this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2025
18 points (95.0% liked)

TechTakes

2158 readers
68 users here now

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.

This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.

For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 2 points 1 hour ago

The report claims its about ethical AI use, but all I see is evidence that AI is inherently unethical, and an argument for banning AI from education forever.

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)
[–] scruiser@awful.systems 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

The Oracle deal seemed absurd, but I didn't realize how absurd until I saw Ed's compilation of the numbers. Notably, it means even if OpenAI meets its projected revenue numbers (which are absurdly optimistic, like bigger than Netflix and Spotify and several other services combined) paying Oracle (along with everyone else it has promised to buy compute from) will put it net negative on revenue until 2030, meaning it has to raise even more money.

I've been assuming Sam Altman has absolutely no real belief that LLMs would lead to AGI and has instead been cynically cashing in on the sci-fi hype, but OpenAI's choices don't make any long term sense if AGI isn't coming. The obvious explanation is that at this point he simply plans to grift and hype (while staying technically within the bounds of legality) to buy few years of personal enrichment. And to even ask what his "real beliefs" are gives him too much credit.

Just to remind everyone: the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent!

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 1 points 3 hours ago

OpenAI’s choices don’t make any long term sense if AGI isn’t coming. The obvious explanation is that at this point he simply plans to grift and hype (while staying technically within the bounds of legality) to buy few years of personal enrichment.

Another possibility is that Altman's bought into his own hype, and genuinely believes OpenAI will achieve AGI before the money runs out. Considering the tech press has been uncritically hyping up AI in general, and Sammy Boy himself has publicly fawned over "metafiction" "written" by an in-house text extruder, its a possibility I'm not gonna discount.

[–] antifuchs@awful.systems 16 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Whichever one of you did https://alignmentalignment.ai/caaac/jobs, well done, and many lols.

CAAAC is an open, dynamic, inclusive environment, where all perspectives are welcomed as long as you believe AGI will annihilate all humans in the next six months.

Alright, I can pretend to believe that, go on…

We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits, including no performance management because we have no way to assess whether the work you do is at all useful.

Incredible. I hope I get the job!

[–] TinyTimmyTokyo@awful.systems 2 points 1 hour ago

Make sure to click the "Apply Now" button at the bottom for a special treat.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 11 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

The Wall Street Journal came out with a story on "conspiracy physics", noting Eric Weinstein and Sabine Hossenfelder as examples. Sadly, one of their quoted voices of sanity is Scott Aaronson, baking-soda volcano of genocide apologism.

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 7 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Somehow, ~~Palpatine returned~~ Scott came off as a voice of reason

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 10 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Behold the power of this fully selective quotation.

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 2 points 21 hours ago

Being compared to whackjobs with a worse grip on reality than him definitely helped.

[–] corbin@awful.systems 2 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

Since appearing on Piers Morgan’s show, Eric Weinstein has taken to expounding additional theories about physics. Peer review was created by the government, working with Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, to control science, he said on “Diary of a CEO,” one of the world’s most popular podcasts. Jeffrey Epstein was sent by an intelligence agency to throw physics off track and discourage space exploration, keeping humanity trapped in “the prison built by Einstein.”

Heartbreaking! Weinstein isn't fully wrong. Maxwell's daddy was Robert Maxwell, who did indeed have a major role in making Springer big and kickstarting the publish-or-perish model, in addition to having incredibly tight Mossad ties; the corresponding Behind the Bastards episodes are subtitled "how Ghislane Maxwell's dad ruined science." Epstein has been accused of being a Mossad asset tasked with seeking out influential scientists like Marvin Minsky to secure evidence for blackmail and damage their reputations. As they say on Reddit, everybody sucks here.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

First domino: US government invents peer review

Last domino: Richard Stallman successfully kamikazes his reputation for good after multiple close attempts over the years

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 0 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Richard Stallman successfully kamikazes his reputation for good after multiple close attempts over the years

He still maintains a solid reputation with FOSS freaks, fascists and pedophiles to this day. Given the Venn diagram of these three groups is a circle, this isn't particularly shocking.

[–] corbin@awful.systems 3 points 4 hours ago

Fuck, your lack of history is depressing sometimes. That Venn diagram is well-pointed, even among people who have met RMS, and the various factions do not get along with each other. For a taste, previously on Lobsters you can see an avowed FLOSS communist ripping the mask off of a Suckless cryptofascist in response to a video posted by a recently-banned alt-right debate-starter.

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I often love your stuff, but this ain't it.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 8 points 18 hours ago

That's just yer bog-standard "the best lie has a seed of truth", ainnit?

(Peer review in its modern form was adopted gradually, with a recognizable example in 1831 from the same William Whewell who coined the word scientist. It displaced the tradition of having the editor of a journal decide everything himself, so whatever its flaws, it has broadened the diversity of voices that influence what gets officially published.)

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 5 points 18 hours ago

Epstein was a sophon controlled trisolaran asset working to prevent crucial development of physics!!! j/k

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 6 points 1 day ago

The Grauniad has a new piece today about the underpaid human labor on which the "AI" industry depends:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/11/google-gemini-ai-training-humans

Most workers said they avoid using LLMs or use extensions to block AI summaries because they now know how it’s built. Many also discourage their family and friends from using it, for the same reason.

load more comments
view more: next ›