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AI, it's future in entertainment & perhaps exploitation

SouprMatt said:
Two great articles talking about the dangers of AI from people who saw it coming years ago. At least one was a high-up employee at Google and was let go for sounding the alarm bells.
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Shades of the run-up to the 2007-2008 financial collapse when risk managers were being variously shut out of meetings or fired for being wing nut alarmists...
 
I get the need to tout the benefits of AI, but there should also be the constant reminder of how it will be intentionally used to exploit.

bleedingcool.com

Comic Creators React To Dall-E Theft From Brian Bolland & Mike Allred

This week, the Dall-E artificial intelligence service took a jump in terms of being able to generate comic book-style images.
bleedingcool.com
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This week, the Dall-E artificial intelligence service took a jump in terms of being able to generate comic book-style images, as Image Generator from Dall-E 3. And in doing so, demonstrated some of the images it is stealing to cobble together its output, in a seemingly rather impressive fashion. But is it?

Ammaar Reshi, product designer for AI company Brex, posted the following to XTwitter. "OpenAI's latest image generation model, DALL-E 3, makes it SO easy to create comic books! Here are 4 panels for a fan-made Batman comic made in under 5 minutes." With images that clearly used the work of Mike Allred, Brian Bolland, Kevin Nowlan, Lee Bermejo and Charles Burns to generate the following images from the accompanying prompts.
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Of course it's so easy. Someone else already did the work years ago. You're NOT doing anything.

But hey, isn't this great. (y) 🤨

This is why there was such a race to create programs like Glaze, to keep one's work from being scraped by AI. Unfortunately it doesn't do a thing for the volume of copyrighted work that has already been created & ready to be ripped off.
 
Jay Mysteri0 said:
I get the need to tout the benefits of AI, but there should also be the constant reminder of how it will be intentionally used to exploit.




Of course it's so easy. Someone else already did the work years ago. You're NOT doing anything.

But hey, isn't this great. (y) 🤨

This is why there was such a race to create programs like Glaze, to keep one's work from being scraped by AI. Unfortunately it doesn't do a thing for the volume of copyrighted work that has already been created & ready to be ripped off.
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And when a multi-billion dollar corporation steals, you can’t put them in jail. You have to sue, and they have millions for lawyers. Even if they lose, they still made more money than it cost them to rip you off.
 
SouprMatt said:
And when a multi-billion dollar corporation steals, you can’t put them in jail. You have to sue, and they have millions for lawyers. Even if they lose, they still made more money than it cost them to rip you off.
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Between corporations and enterprising individual criminals we end up at "Why we can't have nice things".... because of the debilitating combo of extreme (and conflicting) ideas on the pricing (and stealing of) the results of creative endeavors:

"information wants to be free" and​
​
"remember, the customer is the actual product"​
​
"charge an arm and a leg and settle for a forearm or a couple fingers and a thumb if necessary" and​
​
"it doesn't cost anything to put a book or movie on the internet so why should we pay for it."​

Greed plus ignorance (or, specialized knowledge) amplified by instantaneous communications and limitless storage capabilities via the internet, what a way to go. It's a tossup whether that or climate change will finish us off. Gotta love it that on top of all that, cryptocurrency mining is exacerbating water and power issues and contributing to climate change. Sometimes I wonder why there's a market for dystopian novels. Just being alive today makes us all part of the cast in the ultimate dystopian reality TV show. 🤪 Still I can't look away. Those rose-colored glasses...
 
AI's future looking a little shell-shocked tonight, uncertain how to react to ouster of Sam Altman from OpenAI

link to piece in WSJ (paywall lifted)


OpenAI pushed out co-founder Sam Altman as chief executive officer, saying he wasn’t being “consistently candid in his communications” with the artificial-intelligence company‘s board.

The startup said Friday that its board concluded after a review that Altman’s actions, which it didn’t specify, were “hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.” The company’s statement, unusually candid for such a situation, said: “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”
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Mira Murati, the company’s chief technology officer, will serve as interim CEO, effective immediately, OpenAI said. Murati already has been heavily involved in OpenAI’s day-to-day operations, people close to the company said. As a part of the transition, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, another co-founder, will step down as chairman of the board, though remain in his role at the company, reporting to the CEO.
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Waiting for some other shoe to drop in the way of information... I mean what does exactly does failure "to be consistently candid" in communications with the board of directors really mean?
 
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lizkat said:
AI's future looking a little shell-shocked tonight, uncertain how to react to ouster of Sam Altman from OpenAI

link to piece in WSJ (paywall lifted)






Waiting for some other shoe to drop in the way of information... I mean what does exactly does failure "to be consistently candid" in communications with the board of directors really mean?
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I’m guessing big financial losses (or something that will imminently lead to them) he is covering up…
 
More from the NYT on Sam Altman's departure from OpenAI. Some info and comment from Microsoft re their partnership.

OpenAI’s Board Pushes Out Sam Altman, Its High-Profile C.E.O. (paywall lifted)

A co-founder who was originally said to be stepping down from the board but remaining as president, has now said on X that he's quitting.

Mr. Brockman, who helped found OpenAI alongside Mr. Altman, said in a post on X that he was quitting. The company said earlier in the day that he would step down as chairman of the board but remain as president, reporting to the chief executive. Reached by phone, Mr. Brockman declined to comment. From OpenAI’s earliest days, he had been instrumental in shaping both its mission and its day-to-day operations.
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OpenAI is in talks to close a new funding round that would value the company at more than $80 billion — nearly triple its valuation less than a year ago — and it is unclear what Mr. Altman’s departure will mean for those talks. But his removal is a blow to Microsoft, which has invested $13 billion in OpenAI and has what amounts to a 49 percent stake in the company. Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, introduced an expansive plan this year to use the technology developed at OpenAI in nearly all of Microsoft’s products, from the Bing search engine to its widely used business software. Mr. Altman joined him at a press event to announce the plans.
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In a message to OpenAI employees viewed by The New York Times, Ms. Murati said that she had talked with Mr. Nadella and Microsoft’s chief technology officer, Kevin Scott, on Friday and that they remained supportive of OpenAI.

“We are now at a crucial juncture where our tools are being widely adopted, developers are actively building on our platforms and policymakers are deliberating on the best ways to regulate these systems,” she wrote. “It’s more important than ever that we stay focused, driven and true to our core values.”
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The co-founder Brockman's post on X as reported by the FT is also pretty interesting, especially in combination with the fact that at first the board said he would "step down" from the board and report to the interim CEO. Not the case, as it later turns out, since Brockman then quit.

"We've been through tough & great times together, accomplishing so much despite all the reasons it should have been impossible.​
But based on today's news, I quit."​
​
Did Brockman mean he was quitting because the ouster was news to him too? -- he was ON the board-- and he was somehows urprised as well as dismayed? Or that based on the fact he'd now be president and reporting to Mira as interim CEO, he was quitting because didn't want to do that?

The whole thing about the board indicating that Altman's "lack of continuous candor" was "inhibiting" the ability of the board "to fulfill its responsibilities" sounds like a direct matter of some ongoing financial inquiries, not like a workplace personal misconduct issue. Very strange situation.
 
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lizkat said:
More from the NYT on Sam Altman's departure from OpenAI. Some info and comment from Microsoft re their partnership.

OpenAI’s Board Pushes Out Sam Altman, Its High-Profile C.E.O. (paywall lifted)

A co-founder who was originally said to be stepping down from the board but remaining as president, has now said on X that he's quitting.







The co-founder Brockman's post on X as reported by the FT is also pretty interesting, especially in combination with the fact that at first the board said he would "step down" from the board and report to the interim CEO. Not the case, as it later turns out, since Brockman then quit.

"We've been through tough & great times together, accomplishing so much despite all the reasons it should have been impossible.​
But based on today's news, I quit."​
​
Did Brockman mean he was quitting because the ouster was news to him too? -- he was ON the board-- and he was somehows urprised as well as dismayed? Or that based on the fact he'd now be president and reporting to Mira as interim CEO, he was quitting because didn't want to do that?

The whole thing about the board indicating that Altman's "lack of continuous candor" was "inhibiting" the ability of the board "to fulfill its responsibilities" sounds like a direct matter of some ongoing financial inquiries, not like a workplace personal misconduct issue. Very strange situation.
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I researched this guy’s history, and I should be surprised… but I’m not.

His initial claim to fame was somehow getting venture capitalists to invest $30 million in a worthless company, then getting some other company to buy it. Just the type of thing that makes you a star, I guess? I have a feeling OpenAI is a house of cards… but we shall see.
 
SouprMatt said:
I researched this guy’s history, and I should be surprised… but I’m not.

His initial claim to fame was somehow getting venture capitalists to invest $30 million in a worthless company, then getting some other company to buy it. Just the type of thing that makes you a star, I guess? I have a feeling OpenAI is a house of cards… but we shall see.
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Well, Altman had interests in a lot of other AI-related endeavors, and yet didn't hold any stock personally in OpenAI. A recipe for problems with the board of any startup, I should think. Some outlets are now reporting a schism in the company, with other senior execs leaving after the ouster of Altman and Brockman's step-down/quitting. The only one of the original OpenAI guys left on the board now is Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist.

It was certainly an abrupt sort of thing, at least according to the FT which reported that Greg Brockman "claimed that the board had sacked Altman with no warning, in a video meeting that took place only 30 minutes before the decision was publicly announced." Microsoft also apparently had only a few minutes' warning of Altman's ouster.
 
The Wall Street Journal has more today, on a effort by investors (including Microsoft) to get Altman back into OpenAI.

Some details on the structure of the company are clues to the divergence of opinion within OpenAI board, and may help explain the ouster or at least the schism in the board and senior execs in the company.

A note sent by the board to employees on Saturday doesn't specify the nature of the communications breakdown between the board and Altman, but does say that it was not about “malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices."

Seems to me they could jolly well have said that much when they first announced the ouster. I'm sure Microsoft thought so too, considered it took a big hit on the stock market on Friday.


OpenAI Investors Try to Get Sam Altman Back as CEO After Sudden Firing


... Leading shareholders in OpenAI, including Microsoft and the venture firm Thrive Capital, are helping orchestrate the efforts to reinstate Altman. Microsoft invested $13 billion in OpenAI and is its primary financial backer. Thrive Capital is the second-largest shareholder in the company.
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OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015. Altman created a commercial arm for OpenAI four years later—shortly after he became chief executive—to allow the company to raise the billions of dollars it needed to fund the training of its AI models. That commercial arm was still governed by a nonprofit parent.

The nearly $30 billion for-profit arm is 49%-owned by Microsoft and includes a bevy of top venture capitalists as backers, who were promised a share of OpenAI’s profits. But none ultimately had any control over running the company.
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Instead, OpenAI is governed by a nonprofit board. Only a minority of its members were allowed to have a financial stake in the company at any given time, according to the company’s bylaws. Altman himself had no equity in the company, further diminishing his influence with the board.

This setup allowed the board to essentially oust Altman without the consent of some of OpenAI’s largest investors and even though he delivered rapid financial success for the company and sent its valuation soaring.
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... [in a] note sent to employees Saturday morning, Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap appeared to temper the board’s tone, saying its decision wasn’t because of “malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices. This was a breakdown in communication between Sam and the board.”
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Welp.... whatever was the original problem at OpenAI now it has become open warfare. And... no surprise: money talks. Big money wins.

Microsoft has hired Altman. Hundreds of OpenAi employees now threaten to quit and go there. OpenAi has a (third) new interim CEO in as many days.


Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Amazon’s streaming service Twitch, will join OpenAI as interim CEO. He replaces Mira Murati, who was named interim CEO when Altman was fired. She will return to her role as OpenAI’s chief technology officer.

“We look forward to getting to know Emmett Shear,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “And we’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team.”
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lizkat said:
Welp.... whatever was the original problem at OpenAI now it has become open warfare. And... no surprise: money talks. Big money wins.

Microsoft has hired Altman. Hundreds of OpenAi employees now threaten to quit and go there. OpenAi has a (third) new interim CEO in as many days.

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Isn't the disconnect his differing vision from the majority of the board? He also doesn't have any skin in the game as I believe/read he doesn't own any of the stock.
 
ronntaylor said:
Isn't the disconnect his differing vision from the majority of the board? He also doesn't have any skin in the game as I believe/read he doesn't own any of the stock.
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Yes... Altman had tried to position himself as "a centrist" between the original nonprofit-oriented board --with the longer view of "where is AI going" and how to keep it in open-software mode and safe-- versus the commercial tech piece of the startup, the nuts and bolts efforts, in which Microsoft and others had invested.

So he had no holdings of OpenAI himself but apparently has invested in other AI-oriented endeavors. Possibly part of the problem. And he was pressing to move forward on the new round of capital raising at OpenAI.

In theory the idea was for the startup to work towards AGI (artificial general intelligence) with a strong focus on safety of rollout, but once there was a rollout to the public of the ChatGPT app and it really took off, a new round of financing promptly started that was touted as likely to triple the worth of the commercial piece in a few months. Thus... intense focus and pressure on the dollar chase aspects... and there was meanwhile some probably related turnover in the original OpenAI board which was pretty small to begin with.

Altman said over the weekend he blamed himself for not paying enough attention to growing divergence of OpenAI's overall goals on the board.

But also now the only one of the original OpenAI guys left on that board. their chief scientist, said publicly that he regretted his part in the board decision to oust Altman. Duh, well I guess that would be natural enough considering that once Altman and the board couldn't agree on terms of Altman's return, the guts and brains of OpenAI practically transplanted themselve to Microsoft last night.

We still don't know exactly what prompted the ouster, the "lack of candor in communications" problem has not been spelled out to the public. Some say there was concern about Altman's seeking investment in certain Middle Eastern countries. Concerns about investment by autocratic regimes wanting to use AI in non-democratic ways?

It slo came out that Microsoft was REALLY blindsided by the ouster. They had literally ONE MINUTE's notice of Altman's ouster before the board went public with it. Clearly they did not take that too well. So they have muscled in to try to patch the pre-existing situation up or resolve it in their favor since they have such a huge stake in the thing. And now they have hired away the senior execs of the commercial tech piece of OpenAI, to head up a new AI unit, apparently. Jou

More in Wall Street Journal today (paywall lifted)

One feels like there are more shoes to drop.... almost 700 of the 770 employees of OpenAI threatened to quit unless the board resigned, but that seems like a bit late to the plate since the Microsoft exec hires arranged on Sunday night. Maybe they will migrate to MS (be poached) or lawsuit heaven will now open up...

Meanwhile the market went nuts over Microsoft, it fell almost 2% Friday and seesawed up that much today, at least in the morning. Nvida is into AI also and about to report its earnings, Amazon just announced a program to train employees in AI projects, everyone has dollar signs in their eyes, and it's not clear how much of any of the longer term assurances that "everything will be fine" re safety, privacy, intellectual rights issues etc is all just boilerplate smoke and mirrors at the moment. Who's minding the store? The financial officers and marketers, apparently.
 
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