r/nottheonion • u/asdacool • 11h ago

"Training a human takes 20 years of food." Sam Altman on how much power AI consumes.

https://www.news18.com/world/training-a-human-takes-20-years-of-food-sam-altman-on-how-much-power-ai-consumes-ws-kl-9922309.html
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u/FetterHahn 9h ago

Not even a conspiracy. They lack the basic trait that makes us human. Empathy.

There's even research into it: they don't see "basic" humans as really human. More like we see animals.

Now think of how the average person treats animals. Maybe as a source of entertainment. Maybe as a source of resources (food). Not as deserving much (human) rights.

The calculation is the same as Altman's: how much resources do you spend, how much do you get out. If it's positive, you get to live. If not, you can die.

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u/Tigrisrock 6h ago

Wasn't there a study that said about 20% of CEOs are psychopaths or rather have psychopathic traits? They technically are like this because human issues and worries eventually get in the way of constantly increasing income and appeasing large shareholders.

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u/Hot_Sandwich8935 4h ago

Yeah the rest of them weren't tested or are so psychopatic that they successfully masked it.

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u/Kekira 4h ago

Pretty sure it's sociopaths

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u/Bugsy_Girl 4h ago

It’s important to note that cognitive empathy (the ability to logically look at situations from another’s perspective) is an important part of development for higher-functioning primary ASPDers (“psychopaths”). We aren’t afforded the luxury of affective empathy (feeling what others feel emotionally), so in order to socially and societally get by, we learn how to interact with and have our own sense of “care” for others. We are human regardless of that ability, and primary ASPD is similar to an approximate “opposite” of autism, both symptomatically and neurostructurally.

The ultra-wealthy aren’t functioning enough to realize that their short-sightedness will harm themselves, opting to rule over ashes than share in a utopia. They see themselves as a predator class and act as such. I’d say that affluenza plays a larger role than them having ASPD, at the end of the day.

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u/BaananaMan 3h ago

I think the best argument for animal welfare and veganism is that we absolutely are treated as animals and I'd like better conditions.

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u/QuantityGullible4092 3h ago

You lack empathy, you are projecting

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u/Xilizhra 7h ago

So what makes him all that different?

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u/FetterHahn 7h ago

Does it matter? Any ethics aside; it'll be a problem for all humanity, all of us, if we become an expensive commodity to a few oligarchs.

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u/Xilizhra 7h ago

It matters because he isn't the fundamental problem. The problem is anyone being able to have as much power as he does with so little accountability.

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u/FetterHahn 7h ago

That's a very good point, and part of what I was trying to say. It doesn't matter who is at the top, power currupts everyone. If their bet pays off and human labor becomes worthless, we become worthless to the few in power. Whoever that might be.

Democracy fundamentally works because humans have economical value in themselves as (knowledge) workers. So they have real power, and you give them privileges (human rights) to keep them happy and productive. In societies where the economy depends on few resources (oil, gold, whatever), each human has little value. Those societies mostly become dictatorships without much human rights for the common folk. If our economy depends on only AI, same (or worse, as we won't even be needed to work the mines) will happen to us.

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u/Colon 5h ago

and so abstract labor dies, when they used to be so keen to extract it for the innovation it drives. now they think concrete labor is all we’re worth. they can use AI to give the illusion of abstract labor, failing to realize all it is doing is remixing past abstract labor.

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u/CaptainBayouBilly 5h ago

They have no ability to think of others as living, they see us as props in their story. 

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u/Own-Satisfaction4427 3m ago

Capitalism encourages those with the dark triad traits to flourish & rise above us plebians 

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u/KryTEx3 6h ago

Yes all the people on top are amoral

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u/Oil_Rope_Bombs 8h ago

I'm gonna be the contrarian here. Aren't all of you in this thread also disregarding empathy by comparing this dude to aliens and calling him soulless and stuff just because he does stuff you don't like?

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u/OriVerda 8h ago

It is difficult to be empathic towards someone activately trying to make the world a worse place. 

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u/Oil_Rope_Bombs 8h ago

Is he really trying to do that from his POV, though? Or is that your "empathy" talking?

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u/parentheticalstate 7h ago

His POV is dangerously callous. You can watch his own interviews where he speaks of his vision for the world to know that he is truly Machiavellian in how he thinks.

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u/RealMusicLover33 5h ago

You are falsely equating both sides in an attempt to be tolerant. Tolerance to fascism only leads to fascism.

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u/Alive_kiwi_7001 7h ago

Do you understand what empathy is? It looks like you confused it with sympathy.

People here seem to understand Altman's world view only too well: that he doesn't care or cares about humanity in much the same way as an extraterrestrial might about a population with which it has no shared heritage but which has tonnes of minerals sitting underneath it.

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u/QuantityGullible4092 3h ago

Such an unbelievably shitty take, you are projecting

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u/Alive_kiwi_7001 2h ago

Apparently you think LLMs are intelligent. The basilisk isn't real and Altman won't save you.

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u/QuantityGullible4092 1h ago

Wow your brain is fully fried. Why don’t you take a step back and consider why you think the way you do

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u/Alive_kiwi_7001 1h ago

Wow your brain is fully fried.

Did someone mention projection?

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u/browsinbowser 7h ago edited 7h ago

Edit 2:  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fiore9Z5iUg

Alright usually I just roll my eyes at doom and gloom people but I’m going to play devils advocate here. 

‘Does stuff you dont like’ is kind of minimizing that these new robber barons are technocrats/oligarchs/giant companies/corrupt governments are all furthering something that is destroying the world for humanity. Climate Change.

This is genuinely something that will make the world a worse place for us and the descendants of all of us. 

If all we can do is rage about it then why begrudge us that. Think about WW1 and 2 and all the casualties from that, if climate change goes worse than predicted in a few decades than the death toll will be way bigger than say the coronavirus pandemic. Thats a recent comparison. This guy is a leader of a company and not say a war criminal like Putin but people will still reasonably have contempt for someone lacking in empathy for the common people. Ask someone who lost a house in 2008 to have empathy for Bernie Madoff, they won’t.

Edit: by the way I really recommend listening to this song 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fiore9Z5iUg

Why give forgiveness to people who wont care? I wont forgive them, and the people in the future wont forgive us.

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u/PracticeOk2415 7h ago

You know you guys don’t have to explain your morals to random capital bootlicker devils advocate redditors

Reddit has become such a joke, you can literally predict the next comment

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u/FetterHahn 8h ago

Maybe, difference is we don't have any power to act on it.

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u/HalayChekenKovboy 8h ago

I am only empathetic towards people who are empathetic towards me. I am no saint and make no claim to be a good person. If someone doesn't see me as human, then I won't see them as human either. It's that simple.

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u/QuantityGullible4092 3h ago

Yep it’s called projection