Alex Heath

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Alex HeathDec 18, 2023

“Substackers Against Nazis” want the company to explain itself.

More than 200 Substack authors have signed an open letter to the company’s leadership asking them to explain why they are “platforming and monetizing Nazis.” From the letter:

From our perspective as Substack publishers, it is unfathomable that someone with a swastika avatar, who writes about “The Jewish question,” or who promotes Great Replacement Theory, could be given the tools to succeed on your platform. And yet you’ve been unable to adequately explain your position.

Yikes! Meanwhile, Substack is pointing other outlets to this open letter supporting the company:

We are still trying to figure out the best way to handle extremism on the internet. But of all the ways we’ve tried so far, Substack is working the best.

Alex HeathDec 15, 2023

OpenAI suspends ByteDance’s account after it used GPT to train its own AI model.

In today’s issue of Command Line, I reported that ByteDance has been violating the developer license of both Microsoft and OpenAI by using GPT-generated data to train its own, competing model in China.

After my report was published, OpenAI spokesperson Niko Felix sent the following statement confirming that ByteDance’s account has been suspended:

All API customers must adhere to our usage policies to ensure that our technology is used for good. While ByteDance’s use of our API was minimal, we have suspended their account while we further investigate. If we discover that their usage doesn’t follow these policies, we will ask them to make necessary changes or terminate their account.

As I reported, most of ByteDance’s GPT usage has been done through Microsoft’s Azure platform, not through OpenAI directly. I’ve asked Microsoft if it will follow OpenAI and suspend ByteDance’s access as well.

ByteDance is secretly using OpenAI’s tech to build a competitor

Alex Heath

Dec 15

ByteDance is secretly using OpenAI’s tech to build a competitor

Alex HeathDec 15, 2023

Alex HeathDec 12, 2023

A peek inside the black box that is OpenAI’s finances.

OpenAI’s nonprofit parent company — the one with the board that suddenly fired Sam Altman last month — has its finances made public each year by the government. The numbers for 2022 were recently published by the IRS, and you can view the filing below.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t say much, given that it excludes the financials for OpenAI’s commercial entity that makes ChatGPT. What the filing does show is that Altman was paid $73,546 in 2022. Co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever were paid $113,727 and $334,572, respectively. What about the three board members who voted to fire Altman alongside Sutskever? They were paid nothing.

The end-of-year AI rush

Alex HeathDec 8, 2023

Alex HeathDec 4, 2023

The GPU haves and have-nots.

This chart from Omdia Research estimating Nvidia’s largest customers this year has been making the rounds in my social media feeds.

As I wrote in an earlier issue of Command Line, these H100s are essentially the tech industry’s new gold, since they are the preferred workhorse for powering generative AI. The gap in shipment volume between Meta, Microsoft and everyone else is quite something, and tracks with what I’ve heard from sources in recent months.

A chart showing H100 GPU shipments this year.

Omdia Research

Alex HeathDec 4, 2023

Here’s why Threads doesn’t have chronological search results

According to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, doing so would open the app up to “spammers and other bad actors” who would “pummel the view with content by simply adding the relevant words or tags.”

It’s another example of how Threads continues to resist the real-time nature of the platform formerly known as Twitter.