Open AI CEO says his tech is poised to "break capitalism"

[Hydrogen]

Marx's Revenge

In what's perhaps an attempt to head off bad press — or, at very least, convince people he's not the bad guy — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has given Forbes an interview in which he claims that his for-profit company is ultimately going to bring about capitalism's downfall.

First, some context. Altman, who is also the president of the uber-influential Y Combinator startup incubator, is one of only OG OpenAI cofounders still standing. The company's decision to go from more of a research vehicle to a for-profit venture in 2019 was somewhat overshadowed by his fellow cofounder Elon Musk's decision to leave the firm — over some seemingly huge disagreements about its direction.

The CEO behind the record-breaking ChatGPT has a bit of a strange background, the TL;DR of which being that he once admitted to being a doomsday prepper who believes that killer artificial intelligence or a lab-modified virus could bring about the end of days.

Much of the OpenAI CEO's rhetoric in his recent Forbes exclusive hinges on the future — the future of the company, of course, but also on the future of AI in general, and how Altman believes it will dovetail with sentient AIs, otherwise known as artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Anxious General Intelligence

While Altman doesn't think we're that close to AIs gaining consciousness — a belief that's not quite shared by fellow OG OpenAI-er Ilya Sutskever — he did tell Forbes that creating AGI is "the thrust that drives all my actions" and, it seems, his raison d'etre for the firm.

In one exchange, Forbes' Alex Konrad noted the inherent tension regarding capitalism that's found between OpenAI's "research-driven" foundation and the buckets of money investors have put into it. Altman had a provocative response.

"I think capitalism is awesome. I love capitalism," he told Forbes. "Of all of the bad systems the world has, it's the best one — or the least bad one we found so far. I hope we find a way better one."

"I think that if AGI really truly fully happens," he continued, "I can imagine all these ways that it breaks capitalism."

If you're confused by this response, you're not alone. But then again, OpenAI itself was founded to head off the worst outcomes of AGI and is now apparently gunning to make it a reality — so confusion is, it seems, the most rational response to that revelation.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-ceo-agi-break-capitalism

....


AGI (artificial general intelligence) maximalists claim their technology carries a potential to eliminate many skilled labor jobs in tech industries.

Given the massive leap in technology from home PCs 20 years ago with 64 megabytes of RAM and 300 megahertz CPUs leading to the present. Its difficult to imagine or predict how much technology can advance within a relatively short span of time.

Past studies have claimed as much as 50% of skilled labor in tech industries might be vulnerable to automation:

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2018/04/24/a-study-finds-nearly-half-of-jobs-are-vulnerable-to-automation

I feel like this topic might need tiktok reactions to truly do it justice and put it into perspective.

[Hispo]

I have just checked the article in the end of your post and to be honest, I thought that science and engineering would have at minimum risk, but according to that study, there is a risk of about 40% for scientist and engineers.

I believe that is kind of crazy, are we supposed to also relay the job of designing machines to machines themselves?
In the future the scientific articles will be published by artificial intelligence?

It sounds too much, one thing is letting a machine to face costumers in a Macdonalds but it is very different letting a machine to do science by itself.

[NeuroticFish]

They're early yet and one will still need to understand what AI have done in order to tell the job was done correctly or not. So the jobs are not at an imminent risk... yet.

But on long term.. just imagine a script kiddie just asks AI to write him quickly a malware or a hack. Or the secretary asks AI to make a malware she can plant easily on her boss' computer.
I mean that these guys are not far from truth: this easy access to information at such a high level can open Pandora's box.
No matter how skilled somebody is, AI will fill the gaps. And this can be used easier for evil than for good.

[arallmuus]

It sounds too much, one thing is letting a machine to face costumers in a Macdonalds but it is very different letting a machine to do science by itself.

Havent you watched Black panther? Pretty much science in that movie is basically calculated by AI and humans are only creating whatever the AI calculated. Yeah I know its just a movie but basically the world as we speak will always head to the future so there isnt 0 possibility that we might not be heading to a future where everything will be generated and designed by AI

[hatshepsut93]

We are as far from artificial general intelligence as from interstellar traveling. These fancy neural networks aren't the beginning of general intelligence. They are just tools for solving narrow problems. And we don't even have a good idea how general intelligence works, how our brains work. So how can we recreate it even without understanding it? It's like building a nuclear reactor without knowing any laws of physics.

[uneng]

AGI (artificial general intelligence) maximalists claim their technology carries a potential to eliminate many skilled labor jobs in tech industries.

Given the massive leap in technology from home PCs 20 years ago with 64 megabytes of RAM and 300 megahertz CPUs leading to the present. Its difficult to imagine or predict how much technology can advance within a relatively short span of time.

Past studies have claimed as much as 50% of skilled labor in tech industries might be vulnerable to automation:

That is actually expected and just a matter of time until happening, as technology is developed. If we look the past, we will see many jobs that existed before don't exist anymore, because they were automated. And that isn't a bad thing, since it has brought more confort to civilization, while those humans can still occupy another jobs' spots.

Also, new categories of jobs more related to humanist area, where the direct contact between individuals is the focus, with emphasis on sensorial aspects tend to take place, as that is something AIs can't execute with excellency.

[Hispo]

It sounds too much, one thing is letting a machine to face costumers in a Macdonalds but it is very different letting a machine to do science by itself.

Havent you watched Black panther? Pretty much science in that movie is basically calculated by AI and humans are only creating whatever the AI calculated. Yeah I know its just a movie but basically the world as we speak will always head to the future so there isnt 0 possibility that we might not be heading to a future where everything will be generated and designed by AI

what you said reminds me those movies and advertisements from the 50s and 60s which told people that by the year 2000 people would have had flying cars and personal robots in their houses, etc.

I personally believe that we as species are very bad at forecasting what will happen to our society in decades or even years.
Or back in 2010 you expected people to elect Trump as president of USA and people setting 5G antennas ablaze in first World countries?

[paid2]

I think that artificial intelligences are not yet ready to replace 50% of the workers.
When I was younger, I used to hear from time to time "In 10 years, Airbus pilots will be replaced by a complete autopilot", we are still waiting... For the moment there are still at least 2 pilots in the cabin, despite the autopilots.

It's certain that artificial intelligence will help tech workers, and reduce the amount of work needed for some redundant tasks, but I think we still have a few decades before we can replace them completely.
 
We can also say that in many countries (in Africa, South America, Eastern and Southern Europe, or Asia) human workers could cost much less than artificial intelligence licenses. I think Hispo is right, even if technology is progressing, we are far from seeing it do our work for us in a completely independent way. 50% of unemployed people in the tech industry seems big to me.

[Darker45]

If so, how does it actually break capitalism? On the contrary, it actually reinforces capitalism. It boosts capitalism. If huge companies in the future would no longer hire human beings for manual labor and other skilled jobs, it doesn't put capitalism in a disadvantageous position; it actually drives it forward.

Also, technology eliminating some jobs doesn't mean people are losing job opportunities. Technologies open a whole new set of possibilities that still need people.

[passwordnow]

We're going there in automation and it's certainly inevitable that those manual jobs will be replaced by these bots/Ai anytime sooner than we think.
But to look the least with this innovation, I'm sure that this is part of the improvement of someone's productivity. Soon, we'll see people using these AI technologies to become more productive. I know that it's scary to look at the moment at what it can do and for sure that it will go deeper and further. Yet, we haven't seen the best help that it can do based on someone's task inside an organization. We've seen machineries replaced manual workers and soon AI will replace these processes but, I'm having that faith that it won't be completely remove everyone's potential opportunity to look at it.

[Poker Player]

Well, well, another communist billionaire who would have us believe that he is describing reality when what he is doing is projecting his desires onto it.

To be a pedigree communist you have to have a lot of money, like Marx, who was a posh who never worked in his life and spent his time lecturing others about work.

If so, how does it actually break capitalism?

It doesn't.

On the contrary, it actually reinforces capitalism. It boosts capitalism. If huge companies in the future would no longer hire human beings for manual labor and other skilled jobs, it doesn't put capitalism in a disadvantageous position; it actually drives it forward.

Also, technology eliminating some jobs doesn't mean people are losing job opportunities. Technologies open a whole new set of possibilities that still need people.

Shut up, come on! How can you think of telling that to the communist billionaire and all the socialists that swarm the forum? Anything other than thinking that we are getting worse and worse because of capitalism does not enter their heads.

[Smartprofit]

Well, well, another communist billionaire who would have us believe that he is describing reality when what he is doing is projecting his desires onto it.

To be a pedigree communist you have to have a lot of money, like Marx, who was a posh who never worked in his life and spent his time lecturing others about work.

If so, how does it actually break capitalism?

It doesn't.

On the contrary, it actually reinforces capitalism. It boosts capitalism. If huge companies in the future would no longer hire human beings for manual labor and other skilled jobs, it doesn't put capitalism in a disadvantageous position; it actually drives it forward.

Also, technology eliminating some jobs doesn't mean people are losing job opportunities. Technologies open a whole new set of possibilities that still need people.

Shut up, come on! How can you think of telling that to the communist billionaire and all the socialists that swarm the forum? Anything other than thinking that we are getting worse and worse because of capitalism does not enter their heads.

I also love capitalism...

However, I cannot but admit that capitalism does not solve the most important task of mankind - the task of preserving man as a species.  We are currently observing how the Earth's natural resources are being exploited.  But these riches belong not only to modern capitalists, but also to future (not yet born) generations of earthlings.

I don't like socialism.  

However, there are concepts of the communist structure of social society.  For example, such a concept was developed in detail by the Soviet science fiction writer Ivan Yefremov.  

At the moment, this seems like a utopia, but given modern information processing technologies (exceeding Ivan Efremov's wildest hopes), we can conclude that the concept of a humanistic communist society can be realized.  

Modern neural networks can ensure the management of such a complex social society, and people can concentrate on creativity, exploits, self-improvement and achieving happiness for themselves and their neighbors on the planet!

[DrBeer]

Another loud statement for the hype!

Interested in the views of the participants on the following issues:
1. HOW will this platform lead to the collapse of CAPITALISM?
The basis of capitalism is private property, finance, private business. That on which the well-being of people and countries as a whole is built.
2. WHAT system will be after the collapse of CAPITALISM? Socialism? Communism? But this technology won't destroy them, and why won't it?
3. If this system leads to the collapse of all known systems - are we moving to digital ANARCHY?

PS Communism will definitely not work, even the "great USSR" promised it, fooled everyone, but did nothing .. Even the foundation By the way, communism, if you adhere to its ideology, kills the "commercial vein" and progress, kills guaranteed and faster than any AI

[stompix]

Marx's Revenge

Revenge, or blodbath!
The millions of people that died because some idiots believed in his utopian dreams had been enough to make his soul never find peace.

Havent you watched Black panther? Pretty much science in that movie is basically calculated by AI and humans are only creating whatever the AI calculated. Yeah I know its just a movie but basically the world as we speak will always head to the future so there isnt 0 possibility that we might not be heading to a future where everything will be generated and designed by AI

Have you watched the Jetsons? I'm still waiting for that flying car that was promised to the whole world before I was even born, yet all those promises are broken, all the IoT hype has died down, and suddenly because they've managed to create a piece of software that can write articles from data inserted in by humans, thus making the same human errors we again are facing another cultural revolution.
Replace workers? There is already a dire need for high skilled jobs in the EU , with as many as 700 000 need in Germany alone, every company has a problem getting employees and people are speaking about a 50% cut in the workforce.

Automatization of repetitive tasks in which humans are prone to mistakes is one thing and it has happened since the industrial revolution centuries ago, having an AI tell people what to do and how to do, that's different thing

If so, how does it actually break capitalism? On the contrary, it actually reinforces capitalism. It boosts capitalism. If huge companies in the future would no longer hire human beings for manual labor and other skilled jobs, it doesn't put capitalism in a disadvantageous position; it actually drives it forward.

Shh, don't tell commies that.
They might remember how they built their commie societies in the first place. You take everything from the rich guys, which means money, business, properties, and things like..capital..ups!!!

[o48o]

-cut-
AGI (artificial general intelligence) maximalists claim their technology carries a potential to eliminate many skilled labor jobs in tech industries.
-cut-

For sure, every distruptive technology destroys jobs, that's why it's disruptive. Even blockchain is supposed to remove middle man jobs. But i didn't see in the article how that would destroy capitalism. I am all for some new system but removing work force only creates unemployment. And sometimes new jobs appear. Like we have ton of youtube influencers now. Years ago no one would have thought it would be a paying job. And funny thing about machines taking away productive jobs. Not every job needs to be productive, at least not in a similar way it used to be.

But i am glad that Elon left the openai. That made me happy. He would be a horrible boss

[coupable]

We can also say that in many countries (in Africa, South America, Eastern and Southern Europe, or Asia) human workers could cost much less than artificial intelligence licenses. I think Hispo is right, even if technology is progressing, we are far from seeing it do our work for us in a completely independent way. 50% of unemployed people in the tech industry seems big to me.

In the examples you mentioned, the systems are still lagging behind and may not have a work base to fully adopt artificial intelligence in an attempt to compensate for human intellectual effort. People in those countries still need to work and artificial intelligence can add to their misery.
The other point is about the use of that technology, which can be a double-edged sword. More importantly, it is the answer to the fateful question "What is the future of human creativity" in the era of artificial intelligence ? and the development of robotics technology in parallel.