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Turns out Altman is a lab-leak covid truther, calls virus 'synthetic' according to Spectator piece on AI risk. (archive.is)

submitted 2 years ago by Architeuthis@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems

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Sam Altman, the recently fired (and rehired) chief executive of Open AI, was asked earlier this year by his fellow tech billionaire Patrick Collison what he thought of the risks of synthetic biology. ‘I would like to not have another synthetic pathogen cause a global pandemic. I think we can all agree that wasn’t a great experience,’ he replied. ‘Wasn’t that bad compared to what it could have been, but I’m surprised there has not been more global coordination and I think we should have more of that.’

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[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world -4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

I think it's a fairly credible claim, that the coronavirus originated in a lab. There's been leaks in the past, of similar pathogens - once in the USA and once in Taiwan, I think. Not a very interesting conspiracy theory. Equally, animal agriculture is ripe for the development of zoonoses, regardless of the country. I don't think it's especially important, ultimately, unless it informs better practices in both areas.

[–] corbin@awful.systems 5 points 2 years ago

Explain SARS and MERS, midwit.

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

You appear to be lost. Have you checked the sideboard for instructions?

[–] self@awful.systems 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I’m waiting for them to post something relevant to Sam Altman or you know maybe just a general techtake????

I know I’m gonna be disappointed

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Couldn’t even be bothered to make some tortured Tolkien, only an oblique reference

Let’s see..

All that is gold does not glitter
Not all those who wander are lost
The post that is strong does not wither
These others’ posting remain a cost

Merely 3 minutes of idle thought! Imagine how many GPUs I could’ve 10tok/s’d for it! Oh the humanity

e: fuck you lemmy, give me newlines

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Aaand I made that mistake again: I looked at their other posts

Fucking hell.

[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world -3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Maybe turn this into a private group if you're bothered. For whatever reason this thread has appeared on Top Everything, so that's where your visitors are coming from.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

We're not bothered. We're bored. Off you go now.

[–] self@awful.systems 7 points 2 years ago

still boggling at the high degree of redditor logic behind “this thread appeared on my screen therefore I’m welcome to post my garbage in it”. I can’t decide if it’s better or worse than the couple of r/SneerClub threads demanding that SneerClub never appear on the poster’s Reddit homepage ever again

[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world -2 points 2 years ago

Not all who wander, etc.