[HN Gopher] Snowden: "They've gone full mask-off: do not ever tr...
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       Snowden: "They've gone full mask-off: do not ever trust OpenAI or
       its products"
        
       Author : underlogic
       Score  : 77 points
       Date   : 2024-06-14 22:13 UTC (48 minutes ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | xenospn wrote:
       | Doesn't he work for Putin these days?
        
         | A_D_E_P_T wrote:
         | Are you aware of the circumstances of how he ended up there?
         | I'm not sure what options you think he had.
        
           | RegularOpossum wrote:
           | Should have never run and would have been out free by now
           | like Chelsea Manning.
        
             | kemotep wrote:
             | Same with Reality Winner.
             | 
             | Seems like everyone else who blew the whistle about this
             | stuff didn't need to run away.
        
             | paulryanrogers wrote:
             | My guess is he'd be serving a life sentence.
        
               | pizzzle wrote:
               | And rightly so, given the magnitude of his crimes.
        
             | segasaturn wrote:
             | He may have, but it's not as like we knew Manning was going
             | to be pardoned in 2013. She was also put through extremely
             | cruel and unusual treatment during detention, such as being
             | kept in solitary confinement for months at a time for no
             | reason other than to make an example.
        
               | dturdr wrote:
               | He deserved the punishment he got. Should still be there,
               | and would be if it wasn't for the interfering pardoning
               | process.
        
             | Glyptodon wrote:
             | Powers that be have always had it in waaaaaay more for
             | Snowden. I don't think he'd be free like Manning.
        
             | viraptor wrote:
             | Unless you're involved in that decision making process and
             | leaking the information here, that's just pure random guy
             | internet speculation. The scope for them was very different
             | and you're basically saying "trust this with your life,
             | you'll be totally fine".
        
             | klAsglx wrote:
             | What is this based on? No matter what people think he
             | deserves, my guess is that Snowden, like Assange, is a
             | character that the ruling class wants to make an example
             | of. Chelsea Manning does not threaten the ruling class,
             | especially after you know what.
             | 
             | Assange is still being charged.
        
             | janice1999 wrote:
             | Remember when Mike Pompeo, who would go on to be both a CIA
             | Director and Secretary of State, publicly called for
             | Snowden to be executed. I do.
        
           | Smeevy wrote:
           | I totally agree that he didn't have many options.
           | 
           | A consequence of him choosing to be under the protection of
           | an adversary of my country is that his opinions about my
           | country carry much less weight with me now.
        
             | fooker wrote:
             | But it is not an opinion about your country, unless you
             | think there's significant symbiosis between OpenAI and the
             | US government, proving his point.
        
               | Smeevy wrote:
               | Quite the opposite. He's saying that OpenAI is a tool of
               | the American surveillance state. I don't even really
               | disagree with that.
               | 
               | Edward Snowden saying it while under the protection of
               | the Russian government makes me look for ulterior
               | motives. That's how we're supposed to treat
               | disinformation, isn't it?
        
             | dijit wrote:
             | He was en route somewhere else, the US cancelled his
             | passport and downed diplomatic planes out of russia that
             | they suspected he was on, this was an international scandal
             | that you conveniently forgot.
             | 
             | Can we please put these myths to bed? or are you intending
             | to intentionally spread this misinformation?
        
           | cryptoegorophy wrote:
           | I wonder what the options are. Seems like any developed
           | country would given him to USA without any issues no matter
           | how illegal it is (see Kim Dotcom saga), and out of all the
           | "pro Russia " options Russia(Moscow) is the most developed
           | one to have a good lifestyle.
        
           | georgeplusplus wrote:
           | how he ended up there has no impact on what influence Putin
           | has over him now. Which is a lot. And incase you don't follow
           | the war in Ukraine, where dissidents and journalists are
           | jailed for straying even slightly from the main narrative. He
           | doesn't get a free pass, hes very likely pressured to a large
           | degree especially given the influencer like status he wields.
        
         | Smeevy wrote:
         | I wonder if he has any thoughts about the war in Ukraine?
         | 
         | That's weird... he hasn't tweeted (xeeted?) anything about
         | that.
        
           | AlexandrB wrote:
           | Totally irrelevant. And I say this as someone who still has
           | family in Ukraine.
           | 
           | Why does it matter what Snowden has to say about Ukraine?
           | He's neither a subject matter expert on the topic nor
           | particularly known for his geopolitical opinions.
        
             | tempestn wrote:
             | Not to mention he clearly wouldn't be free to talk openly
             | about it.
        
               | joemi wrote:
               | I think that's why they mentioned Ukraine - to point out
               | that it's always in Snowden's best interest to be
               | critical of the US and US things, and remind us to bear
               | that in mind when considering him and what he says.
        
           | nashashmi wrote:
           | It is not a digital war. He won't have much to say other than
           | America wants Russia to fight Ukraine to tire out Russia,
           | even if Ukrainians are devastated.
        
           | wumeow wrote:
           | His opinions on the Russian intelligence apparatus are also
           | curiously missing.
        
         | poikroequ wrote:
         | Maybe, but with a gun pointed at his head. Or maybe there's
         | just an open window nearby.
        
       | vouaobrasil wrote:
       | I don't need Snowden to tell me not to trust OpenAI. The feeling
       | I got when reading just a few words when I first found out about
       | the company was the same feeling one gets when walking into a
       | used car shop run by the guy who bullied you in high school.
        
         | ranger_danger wrote:
         | Many people DO need someone to tell them though. Would you
         | rather nothing was said at all?
        
       | threeseed wrote:
       | Of course there is a legitimate reason for having Nakasone on the
       | board.
       | 
       | OpenAI is highly sensitive to regulation which is why they have
       | such a large lobbying team trying to push the US government in
       | their direction. He (a) brings political connections and (b)
       | gives confidence that any advancements won't threaten US national
       | security. It is pretty common amongst enterprise boards.
       | 
       | The reality is that the perceptions of what AI can do is
       | impacting the world far more than what it can actually do.
        
         | bagels wrote:
         | If you want to sell to the government, this is also a good
         | idea.
        
           | contingencies wrote:
           | Let's crowdsource some prompt engineering to win an election.
        
           | threeseed wrote:
           | According to the OpenAI CTO, ChatGPT5 is not going to break
           | new ground.
           | 
           | So if you were Sam the smart thing to do is to get your
           | platform embedded absolutely everywhere before the heat
           | starts to come out of this iteration of AI.
        
             | IAmGraydon wrote:
             | >According to the OpenAI CTO, ChatGPT5 is not going to
             | break new ground.
             | 
             | Source?
        
               | threeseed wrote:
               | "Mira Murati says the AI models that OpenAI have in their
               | labs are not much more advanced than those which are
               | publicly available."
               | 
               | https://x.com/tsarnick/status/1801022339162800336?s=46
        
         | tmpz22 wrote:
         | Reminds me of Henry Kissinger and others being put on the
         | Theranos board.
         | 
         | How do we know these board seats are real and not just rubber
         | stamping everything for the free pay check?
        
       | hecanjog wrote:
       | The rest of the tweet (I assume) is quoted here in case you have
       | twitter blocked too:
       | 
       | https://fortune.com/2024/06/14/edward-snowden-eviscerates-op...
        
         | random_kris wrote:
         | Lol why would you block twitter haha
        
       | sroerick wrote:
       | Is the implication that they're training OpenAI on NSA data?
        
       | nashashmi wrote:
       | What choice do we have?
        
         | OutOfHere wrote:
         | You have a choice, and it is simple. Earn money. Buy GPUs.
         | Download llama3 or comparable open models. Run them. Stop using
         | the OpenAI LLMs. Stop willingly feeding the surveillance
         | industrial complex.
        
       | dturdr wrote:
       | Can we please just ignore this worthless, treacherous egotist?
       | All he's doing is trying to stay relevant by pointing out the
       | obvious.
        
       | joemi wrote:
       | From the same tweet: "This is a willful, calculated betrayal of
       | the rights of every person on Earth."
       | 
       | Sounds like a bit of a hyperbole to me.
        
         | elevatedastalt wrote:
         | Dunno the details of this specific issue, but hyperbole is
         | pretty standard for Snowden. I don't blame him too much. The
         | guy has been through hell. But let's just say his Twitter
         | proclamations aren't exactly neutrally worded.
        
           | pizzzle wrote:
           | He brought it all upon himself. The only person to blame for
           | Snowden's situation now is Snowden.
        
         | andsoitis wrote:
         | Concur. While being alarmist can help elevate a cause, it
         | should be used sparingly lest you be seen as crying wolf.
        
       | imchillyb wrote:
       | OpenAI did the reasonable and logical thing here. They're easing
       | themselves around regulatory hurdles, possibly avoiding Senate
       | committee interrogations, and legitimizing themselves all with a
       | single board seat.
       | 
       | Snowden's being disingenuous. He knows all of this and has chosen
       | to ignore the above in service of an agenda.
       | 
       | What _actual_ choice did OpenAI have here? If they do not accept
       | an NSA board member today, what would OpenAI be forced to accept
       | later?
        
         | OutOfHere wrote:
         | OpenAI is very guilty of pushing for regulation of AI, leading
         | to all these issues in the first place. They themselves created
         | the poison of regulation for which they now purchased the
         | antidote. They had a choice to not scaremonger or push for
         | regulation, but to fight for freedom on constitutional grounds.
        
       | AndrewKemendo wrote:
       | OpenAI - whose CEO is Sam Altman, is financially backed by
       | Microsoft, using Microsoft infrastructure and search and is now
       | embedded in Apple, has crossed the line by adding the former
       | NSA/CSS Commander to the board?
       | 
       | I'm a huge Snowden fan but cmon dude...Give me a break
       | 
       | OpenAI was never some indie thing
       | 
       | OpenAI is the most perfect physical manifestation of cynical,
       | alienating, self-important narcissistic capitalism that has ever
       | been seen
       | 
       | You would think LVMH would take this title, but there's no more
       | hypnotizing scrying device for burgeoning psychopathic
       | narcissists (CEOs, "influencers", rappers etc..) than the endless
       | fawning solipsism on demand from a simulacrum of a human
        
       | omoikane wrote:
       | > Source: The Verge
       | 
       | https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/13/24178079/openai-board-pau...
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40680962 - Former head of
       | NSA joins OpenAI board
        
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       (page generated 2024-06-14 23:02 UTC)