this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023
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TechTakes

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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

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Turns out Altman is a lab-leak covid truther, calls virus 'synthetic' according to Spectator piece on AI risk. (archive.is)
submitted 1 year ago by Architeuthis@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems
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Sam Altman, the recently fired (and rehired) chief executive of Open AI, was asked earlier this year by his fellow tech billionaire Patrick Collison what he thought of the risks of synthetic biology. ‘I would like to not have another synthetic pathogen cause a global pandemic. I think we can all agree that wasn’t a great experience,’ he replied. ‘Wasn’t that bad compared to what it could have been, but I’m surprised there has not been more global coordination and I think we should have more of that.’

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[–] swlabr@awful.systems 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would like to not have another synthetic pathogen cause a global pandemic.

Gonna ignore the urge to sneer at the tinfoil hattery here. See the rest of this comment section for that.

I think we can all agree that wasn’t a great experience

Sam, you have a doomsday bunker and a bunch of cash. This was one of your dream scenarios. Don't pretend like you're one of us.

[–] cstross@wandering.shop 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@swlabr He doesn't have mirrorshade-wearing bodyguard goons wearing collar bombs to keep them in line after civilization collapses. Or a long pork sushi chef. Yet.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah that’s probably what he meant by not a “great experience.” Our billionaire baby boy couldn’t get a nice night’s sleep without his hommes au jus.