Thread

1. pcestrada · 1789660165 · focus · HN ↗

   OpenAI and Anthropic should be nationalized. I find it difficult to trust Sam Altman or Dario Amodei.

   1. cmrdporcupine · 1789662265 · focus · HN ↗

      The nature of the US state is such that the distinction between nationalized and not is almost meaningless.

      Like Lockheed-Martin or Boeing, etc. there's just interpenetration between the corporate boardroom and the state. They act in each other's mutual interests.

      The Chinese system is just more explicit and open about this.

      And as a non-American, I can't trust the US state anymore than I can trust its dominant corporate entities. So I fail to see the advantage to the world to it being nationalized. In fact under the current administration this would be an even worse outcome.

      1. woah · 1789662646 · focus · HN ↗

         You're taking companies that work almost exclusively for the US government and represent a tiny portion of the US economy as representing all US companies?

         1. cmrdporcupine · 1789663941 · focus · HN ↗

            Beyond the defense sector, the US state has always intervened publicly and privately to mediate and balance competing corporate "private" interests.

            It has also periodically aggressively helped subsidize, bankroll, and enforce the interests of some key sectors; notably the petroleum/energy sector. And finance.

            In those sectors the state and private sector are fully intertwined in a strategic way.

            I think "AI" is now joining that list. OpenAI and Anthropic will not be allowed to fall over or explode, and speculative investors I think are confident even with the dubious financial situation because they know this.

            Especially insofar as there's now a strategic alignment of the fossil fuel sector and the "AI" datacentre sector as they are now becoming massive users of natural gas.

            (Worse: Here in Canada that has taken on a very explicit role in that new datacentres seem to be pitched mainly in areas with remarkably traditionally expensive electricity and 100% reliance on natural gas [Alberta] and even coal [Saskatchewan] power generation -- instead of places like Quebec and B.C. that have copious hydroelectricity. On the surface it makes no sense until you realize it's more about finding customers for domestic natural gas than it is strategically about AI itself.)

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.