> They seem to be doing the right thing, in trying to steer this powerful and highly likely to turn out very influential piece of technology into a positive and constructive direction of use.
It's not going to affect society. It's little more than a markov chain.
OpenAI doesn't need to do anything to steer it.
> Yes, you might just build something that will be found in violation of their (good!) intentions,
You're giving them way too much credit. I've seen them destroy someone's business after repeatedly saying that their business model was fine. It was for an AI assisted writing app. Then they decided one day "Nope, you're not allowed to generate arbitrary amounts of text."
Not on the side of OpenAI in the slightest, but you’re upset someone founded a business ostensibly reliant on an external business and their overall strategy — and then suffered the predictable outcome of that arrangement? This industry brought the faceless, API-driven, tickets-sans-phone-number business relationship into the world as the dominant model and then claims one side owes the other something in the same breath?
I’ve been growing more and more concerned about obvious entitlement slipping into folks’ ideas about business, particularly in this forum. One of the big ones is that an offeror of services is generally compelled to continue offering services because stopping hurts another business. There’s a word for that: business. You can’t have a detached customer relationship model and “don’t hurt your customers” in the same ideology. It’s incoherent. Pick one.
Here’s your algorithm to understand threats to an existential partnership of your business:
1) Are you lacking a contract? You suck.
2) Does your contract fail to compel the continued offering of services in a definitive way? You suck.
3) Does the same contract actually compel continuing service with no mitigating circumstances (like serving up hacked child porn, which is still your bad because they can justifiably say “secure your shit”)? They suck. Start with a demand letter and go from there.
That’s literally it. There is no 4. You’re favored to suck two-thirds of the times this happens to you. How you lost respect for OpenAI because a writing app single homed their entire future and paid for it mystifies me, and I say that as someone who respects OpenAI very little. Just a remarkably stupid business model your friend executed given the available competitors to their things. It’s literally common sense risk analysis.
What did your friend tell their investors? Or is this a bedroom app where you’re no longer a fan because someone lost out on a couple bills ARR from a trivially resurrectable idea? I’m thinking the latter, and #1 above.
And don’t misunderstand me, I’m not advocating for the above: I’m explaining it. Key difference. You might find I agree with your overall point in terms of progressive business, but consider it naïve to not look at it the same way today.
It's not going to affect society. It's little more than a markov chain.
OpenAI doesn't need to do anything to steer it.
> Yes, you might just build something that will be found in violation of their (good!) intentions,
You're giving them way too much credit. I've seen them destroy someone's business after repeatedly saying that their business model was fine. It was for an AI assisted writing app. Then they decided one day "Nope, you're not allowed to generate arbitrary amounts of text."
After that, I was no longer a fan.