Adi Robertson has been covering the intersection of technology, culture, and policy at The Verge since 2011. Her work includes writing about DIY biohacking, virtual and augmented reality, copyright law, online free expression, and the history of computing. You have probably seen her in a VR headset.
Jared Leto’s band Thirty Seconds to Mars is (for real, this time?) using Sam Altman’s World eye-scanning orb to stop bots, reports The San Francisco Standard:
So does Leto have a World ID?
“That’s a really good question. I actually don’t know,” Sada said.
She says the starting point was Sutskever reaching out to have a conversation where he expressed serious concerns about Altman. It was a “pattern of behavior” that included issues with “honesty and candor” that led to the firing, not any one action. Toner has already laid out some of this in a 2024 podcast, and it’s similar to Murati’s testimony.
And he thinks posts are still called tweets. (The post is about AI creating so much wealth that “everyone can have a penthouse if they want.”) We’re getting some meandering analysis of AI creating prosperity, but even the judge seems frustrated at this point.
Russell is asked next about risk. He starts with individual risk, including algorithmic discrimination, which he says is “much more widespread” than people expect. He also mentions the possibility of AI systems reinforcing “delusional beliefs” — like, in his example, “Vladimir Putin is an alien.” Then there’s systemic risk — like AI systems taking jobs at a large scale. Russell mentions computer science students having trouble getting work already, and he expects it will accelerate.
As Russell keeps going, the opposition lawyer objects that this is speculative, and Judge Gonzalez Rogers asks to move on — which Musk’s lawyer does by promptly asking again about jobs. Another objection is sustained, and Russell starts talking about people using AI to magnify harm, like cyberattacks. He mentions Mythos, and the opposition lawyer gets it stricken from the record as outside the scope. None of this particularly relates to OpenAI so far — it’s basically a generic overview of AI risks, which Musk has been focusing on as central to the trial, despite some limits from YGR. And we’ve already run through 20 minutes of the 30 allotted for direct testimony.
Russell is first asked about the positive aspects of AI — he mentions medical technology and AlphaFold, which can predict protein structures. Also mentions Waymo self-driving cars, which he describes as “extremely safe.” There can also be “broad economic benefits” where systems can be used to develop software, “where the AI can actually write software much faster and cheaper than human beings.”
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers says she got some “May the 4th be with you” jokes from her kids today as we get started. Apparently she appreciated them. After that, the day kicks off with expert testimony from computer scientist Stuart Russell.
Emails going as far back as 2015 give a glimpse into the foundations of OpenAI and the early tensions at the company.
