August 2024

Something smells rotten at OpenAI, starting with Sam Altman. Ever since Altman was fired (and re-hired) in November 2022, emphasis on safety has plummeted: Altman restructured the board, firing those who were concerned about AI safety. Since then, almost half of the safety department has fled the company, citing that AI safety is not prioritized.

In the 1980s, we used to say, "Garbage In, Garbage Out" about computers. Now, we are seeing the snake eating its own tail. Virtual "inbreeding" may be the death of public-facing AI, but not the back end. Humanity's AI control systems feed on a fresh diet of "organic data": the Internet of Things, the Internet of Bodies, the Internet of Nano-bio Things, plus data spun off financial transactions, telemetry systems, etc. The former is a sideshow; the latter is the featured matinee. The latter is why AI companies are building humongous power-grabbing data centers.

AI is rapidly leading the world into a woke, left-wing sinkhole. The study concludes: "This shift in information sourcing [search engines vs. AI] has profound societal implications, as LLMs can shape public opinion, influence voting behaviors, and impact the overall discourse in society." I can personally testify to this from my own experience with AI at several levels.