effective governance he kind of that was the shot across the bow
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uh for him and like we're going to be watching like we we get I I think a lot of people were surprised they didn't
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have a seat uh at all or have even an obser observer status I think that was he really pulled a pulled the iron out
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of the fire as they say here for of his investment in terms of getting this back
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in Sam's hands but he definitely if that had not turned out that way it would have been very bad for Microsoft as you
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saw on Friday after he was fired that they did not have their hands around this in the way they needed to um you
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know it'll be interesting to see they get a board seat the other women that were floated at one point was Lorraine
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poell jobs Marissa mayor cona rice all these some of these were rejected because they were too close to Sam um
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it'll be interesting to see who they bring to the board I sent I put a list up to up many many people um there's
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lots of you know I'd put f f Lee on the board why not like she's neither a Doomer nor a nor a techno Optimist you
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know someone like that who has sort of a middle ground sort of like the Supreme Court you want something that's a little
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more I don't know who is anyone you would think should be on the board Larry Summers is I don't know where he popped
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out of but sure so who would you bring on the board give me some names I I haven't thought about there's a lot of
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talented people I would want to bring I would absolutely want to bring someone who really understands Ai and
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disinformation I think those are the biggest threats also Cara that and you've said this you said something that
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always really that's really resonated with me and that is the people that design these Technologies don't put in
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place the protections because they've never been victims themselves and again we're setting up another technology
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that's being designed by Rich white guys who don't understand what it's like to be the subject of revenge porn or to
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have your family attacked or feel physically physically threatened I think it's interesting I think that they you
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know someone who they should have on the board a media person to under you know like I Barry Diller is too old but the
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lawsuits are on copyright they need a media they need a media Barry Diller would be great on the board I'd love to
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see a you know I'd love to see a guy like Jonathan hey on the board I think he just has such a clear blue flame they
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need tech people though too they need people understand the technology um they can't just have like I I I thought Lisa
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Sue but she's obviously competitor in terms of the chips anyway they have to be creative here and come up with names
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we have not heard of and I would say young and old too right I anyway one of the things that's very clear is the
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effective altruism movement something uh that the former open AA board members were vocal about a loser here they've
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been attacking me all weekend all the effective alterist they're not very nice people these altruists really what have
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they been saying I don't know any of them oh just like you don't understand I'm like I I am so not a techno I am so
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not a techno Optimist it's like crazy like are are you literally know who you're talking to um they think
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obviously AI could destroy mankind they favor safety over speed obviously we favor safety um it doesn't mean you have
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to be slow but fav safety um uh as I as I wrote one of the former board members was particularly apocalyptic about AI I
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had heard that from many people um by the way Sam bankman freed was also one of the big Believers and backers of
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effective altruism someone called someone wants to call it ineffective altruism it's really gotten a black eye
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a lot of people have written about that it's reheated ESG isn't it I guess I don't no I think it's a little more
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complex but it's another one of those things that pops out of Silicon Valley and you're like oh just go take
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psychedelics yeah that we don't need to be regulated that we have moved to a different era of
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philosophical uh Grandeur where we can all still get rich and government shouldn't get in the way or am I being
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too reductive well I'm not sure there it's that we know what's best it's a small group of people who knows what's
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best for the rest of humanity I is that's when I whenever I'm with any of them I'm like so you're the one that's
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going to decide this I feel like I'd rather have the dirty Mass do it right like the mass the mob the I I prefer the
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mob over this group and any day of the week right like and I don't like the mob that much I don't know one of these
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things pops up in Silicon Valley all the time I find you know some of some of the
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ideas are good but making it into a movement a cult feels really weird anyway we'll see what happens we'll see
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maybe you'll get on the board of of or I'll get on the board unlikely Cara that's just unlikely but thank you
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someone was like Cara should be on the board I'm like I would be the go candidate before I would get on the
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board of open AI you check a lot of boxes I do I would do it you check a lot of boxes I do I'd be irritating to them
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they don't know what I'm going to do that's the issue I'm not controllable