Indeed. The only way to retain control of the leading ship in the race is to keep it together as you steer it. If the ship disintegrates, then you're no longer in control of the leading ship, and someone else will win the race.
>We are concerned about late-stage AGI development becoming a competitive race without time for adequate safety precautions. Therefore, if a value-aligned, safety-conscious project comes close to building AGI before we do, we commit to stop competing with and start assisting this project. We will work out specifics in case-by-case agreements, but a typical triggering condition might be “a better-than-even chance of success in the next two years.”
That's why Sam pressuring Helen to shut up about Anthropic is so concerning.
That bit I never understood. It doesn't even have a qualification as to who is stewarding the project as if any AI should be assisted no matter who ends up owning it. The whole thing is just so utterly disconnected from the real world.
Edit: Note also the "value-aligned, safety-conscious" caveat.
What I believe is that the first party to create an AGI will likely end up being nationalized and that that AI will be weaponized the next day to the exclusion of the rest of the world.
Hence my position that the charter was a fig leaf designed to throw regulators off.
So basically we have two cases here:
1. The charter is a deceptive fig leaf, OpenAI aren't the good guys. In which case blowing up OpenAI looks reasonable
2. The charter is not a fig leaf, Helen is doing the right thing by upholding it
I'd say upholding the charter is the right thing in intermediate situations as well. Basically, OpenAI are the good guys, in part, to the degree to which the board (and other stakeholders) actually uphold the charter instead of being purely profit-driven.
It's #1 to some, and #2 to others.