Hm. I’d need to read the memo to form my own opinion on whether that holds. It could be a “Modest Proposal” thing but irony is also a fairly common excuse used to walk back the occasional stupid statement.
I’d need to read the memo to form my own opinion on whether that holds.
It seems generally bad form to criticize people for things without actually reading what they wrote.
Just reading a text without trying to understand the context in which the text exists is also not a good way to understand whether a person made a mistake.
I think what you wrote here is likely more morally problematic than what Summers did 30 years ago. Do you think that whenever someone thinks about your merits as a person a decades from now someone should bring up that you are a person who likes to criticize people for what they said without reading what they said?
While judgement can vary, I think this is about more than just judging a person morally. I don’t think what Summers said, even in the most uncharitable reading, should disqualify him from most jobs. I do think though that they might disqualify him, or at least make him a worse choice, for something like the OpenAI board, because that comes with ideological requirements.
EDIT: so best source I’ve found for the excerpt is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summers_memo. I think it’s nothing particularly surprising and it’s 30 years old, but rather than ironic it sounds to me like it’s using this as an example of things that would look outrageous but are equivalent to other things that we do and don’t look quite as bad due to different vibes. I don’t know that it disqualifies his character somehow, it’s way too scant evidence to decide either way, but I do think it updates slightly towards him being a kind of economist I don’t much like to be potentially in charge of AGI, and again, this is because the requirements are strict for me. If you treat AGI with the same hands off approach as we usually do normal economic matters, you almost assuredly get a terrible world.
That seems to be the publically available except. There’s the Harvard Magazine article I linked above that speaks about the context of that writing and how it’s part of a longer seven-page document.
Summers seems to have been heavy into deregulation three decades ago. More lately he seems to be supportive of minimum wage increases and more taxes for the rich.
I do think though that they might disqualify him, or at least make him a worse choice, for something like the OpenAI board, because that comes with ideological requirements.
While I would prefer people who are ideologically clear for adding a lot of regulations for AI, it seems to me that part of what Sam Altman wanted was a board where people who can clearly counted on to vote that way don’t have the majority.
Larry Summers seems to be a smart independent thinker whose votes are not easy to predict ahead and that made him a good choice as a board candidate on which both sides can agree.
Having him on the board could also be useful for lobbying for the AI safety regulation that OpenAI wants.
Hm. I’d need to read the memo to form my own opinion on whether that holds. It could be a “Modest Proposal” thing but irony is also a fairly common excuse used to walk back the occasional stupid statement.
It seems generally bad form to criticize people for things without actually reading what they wrote.
Just reading a text without trying to understand the context in which the text exists is also not a good way to understand whether a person made a mistake.
I think what you wrote here is likely more morally problematic than what Summers did 30 years ago. Do you think that whenever someone thinks about your merits as a person a decades from now someone should bring up that you are a person who likes to criticize people for what they said without reading what they said?
While judgement can vary, I think this is about more than just judging a person morally. I don’t think what Summers said, even in the most uncharitable reading, should disqualify him from most jobs. I do think though that they might disqualify him, or at least make him a worse choice, for something like the OpenAI board, because that comes with ideological requirements.
EDIT: so best source I’ve found for the excerpt is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summers_memo. I think it’s nothing particularly surprising and it’s 30 years old, but rather than ironic it sounds to me like it’s using this as an example of things that would look outrageous but are equivalent to other things that we do and don’t look quite as bad due to different vibes. I don’t know that it disqualifies his character somehow, it’s way too scant evidence to decide either way, but I do think it updates slightly towards him being a kind of economist I don’t much like to be potentially in charge of AGI, and again, this is because the requirements are strict for me. If you treat AGI with the same hands off approach as we usually do normal economic matters, you almost assuredly get a terrible world.
That seems to be the publically available except. There’s the Harvard Magazine article I linked above that speaks about the context of that writing and how it’s part of a longer seven-page document.
Summers seems to have been heavy into deregulation three decades ago. More lately he seems to be supportive of minimum wage increases and more taxes for the rich.
While I would prefer people who are ideologically clear for adding a lot of regulations for AI, it seems to me that part of what Sam Altman wanted was a board where people who can clearly counted on to vote that way don’t have the majority.
Larry Summers seems to be a smart independent thinker whose votes are not easy to predict ahead and that made him a good choice as a board candidate on which both sides can agree.
Having him on the board could also be useful for lobbying for the AI safety regulation that OpenAI wants.