Transcript
A (0:00)
Par le tu francais, hablas espanol? Par le italiano. If you've used Babbel, you would. Babbel's conversation based technique teaches you useful words and phrases to get you speaking quickly about the things you actually talk about in the real world. With lessons handcrafted by over 200 language experts and voiced by real native speakers, Babbel is like having a private tutor in your pocket. Start speaking with Babbel today. Get up to 55% off your Babbel subscription right now at babbel.com acast spelled B A B B E L.com acast rules and restrictions may apply.
B (0:40)
This is a CBC podcast.
C (0:49)
Hey everybody, I'm Jamie Poisson. We are entering week two of a dramatic trial that pits two of the biggest personalities in tech and two of the most powerful people in the world, Elon Musk and Sam Altman, against each other. Elon Musk is su OpenAI, a company that he co founded, claiming they betrayed their original mission in order to chase profits. According to Musk, the fate of the world is at stake. It's about whether AI can be kept in check or whether it will run rampant, potentially destroying humanity. But OpenAI says it's all sour grapes, that he's upset that the company did so well after he left. After all, he now runs a direct competitor. One way or the other, this trial could have major consequences for the AI industry. New York Times tech correspondent Mike Isaac has been covering the trial in Oakland, California, and he joins me today. Mike, hey, it's great to talk to you.
B (1:48)
Hey, thanks for having me.
C (1:49)
So shall we start with the Elon Musk, Sam Altman enemy origin story? Like, how did their relationship start?
B (1:57)
It's a great story because it goes back, you know, more than a decade. I think you have to remember back in, you know, the early to mid 2010s, Elon Musk was at kind of the height of his fame in a positive sense. You know, there wasn't really any negative stuff that you obviously are seeing these days around his politics or his views on how the Internet should be run or how companies should be run. So everyone was like, oh yeah, this rocket ship building guy, successor to Steve Jobs, that was like the same breath, right? Sam Altman was like, definitely a lesser figure. He was running what's called Y Combinator. It's like a high profile startup incubator out here. And they had both shared this view that artificial intelligence, which back then again was like not exactly a mainstream sort of concern or interest even to a Lot of people eventually would be a real worry for the fate of humanity. The thing that these two would always talk about, the reference point was always the Terminator situation. Right. And if you've seen Terminator, you know, like artificial intelligence becomes self aware and wipes out humanity with nukes at some point. It's very melodramatic.
