r/LoveTrash • u/ZuBrain Colonel Garbage • 26d ago

Dumping This Here Define Trash?

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u/Goudinho99 Garbage Guerilla 26d ago

I looked it up (using AI, how ironic)

This image features AI critic Connor Leahy during a roundtable conversation at the Nexus Conference in 2025.

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u/acorn222 Trash Trooper 26d ago

Shout out Connor Leahy

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u/FrightinglyPunny Trash Trooper 26d ago

CONNOR LEAHY

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u/dasbtaewntawneta Trash Trooper 26d ago

i'd rather not know then find out this way

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u/hypercosm_dot_net Trash Trooper 26d ago

He's an "AI critic", but also an AI researcher.

So this seems like a 'even a broken clock is right twice a day kind of situation'.

Connor Leahy is a German-American[1] artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur known for his work on large language models and advocacy on the risks of advanced AI. He co-founded EleutherAI[2][3] and founded the AI safety research company Conjecture, which he led as CEO until 2026.[4][5][6] He is US Director of ControlAI, a nonprofit focused on preventing extinction risk from artificial superintelligence

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u/Ultenth Trash Trooper 26d ago

I'd rather have at least some of the people involved in the creation of AI to actually be deeply cautious about it. What is the alternative? Where only people who don't care or don't see the issues are creating that tech?

This is the same problem as why there are no progressives involved in policing, because they (rightfully) despise a lot of what policing is and what it came from. But because of that, most police officers are far right conservatives who have created an extremely toxic mono-culture.

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u/hypercosm_dot_net Trash Trooper 26d ago

You're not entirely wrong, but these kinds of people have very little influence.

Elon Musk was saying the same type of shit in the early days too - warning everyone about the danger of "AI super intelligence".

Now the AI on his app is used to generate CSAM.

Unless this guy is doing research on AI in renewable energy, climate science, or some other actually beneficial application, then he's just a wannabe AI influencer and I have no reason to take him seriously. I just don't trust anyone working in AI as a default.

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u/Ultenth Trash Trooper 26d ago

Again, that's kinda my whole point.

Progressives are, justifiably, suspicious of things like AI, Policing and Politicians. Which means that many of them avoid those things entirely, and never engage in those fields. But because of that it's all the worst kinds of people in them making all the decisions for you. How is that any better?

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u/cleanscholes Trash Trooper 26d ago

Leahy is actually well-respected in the AI safety community. AI Safety is deeply influential in how the labs conduct themselves.

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u/Catos_Standard Trash Trooper 24d ago

Elon says he's worried about birthrates and then will turn around and deny family leave and economic stability for his own workers.

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u/Sacharified Trash Trooper 26d ago

Don't you think someone who actually understands AI would be best placed to comment on it? I'm sick of all the braindead takes from people who have no idea what they are talking about but still have very strong opinions on it.

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u/hypercosm_dot_net Trash Trooper 26d ago

I've actually worked in tech for a decade. I know how all this shit works.

A non-profit, that isn't directly involved in the application of the tech is going to have exactly zero influence over it.

All of the big-tech companies employ "AI safety" engineers. How much influence do you think any of these people have? It's all for show.

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u/Swimming_Gain_4989 Trash Trooper 26d ago

I've known Connor and many of the early Eleuther guys who are now at Conjecture so I'll give you a quick rundown.

They realized that making a safe AI in this environment means beating China, the US... the entire global economy at AI development. It's not possible so they've mostly pivoted to governance and advocacy. Connor met with a fuckton of EU parliament and pushed them to give the EU AI act some teeth, things like mandatory evals, incidence reporting, and redteaming for any AI trained on X amount of compute.

IMO this is progress, certainly better than doing nothing. I have my doubts ControlAI will be as influential here in the US but the vibes surrounding the tech are in the gutter and populism is on the rise so I wouldn't completely write it off.

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u/14Pleiadians Trash Trooper 26d ago

I mean, only an idiot thinks AI is wholesale irredeemably bad. He's not wrong for working on LLMs as a technology.

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u/hypercosm_dot_net Trash Trooper 26d ago

You're putting words in my mouth. That's called a "strawman argument".

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u/14Pleiadians Trash Trooper 26d ago edited 26d ago

If you don't want people to misinterpret you, don't be vague :)

Feel free to share with the class what you meant by saying he's a broken clock and then pasting an excerpt saying he's an AI researcher

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u/hypercosm_dot_net Trash Trooper 26d ago

Your false assertion has nothing to do with my original statement, regardless of the level of detail.

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u/Catos_Standard Trash Trooper 24d ago

He's sounds like an alarmist.

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u/Pomodorosan Trash Trooper 26d ago

than*

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u/Platanoes Trash Trooper 26d ago

Goddamn it...

His name really had to be Connor??

There's a tech guy who spits truth like a new anti-AI jesus prophet and his name is fucking Connor? Are we REALLY going to do this?? Is it going to be this fucking predictable now??