At what is possibly a risk to my whole career I will say: this doesn't seem great. Lately I have been describing my role as something like a "public advocate" so I'd be remiss if I didn't share some thoughts for the public on this. Some thoughts in thread...
All views here are my own.
My opinions about SB53 are entirely orthogonal to this thread. I haven't said much about them so far and I also believe this is not the time. But what I have said is that I think whistleblower protections are important. In that spirit I commend Nathan for speaking up.
I think OpenAI has a rational interest and technical expertise to be an involved, engaged organization on questions like AI regulation. We can and should work on AI safety bills like SB53.
Our most significant crisis to date, in my view, was the nondisparagement crisis. I am grateful to Daniel Kokotajlo for his courage and conviction in standing up for his beliefs. Whatever else we disagree on - many things - I think he was genuinely heroic for that.
When that crisis happened, I was reassured by everyone snapping into action to do the right thing. We understood that it was a mistake and corrected it.
The clear lesson from that was: if we want to be a trusted power in the world we have to earn that trust, and we can burn it all up if we ever even *seem* to put the little guy in our crosshairs.
Elon is certainly out to get us and the man has got an extensive reach. But there is so much that is public that we can fight him on. And for something like SB53 there are so many ways to engage productively.
We can't be doing things that make us into a frightening power instead of a virtuous one. We have a duty to and a mission for all of humanity. The bar to pursue that duty is remarkably high.
My genuine belief is that by and large we have the basis for that kind of trust. We are a mission-driven organization made up of the most talented, humanist, compassionate people I have ever met. In our bones as an org we want to do the right thing always.
I would not be at OpenAI if we didn't have an extremely sincere commitment to good. But there are things that can go wrong with power and sometimes people on the inside have to be willing to point it out loudly.
The dangerously incorrect use of power is the result of many small choices that are all borderline but get no pushback; without someone speaking up once in a while it can get worse. So, this is my pushback.
@jachiam0 Thank you for speaking up. It's not too late to switch sides! (I think it might even be better in terms of overall positive career impact.)
@jachiam0 Thanks for saying so. How optimistic are you that something like this from OpenAI won't happen again?
@jachiam0 I appreciate this. I struggle to match this vibe to the chicanery going on with the openai non-profit. A humanist org, maybe, but surely an intensely powerseeking one led by brilliant powerseeking people.
@jachiam0 fyi, another person had it happen to them: https://x.com/TylerJnstn/statu...
@jachiam0 To be honest, I found your thoughts here really milquetoast. If even these this tepid criticism? (mixed with substantial praise for your employer throughout) is "a risk to your whole career", that actually says a lot about the potentially vindictive nature of OpenAI.
@jachiam0 1. Genuine respect for speaking up when you didn’t have to. 2. Sharing exceedingly reasonable takes like this should never feel like a risk to your career, and if it does, it might be indicative of the greater problem here.
@jachiam0 ❤️
@jachiam0 Thank you, Joshua.
@jachiam0 Pathetic response lol. This ethos comes from the very top, and it will remain unchanged
@jachiam0 Subpoena plot twist, spicy szn incoming
@jachiam0 Thanks for speaking up.
@jachiam0 I commend you for speaking publicly about this.
@jachiam0 High integrity move 🫡
@jachiam0 I appreciate you being willing to say this publicly, Joshua. That is not trivial.