Dean Ball: uncertainty

Transcript context

…Uh, that's a good question. I don't know the, I don't know all the details. Um, uh, you know, one, one thing I'll, I'll definitely tell you is that, um, like having, you know... And, and, and I'm not here referring to any of the donors of the super PAC to Leading the Future, which includes- Uh, famously includes OpenAI President Greg Brockman. Um, but I have been in the vicinity of, you know, both my time in before AI, um, you know, many of the members of the, of the boards of organizations I worked for were very significant political donors, um, some of the largest in the world. I've had the opportunity more recently to get to know some of the most prominent political funders on both, for both Democrats and Republicans. And I guess what I would say is you would be surprised how not in control... I'm talking about people like deca-billionaires, right? You'd be surprised how not in control they feel of the political organizations that they create, where they're like, "No," they're like, "Really, I, I..." Principal-agent problems don't disappear because you're rich, right? So I really actually don't think that your prior when you see a political organization, m- like a thing, something like a super PAC making a move, should not necessarily be that like the people that funded it are directly controlling what's going on. If anything, as someone who has worked for my entire life, I've never worked for a political, I've never worked for a political advocacy organization. But I have worked for 501c3s for most of my career, which are organizations which are funded by typically wealthy individuals, engage in matters of public interest, right? Um, I've never really felt like our donors, any of the donors of the organizations I've worked for, including the Foundation for American Innovation, set our agenda or control what we do. Typically, the reason you make donations to a specific organization is because you're simpatico with the people, and you expect them to like... You, you, you like the work they do. There are people who donate to the Foundation for American Innovation for the, to the AI policy program because they like the work that I write or that Sam Hammond writes or that other people do. But they're not like sitting there telling me and Sam what to do, and me and Sam wouldn't fucking listen. I guarantee you. I guarantee you, if a donor ever tried to tell me what to say, I would tell them to F right off. Um, so yeah. Anyway, I think basically what you should imagine is that like a political organization like Leading the Future is a kind of, it's a kind of wind-up doll, and it is gonna go where it goes by default. And like by default, it's gonna, it's gonna say, "Hey, this guy is trying to make a name for himself as like I'm a regulator of the AI industry. So let's send a message to everyone that, hey, if you try to be like this guy, you're gonna lose." And they tried to, I think Leading the Future tried to do that. e I'm a regulator of the AI industry. So let's send a message to everyone that, hey, if you try to be like this guy, you're gonna lose." And they tried to, I think Leading the Future tried to do that. I wouldn't say OpenAI tried to do that. But I would say that Leading the Future tried to do that. And did he... His primary was this week. It has raised his profile, uh, it created a bit of a Streisand effect, um, and, uh, yeah, you know. Uh, but, but I don't know that like... I mean, ultimately, I think OpenAI was, I don't know actually what OpenAI's position was on the RAISE Act, but I would kind of be surprised if the RAISE Act passed in New York without OpenAI's at least tacit support. Um, and same with SB53, uh, it's worth noting. So like I don't think OpenAI in particular has a beef with, with Alex. Uh, I think, you know, it's like, um... And by the way, I first met Alex almost two years ago. We got breakfast near my old office in Manhattan, uh, once two years ago. Um, and uh, um, we had a lovely time. We had a lovely meeting, and since then we've bumped into each other at various things, and I consider Alex a friend. So, um, you know, uh, we'll, we'll see. What's your take on the character versus corrigibility debate?…

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