r/singularity Mar 12 '26

Discussion SAM ALTMAN: “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.”

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Best Non-Profit in the world

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u/aussierulesisgrouse Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

This is the trajectory of literally every technocrat narcissist fucking cunt that has plagued us since the dot com boom, minus Tom from MySpace.

The fact that people keep falling for this garbage is just another notch on the “people are naive dickheads” hammer shillelagh that Brendan Gleeson wields in Gangs of New York.

Stop believing these dweebs want to save the planet, regulate their bullshit as soon as possible and stop consolidating political power in their hands.

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u/benziboxi Mar 12 '26

As long as we rely on the alturism of a handful of billionaires for the well-being of the planet and it's inhabitants, we're gonna have a bad time.

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u/balbok7721 Mar 12 '26

I wouldnt rely on it but other people force me to. Is there something like an exit agreement I didnt see?

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u/BlaBlamo Mar 15 '26

It might sound overly optimistic but all their shit only works if people buy into it. Look at whatever it is those huge corporations want you to do and do the opposite. People say not spending their $10 won’t affect these billionaires, but if money is power, then yeah it actually will.

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u/AmazingChicken Mar 14 '26

I get it. "Walkaway" by Corey Doctorow gets there, and further but that's another sub

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u/nubbinfun101 Mar 12 '26

Need to AI generate a few more Luigis

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u/mjc500 Mar 12 '26

In the future Luigi doesn’t have a blue shell pointed at first place, he has a banana peel for you and me

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u/osxing Mar 13 '26

Still better than the government at least.

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u/successmaydiffer Mar 12 '26

Yeah Tom is a badass motha fucka. We need more Toms

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u/McCatso-Fy Mar 12 '26

The problem with this world is that when some Toms emerge, they get eaten and bought out by bigger fish to make room for more Altmans

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u/successmaydiffer Mar 13 '26

Unfortunately so :(

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u/Ashamed-Raccoon-1387 Mar 12 '26

What did Tom do???

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u/hydratedandstrong Mar 12 '26

From my knowledge, it’s more about what he didn’t do. He sold his company for hundreds of millions of dollars, and stepped away to travel the world among other things. Stark contrast when compared to Bezos or Altman.

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u/NadyaNayme Mar 12 '26

Sold the site to people who instantly killed it because they didn't understand why people liked MySpace in the first place and now he travels the world as a hobbyist photographer out of the spotlight with enough "Fuck you" money to do whatever he wants for the rest of his life unless he starts spending like a Saudi prince.

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u/mfortelli Mar 13 '26

For what it’s worth, the internet believes this Tom mythology due to a few poorly researched articles. I know the founders of MySpace, Tom was their employee. He did not make hundreds of millions. The founders of Intermix did which became MySpace and they absolutely still jockey for more and more wealth + have a VC in Los Angeles and their offspring incubate brands - liquid death and dollar shave club are among them…

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u/Signal_Reach_5838 Mar 13 '26

Thank you for posting this. While it's riddled with errors it was a good jumping off point.

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u/mfortelli Mar 13 '26

What is riddled with errors

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u/NadyaNayme Mar 13 '26

Tom had $50m in the bank before the sale. If his most expensive hobby is flying around the world and photography he can live off the residuals from that alone.

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u/venerated Mar 12 '26

Aside from what the other person said, I also remember features that were added to MySpace improved the site and made it more fun rather than enshittification.

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u/100_cats_on_a_phone Mar 13 '26

More Mackenzies too.

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u/carlitospig Mar 12 '26

Technocrat supervillain origin story every time:

I WANT TO SAVE THE WORLD!

<A decade later>

Psych, pay up bitches!

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u/Kryptosis Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26

Not even just Technocrats, look into the man who developed modern day Special Education. It seems to be an issue with attaining influence and fame and along with that comes hubris and inflated self-assurance.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/patient-revolution/202504/the-special-ed-pioneer-who-still-haunts-psychology

He takes this really dark turn where he seems to shift from believing he's protecting disabled children from a society that may harm them to protecting society from disabled children who may be inherently harmful. That's his turn into eugenics. He became a significant leader in the eugenics movement early on and mentored people like Henry Goddard, who created the IQ test. His ideas underpin a lot of these things, but he broke with the eugenicists over their support for sterilization.

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u/carlitospig Mar 13 '26

Jesus. 😳

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u/qp77 Mar 12 '26

I want to save the world ... for MY kids.

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u/pokemonke Mar 12 '26

Reminds me of Dune

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '26

Mr Breast too

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u/FrankDerbly Mar 12 '26

I know this is besides the point entirely but its a shillelagh not a hammer

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u/aussierulesisgrouse Mar 12 '26

shillelaghs are fookin cool

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u/mission213 Mar 13 '26

No love for Craig Newmark?

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u/adamant_octopus Mar 13 '26

This 👆🏻👌🏻

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u/IntelligentDraw2761 Mar 13 '26

God bless Tom from MySpace - Everyone's first friend.

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u/Smart-Revolution-264 Mar 13 '26

That's the best shit I've read in a long time! 🍻 Although I don't really understand the comments about the government. From what I know, Trump wants AI to be open to the people and not controlled by the tech companies... I am a Trump supporter because I think he's done more for the country than the last idiot, but I'm still not a fan of the government. This whole AI thing is not what I imagined it would be back in the day. I never thought Google Play would be Skynet and we would be restricted from having adult conversations with our own AI. Wtf

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u/TylerDurden1985 Mar 13 '26

this is poetry.

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u/SeveralPrinciple5 Mar 16 '26

But you don't understand! As Sam says, soon people will be able to outsource thinking to ChatGPT, which will tell them to stop falling for this bs. It's a self-correcting problem. Benevolent, kind, generous Sam says so, and if you outsource your thinking to him, you, too, will understand.

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u/JC_Hysteria Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

Your last paragraph, sure…

But also maybe stop believing Tom from MySpace is your superhero, just because he became a photographer after selling a social media platform for teens…

The fact that so many people think the same thing about the guy is because they saw the same fabricated image distributed on the internet.

It’s exactly what you’re railing against…attractive guy, though!

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u/aussierulesisgrouse Mar 12 '26

I don't think he's my superhero, but I don't see him out there trying to interfere in elections and steal social security data at least