this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
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Genuine question: why do we need this type of thing?
Especially in view of the harm it can cause, what's the point of creating this aside from generating shareholder value?
Sure, creating a video out of text quickly is cool, but is there an actual need for this?
I mean, the ability to generate whatever video you want without having to pay the costs normally associated with filming, location, actors etc is going to be very appealing to people like advertisers. This way you can have a few seconds of a beach for your travel company advert, for example, without having to pay for the stock footage or film it yourself. In fact I can see this transforming stock footage in general. Why bother to pay someone to make a generic video of 'people having a meeting' when an AI can do it for free in half the time. Doesn't even need to be that good if you're only using it briefly in a presentation. Not saying any of this is a good thing, but here we are..
I get what you're saying, but there isn't really any NEED for that
It may help to make synthetic training data for other models / simulators
Which then just feeds to the system. But as this is a globally impactful thing, is there any real world need that outweighs the harm?
Cost savings are a need. It frees resources for everyone. Sure the vast majority of the profit goes to the shareholders but that's true of every labor saving device.
Do we NEED computers? You can hire people to do calculations by hand. The word Computer used to mean a job title, not a device.
OpenAI’s take is someone will create this technology - it might as well be them since their motivation is relatively pure. OpenAI is a non profit and they do work hard to minimise the damage their tech can cause. Which is why this video generation feature has not been launched yet.
OpenAI is no longer "pure." They are not open. They do not publish the details of any of the discoveries they've made (which used to be standard practice, even in the private sector). Their leadership is now in the "effective accelerationism" camp that worships capitalism, and sees developing AGI as their moral obligation, regardless of what harm it may cause to society. (They are also delusional, because it's very unlikely AGI will be developed anytime soon).
OpenAI is only technically non-profit. They're a proxy for Microsoft in all but name. They started out mostly pure, but their dickhead CEO has worked hard to undo all of that nonsense and has created parallel companies for OpenAI that can absolutely make profit while the main company gets to keep its nonprofit status. That was literally the entire basis for the board firing him (the CEO) a few months back.