Summary

George Hotz responds to Sam Altman's blog post, arguing that the real threat isn't powerful individuals like Altman or Musk, but the collective 'Molochian tragedy of the commons' — millions of small decisions that degrade society. He critiques democratic solutions like UBI as disguised slavery and argues that true technology sharing means open research and publishing, not cloud subscriptions. Hotz urges OpenAI to publish its research openly, arguing this would attract talent, preserve OpenAI's original mission, and secure its place in scientific history. He draws a sharp distinction between sharing 'access' to technology (feudalism) and actually sharing the science itself.

Key Insight

True technology sharing means openly publishing research and science, not offering revocable access to cloud services — and OpenAI's historical legacy depends on choosing the former over the latter.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 6

  I don't fear "great men," I fear that there's no one coordinated enough to prevent this.

• 7

  I fear the Molochian tragedy of the commons. The small decisions made by millions every day that make the world slightly worse for their fellow man.

• 9

  UBI is an extremely dangerous way of disguising slavery in a form of giving you something.

• 8

  Sharing isn't offering them a subscription to your cloud service, that's feudalism.

• 7

  You actually have to share the technology, not "access" to the technology that can be revoked at any time.

• 7

  I'm not sure why any self respecting researcher works at a closed lab, this isn't how impactful science ever happens and it won't be different this time.

• 6

  Science never credits the first guy who came up with an idea, it credits the guy who published.

• 8

  Rejoin the millenia long project of science instead of being a forgotten circus of trinkets and intricacies.

Tone

opinionated, urgent, contrarian