Hacker News Reader

Comment by apsec112 | Hacker News Reader

Daniel Kokotajlo quit OpenAI earlier this year, and was one of the only people who refused to sign their secret non-disparagement agreement, even though (at the time) OpenAI told him this meant he would forfeit his equity. The idea that someone who quit OpenAI months ago, and who volunteered to give up all of his OpenAI stock in order to be able to publicly criticize OpenAI, is actually part of a secret OpenAI marketing strategy, reads like a galaxy-brained conspiracy theory.

View on HN

Kokotajlo is also a frequent poster at LessWrong, the favored watering hole for AI doomers who take Eliezer Yudkowsky seriously. I think that tells you all you need to know about him and why he left OpenAI.

> idea that someone who quit OpenAI months ago, and who volunteered to give up all of his OpenAI stock in order to be able to publicly criticize OpenAI, is actually part of a secret OpenAI marketing strategy

Wake me up when they go to D.C. and start working for the people at government wages. This isn’t part of OpenAI’s marketing, but it’s still self-aggrandizement.

Paul Christiano has: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Christiano_(researcher)

> Christiano has

No, he hasn’t. He started a non-profit. I can’t find his pay.

Also, the Wikipedia seems wrong. The Alignment Research Center is not a 501(c)(3) charity [1], they simply accept donations through one [2]. They directly claim their evaluations team, METR, is a 501(c)(3) [3], but due to the name being so close to “metro,” I’m having trouble verifying that. (They also launder at least smaller donations through the middleman charity [4].)

The closest Cristiano has come to public service is his role at the NIST, an appointment which prompted a revolt amongst staffers given his ties to effective altruism [[5].

All a bit ironic for a pair of nonprofits preaching transparency.

[1] https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/

[2] https://www.every.org/alignment?donateTo=alignment#/donate/c...

[3] https://www.alignment.org/donate/

[4] https://metr.org/donate

[5] https://web.archive.org/web/20240607060738/https://venturebe... having trouble loading the original Venture Beat article

[a] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39643951

How is working at NIST not "going to DC and working for the people at government wages"? He is, in fact, currently working at NIST, he's on the website:

https://www.nist.gov/people/paul-christiano

The Alignment Research Center is, in fact, a 501(c)3 charity, here is their Form 990:

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/863...

METR is also a 501(c)3. It doesn't have a Form 990 because it's so new it hasn't filed a return yet, but here is the Guidestar page:

https://www.guidestar.org/Profile/99-1219864

every.org is just a generic non-profit payment processor. Lots of people use payment processors, because managing payments is annoying. Calling this "laundering" is like saying that accepting third-party payments through Stripe is some sort of illegal sinister plot.

> How is working at NIST not "going to DC and working for the people at government wages"?

It is. I’m saying the sole evidence of outcome I could find was his staff revolting.

> Alignment Research Center is, in fact, a 501(c)3 charity, here is their Form 990

Thank you, I stand corrected. (Christiano’s compensation is an admirable zero.)

> every.org is just a generic non-profit payment processor

Sure, and given ARC and METR are 501(c)(3)s, it’s fine. Charity to charity. If either weren’t, and were simply non-profits, it would mean a charity was lending its tax-exempt status to a non-charity. That would be sketchy. But as you’ve shown, it’s not what’s going on here.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com