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by sashimimono 975 days ago
Please correct me if I am wrong here, but did he take this position also when meta made occulus as closed as possible? Running any opensource stuff on it? Connecting it to an free operating system? You could not even buy one here, at least not without selling your personal data.

I have a unpleasant feeling that this well intended talk is only a move to protect his future work and foremost business.

(but I do hope that I am wrong)
5 comments
dartharva 975 days ago
He is not anti-proprietary, he is just criticising the arguably moronic notion that open-source AI tools need to be banned or regulated just because they are "too dangerous" in public hands. That's all the argument is about.
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kridsdale3 975 days ago
John didn't own the company. He wasn't CEO either. He may not have had the clout to override the investors who would call shots such as that. And unlike every other VR software company circa 2011, Oculus made a LOT of money for its investors, mostly by being Apple-like with its restrictions.
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paulddraper 975 days ago
Nearly no one has actually read his post.

His point is allow open source not only use open source.

"Be a Free Speech Absolutist".

> Open Source AI is in many people’s crosshairs today. They believe that giving free access to state of the art algorithms and models without any guardrails constitutes a danger to society, that the public can’t be entrusted...

> In the spirit of the first amendment, congress should make no law abridging the freedom to release open source software.

I.e. Stop AI from becoming the modern version of prohibited encryption. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_from_th...

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extraduder_ire 975 days ago
He did get the source code for the discontinued oculus go released, at least. All of those devices were destined to be ewaste otherwise.
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SkyMarshal 975 days ago
I seem to recall he wasn't happy about it, but don't recall where he said that or what the details were. Could be wrong, wasn't paying that close attention. He also left after a while without immediately moving on to something else, so it seems he was unhappy about something there.
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