On Sam Altman and other small bits
And why creatives have bigger worries
At some point in the next five years, some big-name actors playing far more handsome versions of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman will star in an Oscar-bait drama that hinges on the events across the weekend of November 1 where both men left and then kind-of returned to their company.
It was a real old-school Twitter story, every time you logged on something had changed dramatically (maybe the above joke post won’t make sense by the time I publish). It was all great fun and a chance for some hot takes on the future of AI. I may be wrong, but I also think some of the added interest in the story came directly from many of us getting super into Succession in recent years. We totally maybe understand boardrooms now.
I’m not going to write about OpenAI leadership in any depth today, as tempting as it is. I started this newsletter to focus on how AI will affect those of us in creative industries like journalism, design, advertising, and publishing. Boardroom shenanigans around the future of AI will have a knock-on effect on how creatives can do their jobs, but not as much as creatives are affected by the absence of creative people in these same boardrooms.
So today, instead, it’s a Small Bits bonanza. But if you’re hungry for OpenAI-related stuff there’s still some in there.
Small Bits #1: New AI political alignment just dropped
For the Mainly Offline of you, the Political Compass is a longstanding meme based on “a two-axis model of the political spectrum between libertarian/authoritarian and economic-left/economic-right”. Anyway, it got a semi-serious update around AI this weekend and I saved it because it’s a straightforward illustration of the broad strokes factions around AI debate. In short:
It’s equivalent to Internet, let’s regulate it better
It’s equivalent to Internet, the nerds know what they’re doing
It’s can wipe us out, let’s maybe stop that from happening
We are building God, who are we to then stand in his way?
I only realized this morning I had saved a meme created by the new (at the time of writing) CEO of OpenAI! Again, it’s been a weird few days in AI. If the ‘E/ACC’ part of the above image leaves you confused, it’s short for ‘effective accelerationists ‘ and you can read more about that term, Emmett Shear, and his doomist/safetyist leanings here.
Small Bits #2: ChatGPT goes to LA
I asked ChatGPT who should play the main characters in the inevitable OpenAI movie and it showed the imagination of a jaded Hollywood executive by suggesting Social Network stars Jessie Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield. Two choices so uninspired that it actually feels like AI could be a studio power player.
Small Bits #3: A job well done
Just an all-time great headline very soon after the story broke. Credit goes to Chris Williams.
Small Bits #4: Beware the bait
There’s a British comedian who does social videos pretending to be a right-wing politician doing media rounds and at least half of her engagement seems to stem from people credulously, mainly angrily, sharing her clips. Anyway, that social media hack has spread to mocking AI art bros. This poster was not seriously making Nighthawks ‘better’. In fairness, it says a lot about just how insufferable AI art bros have been that many, many people had no problem believing the guy was serious.
Small Bits #5: The safetyist AI concern
This serves as an illustration of one of the more immediate problems posed by generative AI and as another reminder, as if one was needed, that X is a completely broken platform.
Small Bits #6: Funny or fake
I’m sharing this as much for the interaction below the post as for the post itself. ‘Who cares? It’s hilarious’ is a reasonable take here. But, pathetically, I care. It really bothers me!