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Shreeharsh Kelkar's avatar

"But notice what that position concedes: If companies only deserve protection when their positions are “correct,” the only question is who decides what correct is. Right now, that’s the Trump administration and liberals need a principled objection, not just a policy disagreement over this specific case." Hear, hear!

David Roberts's avatar

Really great essay,

Governments should not pick "winners and losers" or favor one company over another. On Anthropic I think their decision to hold firm is admirable.

But I understand OpenAI's decision to take advantage.

Long term, Anthropic's decision will hold them in good stead with customers. OpenAi may need revenues more quickly to survive.

And if what the DoD proposes to do is against the constitution, that will be for the courts to decide. We might not like the decision but it's the recourse we have left.

Andy Marks's avatar

The rise of zero sum thinking on the left has been one of the worst developments during the post-Obama era. Bernie Sanders got it going, but Elizabeth Warren has had the biggest influence on staffing. It all began with her going after Antonio Weiss. She’s made it her mission to keep away anyone with a business background from working in Democratic Party circles. She did everything she could to get her people hired in the Biden administration and was very successful. She’s now going after Reid Hoffman and trying to drive away everyone from the tech sector.

Stephen Boisvert's avatar

I heard the Anthropic CEO talk to Ezra Klein and he (the CEO of Anthropic) seems to think maybe Claude is conscious (because it does things they program it to do) so he’s basically making irrational decisions based on a fundamental misunderstanding of his core product and its utility.

Kenny Easwaran's avatar

What makes you think this is a fundamental misunderstanding?

Vince's avatar

Their official corporate answer to this is “No, we don’t think Claude is ‘alive’ like humans or any other biological organisms. Asking whether they’re ‘alive’ is not a helpful framing for understanding them, as it typically refers to a fuzzy set of physiological, reproductive, and evolutionary characteristics.” Instead, he believes that “Claude, and other AI models, are a new kind of entity altogether.” From a story on The Verge last week. They’re all losing it over there.