The Death of an AI Whistleblower

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/open-ai-suchir-balaji-whistleblowers/

by SLHamlet • 3 months ago

35 10 3 months ago

mitchbob• 3 months ago

Jamesbeam3• 3 months ago

I really don’t like Altman, but he is not that kind of killer. I don’t think he is capable of mediating a direct murder, especially like this.

Is that interview awkward?

For sure, but have you seen Zuckerberg in Congress or Musk? Those people are completely lost without a full PR team prepping them for any question that could arise upfront and fall apart when they have to go off script without anyone holding their hand or a dozen lawyers intervening on their behalf.

The whistleblower protection system is dogshit. It is what kills people.

His parents are hurting. Most suicides are snap decisions, and people break under pressure. They couldn’t prevent it, nor did their son allow them to talk him out of it. That’s unbelievably hurtful for the ones left behind. Can you blame them for trying to make sense of that by putting the responsibility on the entity their son was fighting an uphill battle against already?

We all know the movies where the big bad corporate CEO tells his chief of security to get rid of the whistleblower/journalist, but if you look at the plausibility of actually pulling this off unnoticed, in someone’s home, in the middle of the city, it makes it very unlikely.

The article includes a picture of security footage of Balaji entering his apartment with takeaway food before his death. Which means there was video surveillance, everyone and their mother having a ring camera these days.

Lapse in the security footage would have been noticed by the investigators. All donut cops jokes aside, most detectives tasked with solving a potential murder case take it personally if you murder someone in their district.

So to murder this man you have to get unnoticed into the vicinity of the building, you will be seen in an apartment complex, there is a chance someone remembers you especially when you’re not a regular. There are a bunch of grandmas watching every move that happens on a floor through their door spies or door spy cams. If you ever lived in an apartment complex you know the cat ladies on your floor.

Then you have to force entry into the apartment. There are a dozen recording devices in every home. Mobile, stationary, working without electricity from an outlet. The chance that Siri or Alexa is catching a struggle between the people inside the apartment and whoever wants to enter is a real possibility.

Then the victim probably has defence injuries. You tie them up, their wrists will show it from trying to free themselves. Even if you catch them in their sleep, you would have to bring them into a position and situation where shooting themselves is plausible.

Nobody likes to be woken up mid-night by strangers, and cooperation even at gunpoint is unlikely. He would have known they came to murder him, so it doesn’t matter if you get shot in your bed or in your bathroom, but you can make sure it looks like a murder.

Then you have to trick the coroner by making projectile entry and exit plausible. The victim makes a sudden move, best case, you fucked up, worst case, it’s now crawling on the floor, bleeding.

Then you have to make an exit. Again unseen und unheard. This is such a complex operation that Murphy’s law will at some point catch up with you.

I am not saying all of this is impossible, but why the trouble? Just run him over when he picks up takeout. It happens all the time. People run red lights, pedestrians think they can cross when they shouldn’t.

It makes no sense to go to state actor level of complicated if a hit and run serves the same purpose with less risk. As much as it might hurt. It looks like suicide is the most likely thing that happened, and instead of focusing on a potential murder, the priority should be how do we protect whistleblowers better from all the trouble that whistleblowing brings because there is no proper process in place to protect them from the mental pressure they get put under by corporate lawyers and the justice system.

guzfip• 3 months ago

We all know the movies where the big bad corporate CEO tells his chief of security to get rid of the whistleblower/journalist, but if you look at the plausibility of actually pulling this off unnoticed, in someone’s home, in the middle of the city, it makes it very unlikely.

Idk man, if you had told me a some years back a cabal of the most powerful men in the world including business leaders, politicians, etc. were all connected to a global human trafficking pedophile ring id have said you’re a schizophrenic or watch too many movies.

Then it happened.

eiiejr2• 3 months ago

Don’t mention the part where bill gates got an ST.. oh wait lol.

The realty is, the people who make it high up are not nice people. Some are worse than others. But make no mistake - they feel the rules don’t apply to them and they can take gambles on the fact that very little can be done to stop them.

Jamesbeam3• 3 months ago

Fair point.

But you are simply missing the right perspective.

How would you know that this would have been the most stupid way to kill a person if you don’t want to get caught? You likely never were involved in planning to kill anyone. Like hopefully 99% of the people you know.

The Epstein stuff was crazy to you because you didn’t hang out with billionaires and know what they do for fun. Missing that perspective.

I have not heard a single personal assistant of one speak out about how shocked they are this Epstein thing happened and they are absolutely sure their boss never did something like that.

Strange, or?

We also talk about Hitler, but Hitler didn’t put the Jews into the trains personally. Bureaucrats managed the whole killing machine willingly, looking the other way for personal benefits. Nobody talks about that.

Musk paid off a flight attendant for allegedly offering her horse money for sucking or massaging his spaceship. I don’t remember exactly, it’s probably easy to find. They buy people all the time for fun and make them do stuff just to see how much it takes to buy them.

Soccer players buy small people to fight on their birthday parties. Rich people want experiences others cant get, Epstein just offered a world of opportunities for people who don’t know what to do with their money.

Rich people travelled to Bosnia to kill women and children with sniper rifles. Ask anyone stationed there at the time if they thought that’s crazy. If you been there, you knew.

The NVIDIA parties in the mid-2000s at exhibitions in Europe were basically a trade hub for exhibition hostesses for tech managers. Everyone knew, nobody talked about it unless you were on the guest list, a bunch of tech journalists were there, did you ever read someone write about it?

NVIDIA didn’t plan or intend this, it’s simply what happens if poor young girls meet manager moneybags who have access to a party they would never be able to go to on their own and some pocket money for spending the rest of the night in their hotel, which for them pays off their student credit or a new used car.

In this case, I hung out with professionally trained killers in the military for a few decades. If you know how to plan something like this, you know that it’s unlikely any professional would have killed him that way, if there is a quick and easy way that is a thousand times less risky without creating all of this fuzz.

A lot of shit happens that people find unbelievable unless they have the right perspective. If you think about it, I am sure you’ll find a few more examples of stuff you know from your position or work, that unless you work in that industry with the right people, will be an absolute blind spot for anyone on the outside.

disqard• 3 months ago

Why are your comments often Russian novels?

Do you have 1 hour to compose and write down your thoughts?

Jamesbeam3• 3 months ago

I've got "fuck you" money and all the time in the world.

I like to think about things I find interesting and write my thoughts out. This takes me five minutes.

What would I gain from limiting my thought process to accommodate the needs of strangers on the internet used to short form goldfish brain content?

Feel free to block me if you don’t want to read my comments, or simply go fuck yourself. Have a nice day.

beng-nl• 3 months ago

I found it thoughtful and thought provoking. I agree that it seems too unlikely and irrational and unnecessary - and quite rude to speculate, given Occam’s razor - that Altman actually had someone killed.

mark_l_watson• 3 months ago

At the time his friends and family in interviews talked about how happy he was: after whistle blowing and leaving to start his own company. The scary thing is that there were so many huge investors who might have had him killed. People are weird when there is a lot of money involved.

eiiejr2• 3 months ago

Funny how epstein’s supposed suicide occcured when cameras failed hmmm.

I think people underestimate what certain people will do - you don’t make it to the top nor acquire a lot of wealth without having certain urges. The kinds of urges where you are happy for someone to be terminated as long as you can achieve your goals.

The Death of an AI Whistleblower

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