Sam Altman

My glib answer is that the high-ranking people who leave OpenAI seem to feel like the problem with OpenAI is Sam Altman. And that if you could build AI without Sam Altman, you would probably be having a better time. I see.

And then there's this one other guy who left that I want to talk about.

And then there's this one other guy who left that I want to talk about.

And then there's this one other guy who left that I want to talk about.

It's this guy named Leopold Aschenbrenner. Okay. Have you heard of this guy?

It's this guy named Leopold Aschenbrenner. Okay. Have you heard of this guy?

It's this guy named Leopold Aschenbrenner. Okay. Have you heard of this guy?

So he is quite young. He's still in his 20s. He was a researcher at OpenAI. He is fired, he says, for taking some concerns to the board about safety research. OpenAI denies this. But he goes away and he comes back in June and he publishes a 50,000 word document online called Situational Awareness. Were you aware of Situational Awareness?

So he is quite young. He's still in his 20s. He was a researcher at OpenAI. He is fired, he says, for taking some concerns to the board about safety research. OpenAI denies this. But he goes away and he comes back in June and he publishes a 50,000 word document online called Situational Awareness. Were you aware of Situational Awareness?

So he is quite young. He's still in his 20s. He was a researcher at OpenAI. He is fired, he says, for taking some concerns to the board about safety research. OpenAI denies this. But he goes away and he comes back in June and he publishes a 50,000 word document online called Situational Awareness. Were you aware of Situational Awareness?

Okay, well, I'm here to make you aware of Situational Awareness. It's this very long document that was the talk of Silicon Valley for a week or so. And in it, Leopold says... Essentially, the rest of you out there in the world don't seem to be getting it. You don't understand how fast AI is developing. You don't understand that we're actually running out of benchmarks to have it blow past.

Okay, well, I'm here to make you aware of Situational Awareness. It's this very long document that was the talk of Silicon Valley for a week or so. And in it, Leopold says... Essentially, the rest of you out there in the world don't seem to be getting it. You don't understand how fast AI is developing. You don't understand that we're actually running out of benchmarks to have it blow past.

Okay, well, I'm here to make you aware of Situational Awareness. It's this very long document that was the talk of Silicon Valley for a week or so. And in it, Leopold says... Essentially, the rest of you out there in the world don't seem to be getting it. You don't understand how fast AI is developing. You don't understand that we're actually running out of benchmarks to have it blow past.

And this technology really is about to change everything just within a few years. And it sure seems like outside our tiny little bubble here, not enough people are paying attention. And this document winds up getting circulated all throughout the Biden White House. It's circulated in the Trump campaign.

And this technology really is about to change everything just within a few years. And it sure seems like outside our tiny little bubble here, not enough people are paying attention. And this document winds up getting circulated all throughout the Biden White House. It's circulated in the Trump campaign.

And this technology really is about to change everything just within a few years. And it sure seems like outside our tiny little bubble here, not enough people are paying attention. And this document winds up getting circulated all throughout the Biden White House. It's circulated in the Trump campaign.

And I think Leopold Aschenbrenner might, in a Trump administration, have talked himself into a role like leading the Homeland Security Department or something. But yeah, he was another one of the interesting departures this year.

And I think Leopold Aschenbrenner might, in a Trump administration, have talked himself into a role like leading the Homeland Security Department or something. But yeah, he was another one of the interesting departures this year.

And I think Leopold Aschenbrenner might, in a Trump administration, have talked himself into a role like leading the Homeland Security Department or something. But yeah, he was another one of the interesting departures this year.

I think that while you might take issue with some of his logic and some of his graphs, and maybe he's hand-waving past certain potential limits in the development of this technology, he is getting at something real, which is that it does seem like even though AI is essentially topic number one in tech, it doesn't feel like people are really reckoning with the potential consequences should have.