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by Terr_ 322 days ago
> like postulating that oil executives have started admitting climate change is real

The subtext isn't "our product has bad side-effects and can be avoided with known alternatives", but more like: "Our product's core benefit is too awesome at what it does; If we don't pursue it then someone less-enlightened will do it anyway; Whether you love it or hate it the only way to influence the outcome is to support us."

So the oil-executive version would be something like "worrying" that petrochemical success will quickly bankrupt every other power-generation or energy-storage system overnight, causing economic disruption, and that eventually it will make mankind too satisfied and too comfortable so that it falls into existential torpor... But at least DinoCo™ has a What If It's Too Awesome working group to study the issue while there's still time before our inevitable corporate win of All The Things.
2 comments
SpicyLemonZest 322 days ago
Why would the oil executive benefit from saying that if it's not true? Wouldn't it be better for his stock price to say that disruption will be limited, and the DinoCo takeover will usher in a golden age like Amazon has for shopping? If anything, that's my criticism of the guy; as OpenAI revenue has risen, he's become much more vocal about the benefits of AI and much more confident that the risks and costs are solvable.
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jononor 322 days ago
If enough people believe it is true and act on this belief, it will become true (to a larger degree, at least). There is a massive shift of the direction of money happening right now, away from workers into "AI" (LLM based systems). The more of that shift can be produced now, the stronger the AI companies will be in the future. Because they need massive capital investments in compute, engineering investments in efficiency, and to reach economies of scale, to be able to really compete with human-based workforce.
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jononor 322 days ago
Yeah it's partly a "this is the inevitable winning team" - join before it is too late. The earlier the better! There are some parallels to how MLM and ponzi schemes are sold.
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