Basically that they aren’t being compensated for testing a tool that is ultimately intended to replace them.
I can definitely forgive their complaints when it’s framed that way. But I do agree that the article doesn’t do a particularly good job representing their view point.
If I were to give them the benefit of doubt, I’d guess they joined because they initially saw this more like the AI vs chess type contribution where their contributions would be publicly demonstrated and praised rather than just used to beta test.
They might not have been aware of how many other people were asked.
They probably also underestimated the tool’s capabilities and then got worried for their careers after using it.
It’s pretty common for people’s perception of an opportunity to change after agreeing to it. I’d bet you’ve taken on paid jobs that were less exciting than advertised. Or gone to a party that was completely mis-sold by your friends.
I don’t think we’ll ever truly know the motives that lead up to this leak.
Companies have been getting ever bolder about abusing volunteer and crowd sourced labor. When the participants are bound by strict NDAs, I think some skepticism is in order.
All we really can tell is that non-neglibigle percentage of the participants in a limited access program were creeped out enough to be willing to blow up their access to call attention to it.
I don't think this story is really even about AI at all, but about labor practices.
But there's no such thing with volunteering to try a new service. That's just something people do because they feel like it, are bored, enjoy it in their spare time?
To that, I will add that there is a large market for content outside mainstream media[^1]. I'm sure there are creative folk out there which are not visual artists as their main thing[^2], but can use cheap visual art coming from AI to generate some sort of income...
[^1]: See, for example, https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/data-an...
It's an emerging technology and platform. There are economic advantages to having early access to learn what it can do.
Furthermore, this specific colunteer program appears to have an associated contest that pays creators who win. Thus you have a lot of volunteers, limited under NDA, being pushed to compete for vert limited renumeration for their efforts. I doubt most of the volunteers are bored people doing it as a hobby.
What do they lose when they weren't being paid in the first place?
Because we have laws to protect workers. You can't just not pay an employee and call them a volunteer as a for profit company.
There a legal limitations on what a for profit company can do with volunteer labor but companies have been increasingly bold about pushing those limits.
Often times it is hard to tell if a program violates those limits since particpants are put under strict NDAs.
I general don't agree with NDAs though, so on that front we definitely agree there's an issue there. Especially for a volunteer, I would never sign an NDA when I'm volunteering my time and effort.
It a bit silly to think people won’t learn new information and change their minds.
I would definitely be willing to pay to try it out and provide feedback in addition. I'm genuinely surprised by this news.
OpenAI is the new high watermark in moral, ethical, social, and intellectual corruption and anyone who works there who has any moral sense is deeply conflicted.
It’s cancer that has cancer. To defeat it would be like discovering a vaccine.
The typical person is the result of a ruthless Darwinian selection process that has left the typical person savvy, agile, aware, alert, and capable.
The typical person might be coded inarticulate because the education available to the typical person stresses different vocabulary than people not subject to ruthless selection pressure recently.
I’m home schooled to put it mildly, more accurate is that I was presented books and an admiration for acumen, and I deliberately delineate by degree the dramatic dismissal of people on HN who condescend to typical people.
The typical person on HN would survive about three minutes in a legitimately menacing environment.
Summers was on Jon Stewart recently. People know who he is. They might not know his long-time advocacy for maximum toxic waste disposal in Africa, but in fairness Rubin helped quiet that down. They might have forgotten that he personally knew-capped Brooksley Born at the exact perfect time to demonstrate that LTCM was the prototype for ever godawful prop deak today.
I’ll refrain from commenting on Fidji Simo out of personal experience because it would be unfair given that I’ve known her for 12 years and merely remark that the public record is a litany of OSHA violations handled more clumsily than the already low bar Amazon set.
The typical person is a lot savvier than the typical HN hot take smartass who is dramatically out of their depth.
It's the same if I mentioned some random people from my interest circles that you definitely won't know, but I can guarantee at least millions of people who share the same interests know about those names.
Obviously I can be wrong, but my simple sniff test is asking a couple of friend groups and bar chats with regulars, who are not in tech. Some people don't even know about OpenAI despite using ChatGPT (basically a household name now)! I'm also clueless when my friends in finance/law throw in some names and companies that I have no connection to and knowledge of.
Sorry, I didn't mean to sound dismissive, probably shouldn't write comments during work hours.
It’s me that owes you an apology if I caused collateral damage to your stress quotient: I was taking a swing at OpenAI’s board because they’re well on their way to war criminals. Unlike them, I care when an innocent is in the blast radius and I’m very sorry that you were.
Some people think I am acting strange but I'd argue they don't see my point.
Every single video is riddled by visual artifacts just like the still images.
I saw a shaking rubiks cube, a shrinking cola bottle, and two dogs jumping into eachother and swapping places in a ridiculous way.
No artist should be threatened by this nonsense. Can't wait for the hype to die.