[ETA: After having talked to more people, it now seems to me that disagreeing on this point more often explains different reactions than I thought it would. I’m also now less confident that my impression that there wasn’t bad faith from the start is correct, though I think I still somewhat disagree with many EAs on this. In particular, I’ve also seen plenty of non-EA people who don’t plausibly have a “protect my family” reaction say the piece felt like a failed attempt to justify a negative bottom line that was determined in advance.] (Most of the following doesn’t apply in cases where someone is acting in bad faith and is determined to screw you over. And in fact I’ve seen the opposing failure mode of people assuming good faith for too long. But I don’t think this is a case of bad faith.)
I’ve seen some EAs react pretty negatively or angrily to that piece. (Tbc, I’ve also seen different reactions.) Some have described the article as a “hit piece”.
I don’t think it qualifies as a hit piece. More like a piece that’s independent/pseudo-neutral/ambiguous and tried to stick to dry facts/observations but in some places provides a distorted picture by failing to be charitable / arguably missing the point / being one-sided and selective in the observation it reports.
I still think that reporting like this is net good, and that the world would be better if there was more of it at the margin, even if it has flaws similarly severe to that one. (Tbc, I think there would have been a plausibly realistic/achievable version of that article that would have been better, and that there is fair criticism one can direct at it.)
To put it bluntly, I don’t believe that having even maximally well-intentioned and intelligent people at key institutions is sufficient for achieving a good outcome for the world. I find it extremely hard to have faith in a setup that doesn’t involve a legible system/structure with things like division of labor, checks and balances, procedural guarantees, healthy competition, and independent scrutiny of key actors. I don’t know if the ideal system for providing such outside scrutiny will look even remotely like today’s press, but currently it’s one of the few things in this vein that we have for nonprofits, and Karen Hao’s article is an (albeit flawed) example of it.
Whether this specific article was net good or not seems pretty debatable. I definitely see reasons to think it’ll have bad consequences, e.g. it might crowd out better reporting, might provide bad incentives by punishing orgs for trying to do good things, … I’m less wedded to a prediction of this specific article’s impact than to the broader frame for interpreting and reacting to it.
I find something about the very negative reactions I’ve seen worrying. I of course cannot know what they were motivated by, but some seemed like I would expect someone to react who’s personally hurt because they judge a situation as being misunderstood, feels like they need to defend themself, or like they need to rally to protect their family. I can relate to misunderstandings being a painful experience, and have sympathy for it. But I also think that if you’re OpenAI, or “the EA community”, or anyone aiming to change the world, then misunderstandings are part of the game, and that any misunderstanding involves at least two sides. The reactions I’d like to see would try to understand what has happened and engage constructively with how to productively manage the many communication and other challenges involved in trying to do something that’s good for everyone without being able to fully explain your plans to most people. (An operationalization: If you think this article was bad, I think that ideally the hypothesis “it would be good it we had better reporting” would enter your mind as readily as the hypothesis “it would be good if OpenAI’s comms team and leadership had done a better job”.)
[On https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615181/ai-openai-moonshot-elon-musk-sam-altman-greg-brockman-messy-secretive-reality/ ]
[ETA: After having talked to more people, it now seems to me that disagreeing on this point more often explains different reactions than I thought it would. I’m also now less confident that my impression that there wasn’t bad faith from the start is correct, though I think I still somewhat disagree with many EAs on this. In particular, I’ve also seen plenty of non-EA people who don’t plausibly have a “protect my family” reaction say the piece felt like a failed attempt to justify a negative bottom line that was determined in advance.] (Most of the following doesn’t apply in cases where someone is acting in bad faith and is determined to screw you over. And in fact I’ve seen the opposing failure mode of people assuming good faith for too long. But I don’t think this is a case of bad faith.)
I’ve seen some EAs react pretty negatively or angrily to that piece. (Tbc, I’ve also seen different reactions.) Some have described the article as a “hit piece”.
I don’t think it qualifies as a hit piece. More like a piece that’s independent/pseudo-neutral/ambiguous and tried to stick to dry facts/observations but in some places provides a distorted picture by failing to be charitable / arguably missing the point / being one-sided and selective in the observation it reports.
I still think that reporting like this is net good, and that the world would be better if there was more of it at the margin, even if it has flaws similarly severe to that one. (Tbc, I think there would have been a plausibly realistic/achievable version of that article that would have been better, and that there is fair criticism one can direct at it.)
To put it bluntly, I don’t believe that having even maximally well-intentioned and intelligent people at key institutions is sufficient for achieving a good outcome for the world. I find it extremely hard to have faith in a setup that doesn’t involve a legible system/structure with things like division of labor, checks and balances, procedural guarantees, healthy competition, and independent scrutiny of key actors. I don’t know if the ideal system for providing such outside scrutiny will look even remotely like today’s press, but currently it’s one of the few things in this vein that we have for nonprofits, and Karen Hao’s article is an (albeit flawed) example of it.
Whether this specific article was net good or not seems pretty debatable. I definitely see reasons to think it’ll have bad consequences, e.g. it might crowd out better reporting, might provide bad incentives by punishing orgs for trying to do good things, … I’m less wedded to a prediction of this specific article’s impact than to the broader frame for interpreting and reacting to it.
I find something about the very negative reactions I’ve seen worrying. I of course cannot know what they were motivated by, but some seemed like I would expect someone to react who’s personally hurt because they judge a situation as being misunderstood, feels like they need to defend themself, or like they need to rally to protect their family. I can relate to misunderstandings being a painful experience, and have sympathy for it. But I also think that if you’re OpenAI, or “the EA community”, or anyone aiming to change the world, then misunderstandings are part of the game, and that any misunderstanding involves at least two sides. The reactions I’d like to see would try to understand what has happened and engage constructively with how to productively manage the many communication and other challenges involved in trying to do something that’s good for everyone without being able to fully explain your plans to most people. (An operationalization: If you think this article was bad, I think that ideally the hypothesis “it would be good it we had better reporting” would enter your mind as readily as the hypothesis “it would be good if OpenAI’s comms team and leadership had done a better job”.)