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Wow. The Wall Street Journal just reported that, "a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI."
Technically, they can't actually do that, so I'm going to assume that Musk is trying to buy all of the nonprofit's assets, which include governing control over OpenAI's for-profit, as well as all the profits above the company's profit caps.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman already tweeted, "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want." (Musk, for his part, replied with just the word: "Swindler.")
Even if Altman were willing, it's not clear if this bid could even go through. It can probably best be understood as an attempt to throw a wrench in OpenAI's ongoing plan to restructure fully into a for-profit company. To complete the transition, OpenAI needs to compensate its nonprofit for the fair market value of what it is giving up.
In October, The Information reported that OpenAI was planning to give the nonprofit at least 25 percent of the new company, at the time, worth $37.5 billion. But in late January, the Financial Times reported that the nonprofit might only receive around $30 billion, "but a final price is yet to be determined." That's still a lot of money, but many experts I've spoken with think it drastically undervalues what the nonprofit is giving up.
Musk has sued to block OpenAI's conversion, arguing that he would be irreparably harmed if it went through.
But while Musk's suit seems unlikely to succeed, his latest gambit might significantly drive up the price OpenAI has to pay.
(My guess is that Altman will still ma
Here's a massive compilation of 170+ EA-relatable quotes I've been gathering for a couple months now (useful for, e.g. social media, writing).
Feel free to add new quotes and categories, make suggestions or link to other quote compilation threads/documents!
Well, that's it, everyone else go home! Matiss wins! Seriously, that's quite impressive. When I have time to brose through it later today or tomorrow I'll pull out what I think are some of the best quotes and post them in this thread on their own if I think they deserve special attention. Feel free to do this yourself, of course, so I don't hog all the karam points ;)
Here is a qoute to an important, awkward, and sometimes neglected question in effective altruism. I think Peter Singer answers it sufficiently and succinctly.
These quotes are a bit more general, but I find them deeply inspiring: https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/charity-quotations
"Not any more." - Fake GiveWell quote
http://i.imgur.com/wuH7JkV.jpg -Holden and Elie
This made my day. Did you make this? This is amazing.
My suggestion for Givewell's new slogan*: Charity for the Charity God! Evaluation for the Evaluation Throne!
*not really
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Robert Wiblin, executive director, Centre for Effective Altruism; research director, 80,000 Hours
"Whenever in the course of my life I have come across, in convents for instance, truly saintly embodiments of practical charity, they have generally had the cheerful, practical, brusque and unemotioned air of a busy surgeon, the sort of face in which one can discern no commiseration, no tenderness at the sight of suffering humanity, no fear of hurting it, the impassive, unsympathetic, sublime face of true goodness." ~ Marcel Proust
-- William MacAskill, Doing Good Better
Has anyone else finished Nick Cooney's book? I thought it was excellent, like his others. I'd recommend it as something to give people new to EA.
I haven't read it yet. However, I've only ever encountered praise for Nick Cooney's writing. At first I was surprised, because he focuses on helping animals, and doesn't necessarily specialize in psychology. Alas, he seems to be a bona fide altruism Renaissance man! I'll buy or borrow his new book as soon as I get the chance, on your recommendation.
I'm looking forward to reading it even more than the ones from Dr. Singer or Dr. MacAskill, as a fresh perspective would be pretty cool.
Someone should do a review of it, for instance on the EA Forum
Selected quotes from Scott Alexander's essay Stop Adding Zeroes
On what it means to be an effective altruist:
This comment on how the whole point of 80,000 Hours' recommendations apply to considerations of marginal* impact, but with appropriate caveats included:
-- William MacAskill, Doing Good Better