AI Startup Cohere's CEO Slams Effective Altruism in Wake of OpenAI Drama

Good. EA is designed to make the ultra wealthy feel like they’re superheroes.

It’s crazy to me how common I see these views espoused by people who don’t realize that you have to be born into incredibly lucky circumstances to be able to even hold these views.

Thus, EA serves the dual purpose of shining a light on just how out of touch the wealthy (and their most intense fans) truly are. In the worst cases is even abused by people like SBF to (try to) change public perception or even gain favor with investors.

The conflation of concern over AI safety and effective altruism is bizarre and unwarranted in my mind. Just because there is overlap between adherents of the two does not make them the same.

Effective altruism largely seems like billionaires attempting to justify their insane wealth. AI safety is people simply understanding their work doesn’t exist in a vacuum and recognizing that technology has had major effects, both positive and negative, on society.

Yes, maybe AI doomers will be wrong some times. But I’d prefer people bringing about world-changing technology to genuinely care about the potential negative consequences of their work and act accordingly. I’m surprised that there are individuals who don’t.