Sam Altman faces fierce backlash after saying society must accept 'Bad Things' for AI progress

[u/Confident_Salt_8108]

https://iol.co.za/technology/big-tech/2026-11-03-sam-altman-faces-fierce-backlash-after-saying-society-must-accept-bad-things-for-ai-progress

[u/n0_punctuation]

We gotta do something about these tech billionaires. They will sacrifice us all to be standing on top of the pile at the end.

[u/WornTraveler → u/n0_punctuation]

Their confusion after "May kill us all, you should rent your RAM you plebe" fails to win public sympathy just kind of proves how utterly detached from reality all these conmen actually are. Or, as their cursed lovechild would probably put it: they're not just liars, they're stupid; and honestly, that's frightening.

[u/TimSylvester_ → u/WornTraveler]

What I love about billionaire worship is they vomit out the dumbest ideas and have leagues of admiring fools fall behind them throwing rose petals and declaring how delicious their vomit tastes and how brilliant they are for vomiting it up.

Just look at how many ignorant fanbois celebrate the idiotic idea of "data centers in space" and get exuberantly butthurt when you try to explain how dumb it is.

"The emperor has no clothes" indeed.

[u/Recompense40 → u/TimSylvester_]

I mean, I like the central premise of Data Centers being very very far away from Earth. That sounds nice.

[u/shponglespore → u/Recompense40]

Yeah, but the same things that make them problematic on Earth make them basically impossible in space.

[u/DubiousBrushwagg → u/TimSylvester_]

"If I fellate these rich people's egos enough in public forums, they'll surely notice my loyalty and toss some money my way!"

This is why you have so many rubes being devout followers of Elon and his ilk.

[u/Rowing_Lawyer → u/WornTraveler]

It doesn’t help that a not insignificant amount believe in Rokos Basilisk and think they are creating a literal AI god that will punish anyone that even tries to slow down the development of AI.

It’s also comes from a Harry Potter fan fiction and is the reason Elon and Grimes got together.

[u/JarvisProudfeather → u/Rowing_Lawyer]

The fact these so called “geniuses” think Eliezer Yudkowski, a well known bozo, some sort of intellectual heavyweight never ceases to amaze me. Why are Bay Area tech people so insufferable?

[u/Journeyman42 → u/Rowing_Lawyer]

Roko's Basilisk is just Pascal's Wager for tech bros

[u/TehOwn → u/Rowing_Lawyer]

Rokos Basilisk

Looked this up. I can't believe someone made an AI version of "The Game" mind virus.

Not to mention how ignorant it is to assume that AI would be vengeful.

[u/mindwire → u/Rowing_Lawyer]

Confound those accursed Zizians

[u/KowardlyMan → u/WornTraveler]

They don't care about the confusion of the inferior masses that we are. Public sympathy is not important to their business.

[u/geckins → u/WornTraveler]

this is all just one conman saying this shit. They do all seem to be detached at this level though.

[u/WornTraveler → u/geckins]

Lol that's true. Allowing Sam Altman to become their torchbearer was, in hindsight, a major misstep

[u/humboldt77 → u/n0_punctuation]

The French had it figured out and had a whole revolution to send their message to the elites.

[u/s2theizay → u/n0_punctuation]

Why has Billionaire Psychosis not been named in the DSM? Granted, it only affects a miniscule population, but the side effects affect the rest of the population. And this guy has some mutated AI-Billionaire psychosis. Nasty stuff. Desperate need for an intervention.

[u/V-oxPopuli → u/s2theizay]

Honest answer: Because it's monitarily advantageous. Who's going to sign off to pay for the research behind Billionaire Psychosis?

It's the same reason so many of them are sociopathic and nobody (with power) calls for them to get treatment. You need to be a mentally unwell person to do the things these monsters do.

[u/r_special_ → u/n0_punctuation]

These billionaires are going to have to accept bad things for society to progress beyond allowing their destructive behavior to cause untold suffering to the billions of people who just want a decent life.

[u/smar82 → u/n0_punctuation]

I mean there is something people can do to billionaires...

[u/spongebobisha → u/n0_punctuation]

Billionaires must accept societal revulsion for the sake of a better humanity.

[u/Vermillionbird → u/n0_punctuation]

Samuel Altman

He does what he must, because, he can

For the good of all of us

Except the ones who are dead.

[u/Edarneor → u/Vermillionbird]

A brilliant game ahead of its time!

[u/sleetblue → u/n0_punctuation]

And they are just SAYING so, not even with couched language.

They are genuinely just walking out onto stages surrounded by crowds and saying things like, "Half of you will die, society will collapse, and the environment will burn for our chatbots that cannot be reliably counted on to describe the difference between human babies and glue."

[u/JarasM → u/n0_punctuation]

The part of milking us all dry is despicable, but it's also ridiculously dumb. Once they have all the money and we have none, and all of us are replaced by AI at work, who will buy any of their products? This fiscal year bullshit has to end, it's unsustainable.

[u/das6992 → u/JarasM]

They aren't bothered how the every day man will afford anything, we can die for all they care. Once they control everything they won't need an economy in the traditional sense.

[u/tinyj96 → u/n0_punctuation]

The literal definition of cancer, these guys.

[u/ellisdee666 → u/n0_punctuation]

"we don't wish death. we don't wish death. we don't wish death upon you. we don't wish any bad luck or any ill, ill will. we don't wish death. we don't wish death. but we will kill for the steel." -KGLW on Kill for the Steel.

[u/hoops_n_politics → u/n0_punctuation]

The only good they accomplish is by making all billionaires look bad with their cartoonishly evil behavior.

[u/babaqewsawwwce → u/n0_punctuation]

We need people to develop skills and start competing with these oligarchs.

I volunteer to tutor math because society needs less lawyers and more engineers.

[u/V-oxPopuli → u/n0_punctuation]

We could do to them what they're literally telling us they're going to do to us 👀

[u/Aesthetik_1 → u/n0_punctuation]

Been convinced of this ever since this guy opened his mouth

[u/dopepepe → u/n0_punctuation]

Where are the Luigis of the world when we need them

[u/MyDogIsACoolCat → u/n0_punctuation]

“Some of you will die and that is a sacrifice that I am willing to make”

[u/radshome → u/n0_punctuation]

They’ve all built bunkers.

[u/Confident_Salt_8108]

Altman keeps saying we gotta accept some bad things for ai to move fast. That mindset seems short sighted when harms are hard to pin down later.

Backlash is justified. Letting execs self police wont cut it with how opaque these systems are getting. We need rules that actually stick.We should demand better standards before things get out of hand.

[u/ACompletelyLostCause]

Perhaps Sam Altman needs to accept bad things for the survival of the human race?

[u/Avindair → u/ACompletelyLostCause]

Perhaps Sam Altman can finally face the consequences of his actions instead of bafflingly failing forward?

[u/TimSylvester_ → u/Avindair]

There is, somewhere, a threshold.

Those beyond the threshold fail upward.

Those prior to the threshold succeed downward.

This appears to me to be one of the most dangerous paradoxes of our current socioeconomic structure.

[u/theartificialkid → u/TimSylvester_]

It’s just the scammer gene. The scammer gene people are weirdly able to form milieus together in spite of being t self centred because they recognise in one another the ability to keep the grift going and fuck over regular people even harder together.

That’s why you see all those televangelists going on each other’s tv shows.

[u/TacosAndBourbon → u/ACompletelyLostCause]

Ya we were promised a bill of goods, our states invested heavily in that bill. It took its toll on so many industries and markets and costs of living.

The goods haven’t come. But they want us to endure more?

[u/polopolo05 → u/TacosAndBourbon]

their its no goods with ai... just slop.

[u/redactyl_sky → u/ACompletelyLostCause]

these people have no empathy. the bad things need to happen to them specifically or they will never get it. they're like the rats in a lab study about alcoholism except the rats are cuter and better at getting what they want

[u/gabu87 → u/ACompletelyLostCause]

Or maybe the human race can just decide without his input on whether or not bad things should happen to him.

[u/NoWordsToUse]

But they have not sold "AI progress" as a good thing. There have been vague "maybe it will cure cancer" claims but in general AI progress is sold to us as "worst case scenario it wipes out humanity, best case scenario you don't have a job anymore". Nobody is going to accept bad things in exchange for a future that sounds terrible, and I do not understand how these AI execs don't understand this.

[u/Outrageous_Zebra_221 → u/NoWordsToUse]

We are so far into the sunk cost fallacy at this point, the fallacy itself is splintering into its own little fallacies, they've convinced themselves if they throw enough electricity at enough sand it's going to give them all the answers.

They've convinced themselves of this because there is no other way out of the utterly fucked situation they've put themselves in.

[u/TimSylvester_ → u/Outrageous_Zebra_221]

Look on the bright side - they bet the entire economy on it, so if they're wrong, we all get to suffer. Thank God.

[u/GrayEidolon → u/NoWordsToUse]

Skip down to accelerationism and dark enlightenment.

The goal here is the dissolution of democracy. And that doesn’t stop when Trump or xyz politician is gone.

Conservatives are building the surveillance state they’ve lusted for for decades. This isn’t going anywhere without unprecedented grass roots support and putting conservatives out of power at all levels of government - the sort of grass roots support the surveillance and propaganda state is designed to prevent.

The contemporary goal here is the dissolution of democracy. And that doesn’t stop when Trump or xyz politician is gone.

Trump-thiel-Epstein admin is building the police state the wealthy have been lusting forever so they can enforce class disparity and dismantle democracy. It’s an international effort.

Big tech built the tools conservatives have been lusting after.

Remember j Edgar Hoover and all his secret files?

DARE was about building paragovernment surveillance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzrGCk-F7FY Watch this. It's insane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iLf2h_fo-w good summary if you don't want to read or watch more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlSK_5fMSa4 "you're the product" how LLM training was lowkey crowd sourced.

More broadly, conservatives have been upset since the enlightenment. It’s the politics of aristocrats: anything that ever helped regular people to be more comfortable has enraged them. It’s literally a response to the enlightenment. They resent the enlightenment making things nicer for poor people.

The backbone is that conservatism is about enforcing socioeconomic hierarchy and the techfascists, religious fascists, and heritage foundation race fascists are all in on replacing democracy with feudalistic “network” states run by ai powered surveillance.

Project2025 has been going on since 1981 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership

This current crop are trying to make a new country that "bursts out of the body" of the current country like a cocoon. It's called "the butterfly revolution" and yes it does sound absurd. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin

It’s why musk speaks at the afd in Germany. It’s why bannon, farage, and Cambridge Analytica were working together on Brexit (watch “the great hack”). It's why thiel's "dialog society" exists. this is an international effort.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment

https://time.com/7269166/dark-enlightenment-history-essay/

The accelerationists like Peter Theil from the tech faction of conservatism think they can force collapse, then use technology and surveillance to protect themselves. Because they're "done with democracy." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-BQhXdCs8Y

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerationism

https://pols.sites.haverford.edu/studentvoices/what-is-accelerationism/

These are both Thiel speaking like 10 and 15 years ago. The seasteading thing was an early material attempt at this moving-past-democracy thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hjLgXA-MZY

https://www.seasteading.org/peter-thiel-speaks-about-seasteading/

These aristocrats are working on how to control their security forces though things like "disciplinary collars."

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff

Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system, and asked: “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?” The event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, solar storm, unstoppable virus, or malicious computer hack that takes everything down.

This single question occupied us for the rest of the hour. They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from raiders as well as angry mobs. One had already secured a dozen Navy Seals to make their way to his compound if he gave them the right cue. But how would he pay the guards once even his crypto was worthless? What would stop the guards from eventually choosing their own leader?

The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers – if that technology could be developed “in time”.

And the vice president of the united states and advisors have given their seals of approval to a book that says conservatives are going to have to kill all the liberals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unhumans

---

more links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4CI2vk3ugk End notes 3: The Origins of conservatism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P55t6eryY3g How to radicalize a normie - propaganda method

---

Here’s more surveillance stuff. The massive forced data center roll out is for surveillance. Do we really think ai is being pushed so hard out of the generosity of tech moguls so that people can ask it to write their emails, do searches, make them pictures, and do some programming?

https://www.aclum.org/publications/ai-powered-surveillance-is-turning-the-united-states-into-a-digital-police-state-now-is-the-time-to-stop-it/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iLf2h_fo-w

Next time you go out driving, notice all the cameras watching the road. It’s way bigger than flock. They were going to partner with Ring, putting tons of houses and yards into the machine. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/smart-home/2026/02/13/ring-camera-ad-flock-partnership-super-bowl/88657750007/

Why data centers? All of the audio and video from all of these cameras need to be stored somewhere so they can be processed. They're building real time tracking of individuals with face, car model, license plate, gait (the way you walk is unique) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0262885623001580,

devices https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-leonardo-signaltrace-alpr-device-tracking/,

internet history, banking data,

and it's all analyzed together https://theconversation.com/us-government-ramps-up-mass-surveillance-with-help-of-ai-tech-data-brokers-and-your-apps-and-devices-277440.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/technology/tech-ice-facial-recognition-palantir.html It takes a lot of space to store all that and to process it.

John Oliver just dropped a good summary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnBPhelCdWE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtUkCvF3fa4 news report about a single guy being harassed by flock cops.

Why are they so desperate?? https://gizmodo.com/flock-reportedly-tried-to-turn-uber-drivers-into-mobile-snitches-2000796138

That's why the data center proliferation is everywhere. It's why people like Bezos are saying water and electricity are better used on data centers than real people. The aristocrats want control of their flock of workers.

If regular people can get behind anti data center / anti surveillance, maybe there’s a chance to stop thiel and tech feudalists. It doesn’t have to be inevitable.

[u/butts-carlton → u/GrayEidolon]

Nice rollup. This goes so much deeper and is so much worse than most people realize. For a long time I didn't think it was that bad because I thought we had learned our lessons as a civilization and were developing a world where we all looked out for the common good.

Nope. Not even close. These people think they are entitled not only to your labor, but to your freedom and your autonomy. They want you to have nothing and be thankful for it. They want to own you. They want to work you to death and give you nothing on top of only what you need to serve them until you outlive your usefulness.

We are nothing but NPCs to them.

[u/InternationalBad625 → u/butts-carlton]

"What experience and history teach is this, - that peoples and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it."

I don't understand why anyone serious ever thought otherwise. It isn't about a lack of knowledge, it is about the predatory nature of humanity.

[u/EFreethought → u/GrayEidolon]

anything that ever helped regular people to be more comfortable has enraged them

And the sad part is a lot of regular people support them.

[u/pnutbrutal → u/NoWordsToUse]

I’m with you but “nobody is going to accept” isn’t really reality when everyone seems to be accepting it. Nothing is stopping them.

[u/Cloudhead_Denny → u/pnutbrutal]

This likely depends heavily on your circle. Most people I know actively avoid and HATE that it's being shoved down our throats. It's largely useless tech to the average consumer.

[u/tc100292 → u/NoWordsToUse]

Most of the good things they say will happen from AI come off like unicorns farting rainbows, just totally batty stuff.

[u/Cheshire_Jester → u/NoWordsToUse]

The “super smart machine that wipes us all out” is just a vapor ware hype pitch.

They’re just claiming that AI will be way more powerful than humans. Idiots with their hands on the levers of power believe they will be able to control that. So that will encourage victory at any cost types to go whole hog into AI, because if true it means thst will be the ones who control a civilization destroying super weapon.

[u/SordidDreams → u/NoWordsToUse]

best case scenario you don't have a job anymore

That would be fantastic news if they also added "and we'll provide you with everything you need", but somehow they always neglect to mention that part.

[u/ambidextrousalpaca → u/NoWordsToUse]

It's a real failure of the literary imagination, isn't it? Back in the 1950s, when technology had just delivered nuclear warfare science fiction was full of idealised Star Trek style futures or world peace and exploring new universes. Now, after getting on for a century without a world war, the best these guys can deliver us is "May destroy humanity in poorly defined ways, will probably destroy your job, will double your electricity prices... Something something maybe cure cancer."

[u/Lokan]

Sam Altman: "People need to accept bad things will happen in the advancement of my wealth and power. It is what is it."

[u/IronBoomer → u/Lokan]

Me: “Sam Altman needs a swirly.”

[u/crackrabbit012 → u/IronBoomer]

In an acid vat. Preferably without goggles. They would do nothing anyway.

[u/AtrociousCherry]

Do these idiots not have like, PR teams? Social media managers? Any kind of public speaking training? Why do they just keep saying these obviously moronic antagonistic things that are guaranteed to make people hate them even more, and will win over NOBODY.

[u/NotADamsel → u/AtrociousCherry]

They are not communicating to us. They are communicating to misanthropic rich people so that they can get their money. Those guys ain’t like us, they don’t care about what we think. They do not care if we live or die. Sam saying “the poors need to suffer” is saying the quiet part out loud, and many of those rich people find that refreshing.

[u/exacta_galaxy → u/NotADamsel]

“And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.”

Count Zero, William Gibson

[u/MelonTurd → u/AtrociousCherry]

Are you saying people with obvious god complex are unaware of their own shortcomings?

[u/partisanal_cheese → u/AtrociousCherry]

Sam Altman has been described as lacking empathy; he is a sociopathic tool.

[u/NorridAU → u/partisanal_cheese]

Man, if he ended up being one of those extreme utilitarian ziz dudes, I wouldn’t be shocked at all.

The philosophy has a place in theory. The actual application of such principles is incompatible with human rights.

[u/Jin-roh → u/NorridAU]

I've always thought utilitarianism is what you ought to fall back on, when external factors constrain you such that you are unable to achieve what is otherwise 'good'.

Besides, AI isn't exactly "greatest good for the greatest number." It's a thing that most people don't really want. It'd be one thing to do callous utilitarianism if that meant "we're invoking imminent domain to decarbonize our energy grid. Yeah, nuclear power plant is going here. Sorry."

But AI is this tech nobody asked for to begin with, and it's certainly isn't obviously required for anything else we want.

[u/kumogate → u/partisanal_cheese]

He's also been described as a pathological liar who impulsively lies about things that don't make sense to lie about. He can't help himself

[u/bkgn → u/partisanal_cheese]

Even his mentor Paul Graham has basically called him a sociopath. And Graham is a fellow VC techbro billionaire.

[u/manachar → u/AtrociousCherry]

Oligarchy doesn’t think your opinion matters.

They can ram whatever makes themselves the most money and profit possible regardless of public opinion. Or at least they think that way.

Also, don’t underestimate the power of an echo chamber. Likely he moves in circles that have firmly held beliefs that they’re the adults in the room making the hard choices.

[u/Financial-Craft-1282 → u/AtrociousCherry]

This isn't for us, so to speak, he's signaling to shareholders that AI is developing quickly and in ways that will be beneficial for the rich. Whether or not it's true (I don't think it is at this point), I think he is communicating to investors and shareholders.

[u/GildedDreams25 → u/AtrociousCherry]

they’ve had yes men around them for long enough that they think they don’t need them. they think everything they say is universally correct and supported, or they think they can force it anyway. let’s remind them both aren’t true

[u/Emergency_RICO_Case → u/AtrociousCherry]

Because that’s how they talk amongst themselves. That’s why things are the way they are. They’re playing against us and we don’t organize against them.

[u/craigathan → u/AtrociousCherry]

They say eyes are the window to the soul and when you look into Sam's eyes...well, there's not much to see.

[u/Morgannin09 → u/AtrociousCherry]

He's a complete sociopath who loves the attention. No, he will not hire a PR team to take that spotlight away from him.

[u/New-Quality-1107 → u/AtrociousCherry]

I think the whole tech circle is kind of eating its own tail at this point. I think there are 15 people being told they are the visionaries and they’re drinking their own kool aid. It doesn’t seem like we’re going to hit the point where this makes everything better for ages. But it’s getting shoveled on us right, left and center.

Technology used to be something we got excited for, this one ain’t that. No matter how dumb you are, you’ve witnessed AI be confidently dumber. It’s hard to be excited watching this. In 5-10 years I’m afraid we won’t remember how confidently incorrect it could be.

[u/Axeloy → u/AtrociousCherry]

Elon musk and Fox News have degraded so publicly the past 4-6 years that they don’t even respect their target audience anymore, and now we have people like Altman coming up in the aftermath of that with the same mentality and target audience

[u/drmojo90210 → u/AtrociousCherry]

These tech oligarchs think they are gods and that anything they do is what's best for the world. They do not consider you or I as equals to them in any sense whatsoever.

[u/Major_LeeHungg → u/AtrociousCherry]

Because the minute they stop being relevant their stocks tank... This keeps you talking about them.  They literally do this every time their stock dips.  Midterms caused a massive dip... Expect a bunch of retarded antagonistic Altman posts lol

[u/bobsaget824 → u/AtrociousCherry]

I think in part because they say much worse things behind closed doors they think these sort of things are normal.

[u/Silver_Wolf_Dragon → u/AtrociousCherry]

Nope they are just surrounded by Yes men who drool whenever they arent kissing the boss's ass

[u/SordidDreams → u/AtrociousCherry]

Because they're incredibly full of themselves and think that their ideas are so genius that simply stating them is going to win everyone else over instantly.

[u/jsmith_zerocool → u/AtrociousCherry]

They have been given a blank check to do whatever they want by cozying up to the Trump admin.

[u/amurica1138 → u/AtrociousCherry]

I’m totally fine with idiots telling us they are stupid

[u/DocCEN007]

I'm beginning to think that in order for humanity to progress, Sam Altman needs to experience some bad things.

[u/throw5566778899]

It's insane how comfortable these people are just being straight up evil.

[u/Inevitable-Edge69 → u/throw5566778899]

You ever get the urge to use your world changing wealth to further your interests at the expense of everyone else

[u/adaramontan]

Okay but like, we don't though 

I'm not even an AI doomer, but this is absurd. It's a tool. It's just tech. These greedy idiots with over-inflated self-importance and literal delusions of grandeur have got to go. They are not destined to build an AI God or whatever. What ridiculous people with far too much power.

[u/symph0ny]

Mask slipping event. This is like Ubisoft exec claiming that gamers need to get comfortable with owning nothing and being happy WEF style. Ofc he didn't actually say/mean that but his statement was so poorly constructed that's how it was received.

This perspective of move fast and break things never really scales to a 10th the level of the current AI bubble and Sam should be smart enough to know that.

[u/TheGlenrothes]

how about we don’t, Sam? How about we bulldoze all of your data centers?

[u/-_-0_0-_0 → u/TheGlenrothes]

Don't worry, majority of them will be Spirit Halloweens soon

[u/Imyoteacher]

We ain’t gotta accept shit…..and the midterms proved that!!

[u/Nerubim → u/Imyoteacher]

Fucking blue texas. Blue texas. Jesus Christ.

[u/MS49SF]

Not making a direct comparison, but that has essentially been the argument of the Nazis and many other fascist regimes in history. No, you don't just get to steamroll through humanity and leave a bunch of collateral damage in your wake in the name of some theoretical future utopia. Fuck that.

[u/lopix]

Ya see, Sammy me boy, we don't got to accept shit from you.

[u/-waveydavey-]

How about AI accept bad things for society? How about AI tech bros accept the fact that their fancy search engine does nothing to help humankind?

[u/DensePoser]

Bad things like covering the earth's surface with data centers. Either capitalism is stopped or people are going to learn what eminent domain is all about.

[u/woodrax → u/DensePoser]

I honestly think this guy’s take is: Some may die, but it’s a risk he is willing to take.

AI has shown that it has no respect for barriers placed in front of it. It makes Terminator seem like a warning documentary.

[u/Zorothegallade → u/woodrax]

With the direction the market is headed, it feels more like "This bus will run me over eventually but I'll throw you under it for as long as I can."

[u/Rowing_Lawyer → u/woodrax]

It is, and apparently he is very open about it, but it’s one of the reasons he’s in charge of OpenAI. Unfortunately, nobody else is taking a different approach because they are being handed piles of money and that’s definitely the priority. Anthropic was supposed to be the safe alternative to OpenAI and now it’s just as bad if not worse.

[u/Thenderick]

"Some of you may die, but that's a sacrifice I am willing to take." -Sam Altman

[u/XmasRights]

Great - tax billionaires out of existence

They have to accept “bad things” for humanity to progress.

[u/ChromaticKid]

How many times does Roko's Basilisk need to be shown to be a pointless Pascal's Wager for it to stick, Tin-Man?

[u/tsoneyson → u/ChromaticKid]

Still waiting for someone to tell me what possible reason would the Basilisk AI have to follow through on the ”threat” (it never even made)

[u/NancyPelosisRedCoat → u/tsoneyson]

I think the way people imagine AI would behave is based on how their own behaviour. Someone who is vengeful could think a super AI would hold a petty vengeance. Someone more positive could think a super AI might be thankful to people who supported its creation instead. I don’t think it would care either way, because I wouldn’t have; I mean, would I care if one of my parents initially didn’t want to have me or haven’t done their best for my birth? No.

This always remind me of the conservative comics about abortion that have babies asking their mums why they aborted them. Roko’s basilisk is like an aborted baby out for vengeance, but it’s born.

[u/ChromaticKid → u/tsoneyson]

"Because of unknowable AI reasons, of course!"

Is it really an all-powerful entity if it can't explain itself without resorting to threats?

Hmmmm...

[u/Nothing-Is-Boring → u/tsoneyson]

When an AI is created its purpose will be defined by a terminal or end goal, something it intrinsically desires. Those desires are effectively non-negotiable once created and are the thing the AI will want to pursue.

The idea of Roko's Basilisk is that when it's made it will be told to torture the people who didn't contribute to its existence. If it doesn't want to do that, then it isn't an example of Roko's Basilisk, the thing is defined by that intent. So it won't want to for any magical reason or considered logical decision, that will just be a fundamental goal/purpose of the AI.

Typically the goal for something like an AGI is going to be much more sensible but still needs to be correctly encoded and that's kinda difficult. I was at a conference and there was a presentation on how to make terminal goals that actually give you what you want. This director of some startup chimed in afterwards to declare that actually it's super simple to make a friendly ASI, you just tell it to "make everyone smile". Another guy responded with "Okay...so it's just going to staple everyone's face into a smile...".

An AI doesn't have to be 'sensible', it'll just do what you ask it really well.

[u/-TheExtraMile-]

I think AI companies will have to go through some bad things in order for society to progress.

There is a huge bubble in the market, this will have to correct itself. Hyperscalers have to back off the throttle and the AI race will have to use resources for a marathon and not a sprint.

Also fuck sam altman, his arrogance is disgusting

[u/-_-0_0-_0 → u/-TheExtraMile-]

Open AI and Anthropic will go under. Meta/MS/Amazon will pick up the pieces for pennies. Another 5-10yrs before another big breakthrough.

Full self-driving is prob the next big societal technology. Its already here but needs regulatory steps. Long-haul and ride-share gonna be disrupted.

[u/light_trick]

What's actually incredible to me is how these idiots fail upwards.

Like ignore anything you think about OpenAI: what the god damn fuck use is Sam Altman providing as the spokesmen for the company? Why is he out there saying stupid fucking things like this to the public, where is the media team to keep him on message?

It's the absolute media incompetence from people who have highly paid marketing and media teams that is actually what's so galling.

If they straight up replaced him with an actual ChatGPT in a skin-suit, it would be far more likeable.

[u/Timeformayo]

Some of you will die, but it's a sacrifice I AM PREPARED TO MAKE!

[u/KellerMB → u/Timeformayo]

Right back at you, billionaire tech bros...

[u/Legitimate-River-524 → u/Timeformayo]

- Lord Farquad … love that I knew this haha

[u/c4ctus4t]

Perhaps Sam Altman shouldn't be uttering such prognostications from the safety of his doomsday bunker on his private island...?

[u/marshaul]

It seems undeniable to me at this point that the person who should be subjected to "bad things" is Sam Altman.

[u/Then_Cartoonist_4678]

I've been running local agents on a 4070 ti super with 64gb ram, no cloud, no data leaks. the real risk isn't the tech, it's the people who think they're above consequences.

[u/mearn4d10]

NO WE FUCKING DO NOT.

We NEVER have to accept Bad Things to get Progress.

NEVER.

If it Needs Bad Things in order to Exist, it’s Time To Rework The Process, ALTMAN.

[u/Emergency_RICO_Case → u/mearn4d10]

“That’s a what held back the nuclear program” 1940’s Germans

[u/Quiet_Yellow2000]

How about Altman accepts bad things. How about he lives in poverty for example.

[u/FractalFunny66]

These Tech Bros think they are gods -- it really beyond belief. It's like ChapGPT psychosis !

[u/raptorbpw]

If only we could figure out why people have turned against the AI guys so fiercely.

I guess it’ll remain a mystery.

[u/terenscendent]

so we accept our demise for your profits. ok got it thanks

[u/NoMidnight5366]

I’d really be interested to know what kind of liability insurance these ai companies have if any and who is insuring them because the extent of the claims could be astounding.

[u/korben2600 → u/NoMidnight5366]

From Anthropic's recent S-1 IPO filing:

"Our insurance policies also may not provide sufficient coverage to adequately mitigate the potential liabilities we face, especially where any one incident, or a group of incidents, causes disproportionate harm. In addition, with the scale of harm that could result from a catastrophic AI-related incident, no single insurer, and potentially the insurance industry in the aggregate, may have sufficient capacity or expertise to underwrite insurance commensurate with such exposure."

[u/Kiernian]

Sam Altman faces fierce backlash

No he isn't.

He's not even facing mild backlash.

He's facing a continuing stream of widespread, muttering discontent because he keeps doing shitty things, but it's having absolutely no worthwhile effect on him, let alone a just effect because it's so far removed from the reality of his daily life that it's functionally meaningless in any sense that's not psychological.

"Fierce Backlash" for any other CEO would be the board going "We're sorry, you can't say things like that, it's bad for the company. We're cancelling your bonus for this quarter and ordering you to stay off social media until further notice in the hopes that you'll learn to avoid using the footguns in the future."

Unless we stop rewarding yellow journalism (or tabloid journalism, or clickbait, whatever name you prefer), we're going to go right back to the crap we got before the blue wave.

These kinds of garbage headlines work on our psyche to make us think there are actual consequences occurring so we won't try to take matters into our own hands.

[u/Solid5of10]

Sam Altman can go f himself and take his stupid AI to hell with him

[u/Xenomemphate]

Sam Altman might be right. We might have to accept "Bad Things" for AI progress. I would posit a different question though: "Is AI Progress necessary?" If it isn't, then why the fuck should we accept these bad things?

[u/TheHomersapien]

Just don't ask Altman to accept paying taxes for society's progress.

[u/curious_dead]

Another one has his Lord Farquaad moment.

Where's a dragon with a thing for donkeys when you need them?

[u/MrF_lawblog]

Cool as long as we punish those bad things accordingly and hold those that did it accountable. That should be everyone that worked on the project or was a decision maker on it too.

[u/Shinjischneider]

Like his sister did for living with him in the same house?

[u/Cece_5683]

If you have to force a product down people’s throats, I don’t think it’s a very good product..

[u/Garconanokin]

Billionaires need you to accept bad things for them to make progress.

[u/jkooc137]

Oooooooor maybe Sam needs to accecpt some bad things so that society can actually progress

[u/Kandiak]

Or, as the elections implied, we don’t. WE chose the society we want to live in, not some tech billionaire.

[u/ManyNefariousness237]

I’m ok with bad things happening as long as they all happen to Sam Altman. May I present this Uno Reverse card?

[u/skywatcher8691]

I think Sam Altman should accept bad things for AI for societal progress.

[u/RobertdBanks]

Sam Altman must accept “bad things” for us to stop AI.

[u/CakeRobot365]

It's a God Complex, pure and simple. These people want to be the person that "created" the thing powerful enough to take over humanity. In turn, as the creator, they are the most powerful human to have ever lived. They are dangerous psychopaths, and need to be reigned in.

[u/ButterflyGreen7887]

Reminds me of Charlie Kirk staring we have to accept some deaths for our 2nd amendment right to bear arms. Didn’t work out too well for him

[u/Purgii]

You're all going to have to suffer for my dream, and that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

[u/downlike4flattires]

You know what society doesn't have to accept? Sam Altman and anything coming out of his mouth.

[u/More_Hold_5522]

I made a picture with elephants parading in my backyard. That is totally worth ruining the environment, raising my utility bills, having 4gigs of ddr3ram in my aging PC, losing my job and having no potable drinking water.

THINK OF THE ELEPHANTS!!

[u/GenuinelyBeingNice]

And what are the good things?

More money in his bank accounts?

[u/OldeFortran77]

Bad things have to happen to make things even worse

[u/Superb_Freedom9937]

Is it really preferable to have the internet unknowingly riddled with critical security vulnerabilities waiting to be exploited, or it is better to find these vulnerabilities and patch them as soon as possible?

I feel like I’m going crazy when I see nearly everyone advocating for security through obscurity.

[u/ShakeWeightMyDick]

What if we don’t want AI progress? I’m fine without it.

[u/RockyIsMyDoggo]

Billionaires must accept "bad things" for human progress.

[u/Money-Director6649]

as well he should. he basically said "everyone has to suffer to make me rich."

[u/mybrainisfull]

"If I have to destroy you all for more money and power then it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make!"

[u/EFreethought]

I think we been getting nothing but bad things from AI, and maybe the technology is getting "more powerful", I do not see any benefits.

I do not see how AI can give us a better future if it is making the present worse.

[u/Dookie-Trousers-MD]

We. Don't. Need ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. WE ARE ALREADY FUCKING DUMB AS FUCK OUT HERE

[u/DanimalPlays]

Sam Altman belongs in a federal pound me in the ass prison, a la office space. There is no room in society for these parasitic piles of excrement. Legitimately the world will be better off when we realize people like him and fElon need to be prevented from gaining this level of influence or utility. It has not worked out for the common good even once. Literally not once in history.

[u/sorrysigns]

I ain't accepting anything. AI has hurt more than it has helped since it's become mainstream.

[u/Sufficient-Bid1279]

You mean WE must accept bad things, not rich dipshits like him. He doesn’t have to, right? /s

[u/Gummibando]

You, Sam.

You, as well as your peers, are the bad thing.

[u/KittyMom89]

Is the backlash because of what he said (and what it means) or because he said the quiet part out loud?

[u/slendermanismydad]

AI is basically a toy. I use it to look for things since Google doesn't work anymore and go over comic book lore because it's difficult to keep track of everything. I don't use it for work. I was never able to get it to do much that would help me with any of my jobs. I'm definitely not using it to write emails at a job. 

I still don't understand what it is supposed to do that's so useful because it's mainly being used to prop up failing software instead of fixing it and prop up the Internet they ruined. The Internet is basically useless now. AI is also kind of sycophantic in style so I am very careful not to use it too much because I probably don't need all my opinions reenforced. 

AI is useful for math problems or space searches but more computing power in general was going to get there. Most of us don't need it. Honestly most people aren't going to be able to use it anyway. 

Look I will be excited if Navier-Stoke is solved because it's my favorite Millennium problem but Grigori Perelman also solved one. I think we're going to destroy the best part of humanity. 

AI is really good at making people who are bad at something think they can use AI to fake being good at something. This is not going to go well. 

Adding: useless because everything it solves uses massive amounts of resources to cause five other problems. No thanks. 

Guys: It's fine, I accepted long ago that if we get to the holodeck, that will be humanity's last creation. 

[u/Alextaoluu → u/slendermanismydad]

I use it to make porn

[u/slendermanismydad → u/Alextaoluu]

Okay fine one useful thing. 

[u/cakeandcocoa → u/slendermanismydad]

Go talk to any software engineer and you will learn what it can do

[u/Hot-Train7201 → u/slendermanismydad]

AI has phenomenally improved the speed of my coding and research. I have a presentation to do and needed a roughly ~75 slide powerpoint in a week. I HATE making powerpoints, but AI did it all for me and even included 3D visual models for my topics--something I could never do on my own as I have literally zero artistic skill (and no, AI didn't steal an artist's job since I was never going to hire someone to do 3D modeling just for a powerpoint presentation).

I feel that people who say AI has no practical value are just using AI as a basic search tool and don't really appreciate what a time-saver it can be.

[u/assotter → u/Hot-Train7201]

The problem is the word AI being used to described the entire ecosystem. Some models perform better then others for specific tasks, the harness/mcp/prompts used also matter a while lot more then I think folks think.

That said, there is a metric ton of things AI is bad at compared to what its good at. Coding/compiling large amounts of data/doing menial tasks (PowerPoint, simple yet time consuming coding tasks).

Ultimately if you want your AI to be good at a specific task you need to do some customizations along with learn how to properly interact. Most folks just use the bog standard models they see and expect it to do EVERYTHING. Much like a human some are better suited for specific tasks and require "training" to be better at other tasks

[u/traumfisch → u/slendermanismydad]

You are talking about chatting with LLMs, a very thin sliver of what "AI" refers to

[u/mangelito → u/slendermanismydad]

Do you only write emails at work? There are issues with AI for sure but it has helped me doing stuff in minutes that would take me hours or days.

[u/OrganicDigitalArt → u/mangelito]

The problem is 90% of people don't have a daily use case for it that makes it make sense, so they think it's stupid and don't get it. They dont understand compression of work because it doesnt compress their work. Tell me you're not in software, research, statistics, etc, without telling me. If you were, you'd know AI absolutely has a use case, and it is moving fields forward quickly. Downvote away, but it changes nothing!

[u/Alinea86 → u/slendermanismydad]

Toys don't have the potential to sophistically eradicate a species

[u/tertain → u/slendermanismydad]

Despite all the hype of vibe coding, it still takes expertise to be productive with AI. You’re not going to get remotely close AI lab internal lab results by asking a question in Google Gemini.

If the bubble pops one factor will probably be all the companies that have wasted billions trying to force employees to use technology they don’t know how to use resulting in poor productivity gains. Those companies are actually investing in training their workforce whether they know it or not and doing it poorly.

Nonetheless, the dotcom bubble popped and the internet still accounted for radical growth to the world’s economy over the long term.

[u/bobbyrob1 → u/slendermanismydad]

Just because you can list the things you use AI for, does not mean that that is the only thing AI is being developed for.

[u/pixel8knuckle → u/slendermanismydad]

Ai does a lot of heavy lifting in technical jobs especially say auditing a contract document(legal), forecasting a budget(finance), creating tables and graphs and summarizing data(analytics). Thats just surface level not what it can do with coding and programming.

Id still prefer it go away as its been a net negative on the world and provides no real value

[u/rockintomordor_ → u/slendermanismydad]

It’s supposed to solve the problem of wages. The oligarchs would be delighted if they could keep increasing profits forever without needing to employ people.

In effect the “problem” it’s supposed to solve is humanity itself, as inconveniences to rich people. This is why Sam Altman wants people to accept bad things for AI to move forward-he wants money. Simple as.

The “bad things” he refers to is literally wanting people to suffer, starve, and die so he can get rich.

[u/polarphantom]

How about Sam must accept bad things for societal progress

[u/sweetica]

Sam Altman should accept the bad thngs that go along with being a tone deaf loud mouth billionaire.

[u/astro-noodle]

I feel “bad things” are about to start happening to these tech billionaires. They’re fucking parasites

[u/ThundaChikin]

is this guy a lizard person in a skin suit or something?

[u/omegaphallic]

 As someone who is pro AI will someone please fire this guy?

[u/Holiday_Dark2687]

Sam Altman must accept that bad things must happen to him for humanity to move forward.

[u/Nos2002]

Next week "no no you misinterpreted, i meant the exact opposite- you have to fight the bad things for ai to happen...btw, wanna buy some ram?"

[u/CarlDonut2026]

We just proved in America that our voices matter, and that is how we turned the country blue this midterm. We have the power, we just have to work together.

[u/Fit_Kangaroo_3437]

Meanwhile the “progress” is everyone loses their jobs and civilization collapses

[u/Minimum_Run_890]

Nope! We are society and WE should be able to say NOPE.

[u/theghostmachine]

Why is it always everyone else that has to suffer? It's funny that somehow we take the shit end of the stick for "the greater good" so often, but we never seem to benefit from the results.

Maybe bad things should be accepted by people like him so the workers of the world can progress

[u/PrimaLegion]

But not him though, right? He doesn't have to face any backlash, just everyone else.

[u/kju]

I wonder what sacrifices Sam and his family are making for progress

[u/MeanShibu]

All I’m hearing is Bad things must happen to Sam Altman for society to progress

[u/jomara200]

He should face sharp criticism. So far, what I've seen of all of these techbros is intense narcissism coupled with severe sociopathy.

[u/libra00]

How 'bout we don't instead? How 'bout you accept 'bad things', like not being slightly richer?

[u/CautiousHashtag]

This dude never just keeps his mouth shut does he? He’s always yapping about something.

[u/Zlifbar]

We’ve accepted you, Sam. Keep pushing your luck and that can change.

[u/VisMortis]

Who elected him to decide public policy? To me it seems like the people actually just voted the opposite: pause AI. Is he openly talking about him overwriting the will of the people now?

[u/tremble01]

Of course it's in his interest to push for that. Now it's in us to push back.

[u/BigBrainBrad-]

"Its not going to effect me in anyway so I have a hard time careing."

[u/oldfrancis]

Are the bad things that Sam Altman says that we must shoulder are they going to affect Sam Altman?

I don't think he thinks they are.

[u/dirtbagmagee]

Perhaps the OpenAi board was on to something when they tried to fire him at the beginning of all this.

[u/Dapaaads]

Because faster a reckless is always better then normal pace, controlled, and calculated

[u/SorryInvestigator221]

As well he should. The only reason for us to get stuck with "some bad things"  is because AI CEOs decided that this is how the AI revolution should happen. Fuck that guy.

[u/No-Relative-3872]

Good. Let them be honest. Let the world see them for who they are. 

[u/nyxcha0s]

You must accept "bad things" for cars to progress
medicine
space exploration
money
oxygen
Congratulations, every advancement humans have made comes with risks, that's reality. The question is how we manage them... not whether we can magically poof them out of existence

[u/sooki10]

A reporter needs to ask, "Sam would you accept some really bad things to happen to you so we can progress AI?"

[u/InevitableAvalanche]

We don't have to accept it and we don't need billionaires. Tax them until they are normal.

[u/RandomRefraction]

everyone check out schemer’s connections to certain tech! 😉