Hm, the fact that you replied to me makes it seem like you’re disagreeing with me? But I basically agree with everything you said in this comment. My disagreement was about the specific example that Isopropylpod gave.
Oh, I guess I said “Elon wants xAI to produce a maximally truth-seeking AI, really decentralizing control over information”.
Yeah, in hindsight I should have been more careful to distinguish between my descriptions of people’s political platform, and my inferences about what they “really want”. The thing I was trying to describe was more like “what is the stance of this group” than “do people in the group actually believe the stance”.
A more accurate read of what the “real motivations” are would have been something like “you prevent it by using decentralization, until you’re in a position where you can centralize power yourself, and then you try to centralize power yourself”.
(Though that’s probably a bit too cynical—I think there are still parts of Elon that have a principled belief in decentralization. My guess is just that they won’t win out over his power-seeking parts when push comes to shove.)
It seemed in conflict to me with this sentence in the OP (which Isopropylpod was replying to):
Elon wants xAI to produce a maximally truth-seeking AI, really decentralizing control over information.
I do think in some sense Elon wants that, but my guess is he wants other things more, which will cause him to overall not aim for this.
I am personally quite uncertain about how exactly the xAI thing went down. I find it pretty plausible that it was a result of pressure from Musk, or at least indirect pressure, that was walked back when it revealed itself as politically unwise.
Hm, the fact that you replied to me makes it seem like you’re disagreeing with me? But I basically agree with everything you said in this comment. My disagreement was about the specific example that Isopropylpod gave.
Oh, I guess I said “Elon wants xAI to produce a maximally truth-seeking AI, really decentralizing control over information”.
Yeah, in hindsight I should have been more careful to distinguish between my descriptions of people’s political platform, and my inferences about what they “really want”. The thing I was trying to describe was more like “what is the stance of this group” than “do people in the group actually believe the stance”.
A more accurate read of what the “real motivations” are would have been something like “you prevent it by using decentralization, until you’re in a position where you can centralize power yourself, and then you try to centralize power yourself”.
(Though that’s probably a bit too cynical—I think there are still parts of Elon that have a principled belief in decentralization. My guess is just that they won’t win out over his power-seeking parts when push comes to shove.)
It seemed in conflict to me with this sentence in the OP (which Isopropylpod was replying to):
I do think in some sense Elon wants that, but my guess is he wants other things more, which will cause him to overall not aim for this.
I am personally quite uncertain about how exactly the xAI thing went down. I find it pretty plausible that it was a result of pressure from Musk, or at least indirect pressure, that was walked back when it revealed itself as politically unwise.
yepp, see my other comment which anticipated this
Ah, yeah, that makes sense. Seems like we are largely on the same page then.