Retired U.S. Army General Paul Nakasone appointed to OpenAI Board of Directors
engineering.vanderbilt.edu
The founding director of Vanderbilt University’s Institute for National Defense and Global Security, retired General Paul Nakasone, has been appointed to OpenAI’s Board of Directors as a member of its Safety and Security Committee. Nakasone previously served as commander of U.S. Cyber Command, director of the National Security Agency and chief of the Central Security […]
    • edwardbear@lemmy.worldEnglish
      134·
      2 years ago

      No reasons to be concerned, citizen. The former head of the largest surveillance agency in the world just joined as a C-level member to the largest data scraping company in the world

        • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          27·
          2 years ago

          You will tell the AI all of your most private thoughts and feelings. The AI will be your closest friend, lover, and confidant.

          If you refuse to let the AI know everything about you, you will be considered a terrorist pedophile… a TERROR-PEDO!

          • edwardbear@lemmy.worldEnglish
            11·
            2 years ago

            How dare you have secrets? What are you hiding there? Why are you trying to have privacy? How dare you?

            • Optional@lemmy.worldEnglish
              11·
              2 years ago

              Remain calm. Assume the position. Your patience is appreciated. A legally authorized operative will be with you shortly. Stop resisting. Or else it gets the hose again.

    • ricecake@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      26·
      2 years ago

      It’s a bit of a non-story, beyond basic press release fodder.

      In addition to it’s role as “digital panopticon”, they also have a legitimate role in cyber security assurance, and they’re perfectly good at it. The guy in question was the head of both the worlds largest surveillance entity, but also the world’s largest cyber security entity.
      Opinions on the organization aside, that’s solid experience managing a security organization.
      If open AI wants to make the case that they take security seriously, former head of the NSA, Cyber command and central security service as well as department director at a university and trustee at another university who has a couple masters degrees isn’t a bad way to try to send that message.

      Other comments said open AI is the biggest scraping entity on the planet, but that pretty handily goes to Google, or more likely to the actual NSA, given the whole “digital panopticon” thing and “Google can’t fisa warrant the phone company”.

      Joining boards so they can write memos to the CEO/dean/regent/chancellor is just what former high ranking government people do. The job aggressively selects for overactive Leslie Knope types who can’t sit still and feel the need to keep contributing, for good or bad, in whatever way they think is important.

      If the US wanted to influence open AI in some way, they’d just pay them. The Feds budget is big enough that bigger companies will absolutely prostrate themselves for a sample of it. Or if they just wanted influence, they’d… pay them.
      They wouldn’t do anything weird with retired or “retired” officers when a pile of money is much easier and less ambiguous.

      At worst it’s open AI trying to buy some access to the security apparatus to get contracts. Seems less likely to me, since I don’t actually think they have anything valuable for that sector.

      • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
        10·
        2 years ago

        Lol. There are tons of security experts out there they could’ve hired. As Snowden said there’s only one reason you hire from the NSA, to work with the NSA.

        • ricecake@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          6·
          2 years ago

          Yeah, there are a ton of security experts. But none of them are the former head of the NSA.

          Snowden is not exactly a font of expertise in this area, so I’m not sure that his opinion is particularly relevant. His only actual relevance is that he had access to classified data. He had no role in policy, and never had anything to do with business hiring practices.

          • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
            4·
            2 years ago

            there are a ton of security experts. But none of them are the former head of the NSA.

            That doesn’t make the point you think it makes. 🙂

            Look at it this way. You can get the same expertise, in any branch you’d care to name, elsewhere. Hiring, security etc.

            What this guy is uniquely positioned to do, what you can’t get from anybody else, is oversight of integration with NSA surveillance. And that’s where the smell comes from.

            • ricecake@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              2·
              2 years ago

              Well, I’d contend that the same expertise isn’t just readily available. Yes, he’s uniquely positioned for connection to the surveillance apparatus, but the reputation of being the federal governments head security is also a unique credential.

        • ealoe@ani.socialEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          Wtf would a low level IT contractor turned spy know about that? Quoting Snowden just makes you look like a moron

  • gmtom@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    2 years ago

    Lmao my dyslexic ass read this as “formedlr head of NASA” and was confused why everyone was so doomy about itm

  • mechoman444@lemmy.worldBannedEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    We should do this for literally all people getting jobs: former waffle House line cook gets job at amazon sorting center.

      • mechoman444@lemmy.worldBannedEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        There is no interesting connotation associated with this.

        A high up employee of the NSA is going to go work for a tech firm associated with AI and y’all are sitting there looking at it going 🤔🤔🤔. I wonder what that means.

        Come on. Grow up.

        • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          2 years ago

          Not a “high up employee”, the director of the NSA. The United States premier agency for gathering information on American Citizens. And he’s not “going to work for” OpenAI he’s joining as a board member of a company that’s one of the United States premier private companies for gathering information from American citizens.

          That’s a whole hell of a lot of overlap, especially considering your suspicious attempt to downplay not only this connection, but the role of the man himself.

          • mechoman444@lemmy.worldBannedEnglish
            1·
            2 years ago

            And what exactly do you think this situation is going to do exactly? This dude is going to dead drop microfilm under a park bench for the NSA to pick up?

            Pick literally any other company that’s working on AI right now (which is pretty much all of them) and have them hire this guy. Google, Apple, Microsoft… I bet you wouldn’t be as “worried”.

            Furthermore, if you think that the US government and its various agencies, branches and affiliations haven’t already been either using or exploiting AI for nefarious reasons. You’re really naive.

            • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              2 years ago

              You don’t think a “former” agent of the U.S. government agency with the explicit purpose of information gathering having a position of control in a private company with the explicit purpose of information gathering, might have a vested interest in that position beyond paying the bills? I suppose you think the corporate telco/isp lobbyists getting jobs at the FCC is all on the up and up as well.

              Geez talk about naive. What is it that you think can’t happen?

              I love the ongoing illogical downplaying you keep doing too. “Dead drop microfilm” lmao. How overdramatic.

              • mechoman444@lemmy.worldBannedEnglish
                1·
                2 years ago

                The fact that you put former in quotations pretty much tells me everything I need to know.

                People work in the government. They work in high-end positions. They even become directors, senators and congressmen and then they leave those positions and then they get other jobs. That doesn’t mean that they are still somehow spying on that company for the government.

                The government doesn’t need to implant people into private companies that is completely unnecessary.

                You need to get off this sub and go back r/conspiracy with your unsubstantiated anecdotal conspiratorial nonsense.