Dealing from both sides of the deck ... applies

Image by Chip Somodevilla via Getty / Futurism

Dealing from both sides of the deck seems to be SOP for Open AI, a company that's lost its soul in its endless pursuit of profit. AI's already in trouble with the brute force method of creating ever larger LLMs to train while the the source data needed for same peters out, necessitating the creation of artificial  data created by the AI's themselves, a potentially disastrous feedback loop reminiscent of the inbreeding of the royals back in the day. 

Charles II of Spain 

Of eleven marriages contracted by Spanish monarchs between 1450 and 1661, most contained some element of consanguinity, Philip and Mariana being one of two unions between an uncle and his niece.[2][d] This policy may also have been driven by limpieza de sangre or "blood purity" statutes enacted in the early 16th century, which remained in force until the 1860s.[3]

But this is not about LLMs but rather about ethics and what it means to not have any.

In a scathing open letter, luminaries from the AI industry and beyond are calling on OpenAI to prove that it hasn't betrayed humanity in favor of profits.

Referring to themselves as the "legal beneficiaries of your charitable mission" — that is, members of the human species OpenAI pledged to benefit when it was granted nonprofit status in 2015 — the open letter, signed by the likes of AI Godfather Geoffrey Hinton and AI researcher Gary Marcus, charges the Sam Altman-run company with essentially playing God.

"OpenAI is currently sitting on both sides of the table in a closed boardroom," the letter reads, "making a deal on humanity's behalf without allowing us to see the contract, know the terms, or sign off on the decision."

As the letter notes, OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit with an overarching principle: to ensure that any future artificial general intelligence (AGI), or human-level AI, "benefits all humanity."

But with its attempts to move away from nonprofit status and restructure as a for-profit entity, the letter's long list of signatories — which include British film and TV star Stephen Fry, for some reason — are no longer convinced that OpenAI plans to uphold the humanity-benefitting part of the bargain.

This is, of course, neither the first nor will it be the last open letter aimed at OpenAI.

Earlier this year, many of the same signatories from this more recent communiqué sent two letters to the attorneys general of California and Delaware urging them to halt the company's restructuring. At the time, they argued that switching to for-profit status would undermine the company's mission to benefit humanity.

And last summer, a group of then-current and former OpenAI employees made even bolder claims in yet another open letter, alleging they were being silenced about the dangers that could occur if what the company is building comes to fruition.

Speaking of ethics ... & the issue of privacy.

Tom Shippey suggests that the palantírs' deception says one should trust in providence,
not crystal balls.[3] Painting by J.W. Waterhouse, 1902

A single palantír enabled its user to see places far off, or events in the past.[T 3][T 2] A person could look into a palantír to communicate with anyone looking into another palantír. They could then see "visions of the things in the mind" of the person looking into the other stone.[T 3]

The modern version of same ...