The official ChatGPT thread - the next big thing?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Bernie Sanders is a communist. And and idiot.

He wants to nationalize our AI companies.

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[falafel]

Bernie Sanders is a communist. And and idiot.

He wants to nationalize our AI companies.

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Or at least a percentage of them.

I don't know the details of his plan, and I don't know if I agree or disagree. But I agree with that things are spiraling out of control and there is basically no oversight or guardrails in place.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Or at least a percentage of them.

I don't know the details of his plan, and I don't know if I agree or disagree. But I agree with that things are spiraling out of control and there is basically no oversight or guardrails in place.

Sounds like you should be thrilled with this development, then.

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[Jeff Lebowski]

Bernie Sanders wants to simultaneously:

1) Halt construction of data centers

2) Nationalize US AI companies

Right now we are the world leader in AI, which is posed to transform everything we do and foundationally change our economy, national defense, etc. So Bernie wants to systematically destroy that. Seriously, this guy is a flat-out lunatic. If he were ever elected president (god forbid), he would likely end up being more destructive that Donald Trump himself.

[falafel]

Sounds like you should be thrilled with this development, then.

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Ha, not necessarily. But I agree with Sanders that having the future of the world in the hands of a small group of AI executives isn't great.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Ha, not necessarily. But I agree with Sanders that having the future of the world in the hands of a small group of AI executives isn't great.

Now imagine a world where we abandon our tech advantage by throttling data centers and class warfare with billionaires to the point that AI is exclusively in the hands of the Xi Jinping. Because this exactly what would happen if Bernie gets his way.

[falafel]

Now imagine a world where we abandon our tech advantage by throttling data centers and class warfare with billionaires to the point that AI is exclusively in the hands of the Xi Jinping. Because this exactly what would happen if Bernie gets his way.

Jeez, I haven't said anything about that or made any comments in that direction. This is the kind of alarmist reaction you normally decry. Your position assumes only two possibilities, both of which are absurd.

[Jeff Lebowski]

AI doomerism is the latest mutation of the panic industry (nuclear power, global warming, data centers, etc).

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[SteelBlue]

AI doomerism is the latest mutation of the panic industry (nuclear power, global warming, data centers, etc).

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That's a pretty hokey sounding tweet, tbh. Says nothing about content of the article. Wtf does dropping Kamala Harris' name have to do with anything? Also, heavy on the "trust me bro."

[Jeff Lebowski]

That's a pretty hokey sounding tweet, tbh. Says nothing about content of the article. Wtf does dropping Kamala Harris' name have to do with anything? Also, heavy on the "trust me bro."

Fair point.

You can check out the foundation here:

https://www.tarbellcenter.org/

Looking at the collection of articles, there is definitely a heavy concentration of "AI is bad".

Lots of groups have noticed that that the Tarbell center is strongly AI skeptical. Here is an article on the controversy from a reasonably unbiased org:

https://www.semafor.com/article/12/07/2025/ai-critics-funded-ai-coverage-at-top-newsrooms

[SteelBlue]

Fair point.

You can check out the foundation here:

https://www.tarbellcenter.org/

Looking at the collection of articles, there is definitely a heavy concentration of "AI is bad".

Lots of groups have noticed that that the Tarbell center is strongly AI skeptical. Here is an article on the controversy from a reasonably unbiased org:

https://www.semafor.com/article/12/07/2025/ai-critics-funded-ai-coverage-at-top-newsrooms

Ok, a quick scan of that site at lunch shows that they are very forthcoming about the providing of grants for AI journalism and that the original tweet stating "gives large grants for inserting negative stories" doesn't seem to be supported. There may be a large number of negative stories, I will take your word for it as I believe you've looked at that.

I have no business even talking about this stuff as I don't know enough to have an opinion. But, I do wonder how someone or some organization with strong concerns about AI could go about advocating for constraint without a) being moneyed and b) being labeled a doomer organization. I mean, if skepticism is not warranted or tolerated at this stage will it ever be?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Ok, a quick scan of that site at lunch shows that they are very forthcoming about the providing of grants for AI journalism and that the original tweet stating "gives large grants for inserting negative stories" doesn't seem to be supported. There may be a large number of negative stories, I will take your word for it as I believe you've looked at that.

I have no business even talking about this stuff as I don't know enough to have an opinion. But, I do wonder how someone or some organization with strong concerns about AI could go about advocating for constraint without a) being moneyed and b) being labeled a doomer organization. I mean, if skepticism is not warranted or tolerated at this stage will it ever be?

I am fine with healthy skepticism. But I do believe that as a society we have a real problem with doomerism, aka the panic industry. Panic generates clicks, generates media interest, and results in research programs/grants. This is the latest iteration, IMO. I am pretty confident that the robots aren't going to kill us.

[Pelado]

I am fine with healthy skepticism. But I do believe that as a society we have a real problem with doomerism, aka the panic industry. Panic generates clicks, generates media interest, and results in research programs/grants. This is the latest iteration, IMO. I am pretty confident that the robots aren't going to kill us.

But if they do, I'm confident they will kill us softly.

[SteelBlue]

I am fine with healthy skepticism. But I do believe that as a society we have a real problem with doomerism, aka the panic industry. Panic generates clicks, generates media interest, and results in research programs/grants. This is the latest iteration, IMO. I am pretty confident that the robots aren't going to kill us.

This is something I have thought about a lot in a much wider context than something like doomerism. I wonder if sincerity of motive might be the biggest loss in our lifetimes?

[Moliere]

AI has made dad life so much easier. I got a text from MJ at about 3pm yesterday asking if I'd have time to help my youngest with her pre-calc homework. It was youth night and I also had a work dinner so my daughter and I wouldn't be home until late. Another issue is that I haven't done pre-calc since I was in pre-calc class in high school. I've tried to help my other kids and we have to spend hours together watching youtube videos and using mathway. Anyway, I said I'd try but she should first try using Claude to show her how to do it. To my surprise, not only did she not want to use Claude, she didn't even know how to use it.

So about 9pm last night her and I sit down at the computer to see what Claude could do. She was a total punk at this point since she was frustrated with the material and the teacher adn she's also a teenage girl so her default is to be grumpy. I had taken 15 minutes prior to setup a project named "Pre-Calc Tutor" and gave it some simple directions. So we put in the first question to the quiz that she missed and I asked it to walk us through, step by step, how to solve the problem. It not only did that perfectly but it would expound on the process when we asked it for more details. Then I asked Claude to create a couple practices questions that were similar so she could practice. It did that and when we didn't get the exact right answer it would walk us through where we messed up.

Claude may kill us all in 10 years, but I was at least grateful for it last night.