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Worst person in tech 2023 - semi final (mastodon.online)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Edit: final round is live now https://mastodon.online/@parismarx/111595842718166678

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[–] 115 points 2 years ago (7 children)

Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Sam Altman for those who don't want to click through.

And I have no idea which I would choose to face off from those four, let alone who would win.

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  • [–] 107 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    You could put them in a sack and hit the sack with a stick. You'd never hit the wrong guy.

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  • [–] 32 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I like this idea much better than picking one of them as the worst person in tech for 2023. Can we do the stick beating instead?

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    Theil wants a techno libertarian oligarchy with no regulations ala Blade Runner.

    Musk wants the rich to escape to Mars while destroying earth and dooming the poor's.

    Bezos wants to send the poor's into space along with heavy industry and turn earth into a rich person paradise ala Black Mirror "Fifteen Million Merits".

    Altman is just a shitty rich person in tech wasting precious resources to teach a computer to create porn. Becaue we all know that's what 99% of people do and will use AI for. He's also a prepper which means he's a selfish cunt.

    If I had to pick just one it would be Theil. I think the man is insidious while the rest are more in your face.

    Ranked choice would be Theil, Musk, Bezos then Altman.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I’m shocked that Sam Altman won out over SBF

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Sam Bankman-Fried is definitely bad for what he did and his belief in effective altruism, which is just another smoke screen to not properly tax rich people because they "donate to charities". You could argue his getting into crypto also makes him bad because crypto mining is bad but he's not on the same level as Sam Altman. Not even close.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I’d rather pick someone who did something deserving of life in prison than someone who didn’t, but maybe that’s just me.

    Also, Sam Altman has no equity in, and was only paid $73k by OpenAI last year. You can dislike him for the rumors surrounding his managerial style and whatnot, but it’s pretty clear he isn’t exploiting people to get shit rich like everyone else on this list.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I don't.

    Altman is just a shitty rich person in tech wasting precious resources to teach a computer to create porn. Becaue we all know that's what 99% of people do and will use AI for. He's also a prepper which means he's a selfish cunt.

    If he wasn't promoting AI and trying to sell it as the next best thing to sliced bread he'd just be a shitty rich prepper. Instead he is wasting time and resources on AI.

    And my personal bias against crypto really lowers my "give a fuck" bar so while, again, what he did is bad I don't care if he defrauded a bunch of crypto cunts. Same as I don't care about people "loosing" their NFT's.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Instead he is wasting time and resources on AI.

    Under what circumstances would AI research and training not be considered a waste of time and resources, in your mind?

    I don't care if he defrauded a bunch of crypto cunts

    Well, his whole ballgame was selling crypto to normal people, not cryptobros. Do you really think the FTX Super Bowl commercial was targeted at people who can articulate the differences in technology between Bitcoin and Ethereum?

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Under what circumstances would AI research and training not be considered a waste of time and resources, in your mind?

    Right now? None.

    Well, his whole ballgame was selling crypto to normal people, not cryptobros.

    All the same crypto cunts to me. Doesn't matter if you mine, trade, marry or fuck crypto they are all the same cunts to me.

    Do you really think the FTX Super Bowl commercial was targeted at people who can articulate the differences in technology between Bitcoin and Ethereum?

    I don't watch any sports and few to no ads so I have no idea what you are talking about.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    All the same crypto cunts to me. Doesn't matter if you mine, trade, marry or fuck crypto they are all the same cunts to me.

    Wow, this is a concerningly sociopathic worldview. I’m quite sure that a lot of people who were fucked over by FTX were people you would otherwise consider to be your brethren. Or, y’know, your grandparents.

    And here I was thinking Lemmy would be less toxic than Reddit.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Wow, this is a concerningly sociopathic worldview.

    Okay.

    I’m quite sure that a lot of people who were fucked over by FTX were people you would otherwise consider to be your brethren. Or, y’know, your grandparents.

    I can tell you with great certainty that none of my friends or family were/are invested in crypto. None. And if even a single one had been my opinion on crypto cunts would not change.

    And here I was thinking Lemmy would be less toxic than Reddit.

    Sorry?

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago

    Okay.

    That’s the thing about sociopathy: you’re convinced that your opinion is enlightened because you have successfully disregarded the human cost of the issue at hand, when in reality that is the fundamental problem with your opinion.

    Please, for all our sakes, learn to empathize with people who make mistakes you personally wouldn’t. Introspect on the conversation we just had, and ask yourself what stands to be gained from the opinion you hold.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    To make things slightly easier it's Musk v Thiel and Bezos v Altman.

    In the first matchup, I would pick Musk over Thiel for being a bigger POS in general.

    In the second matchup I would pick Bezos for the larger impact he has had on the world.

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  • [–] 39 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I'm with you on the second, but I would have a really hard time with the first because Musk is more overtly a piece of shit, but Thiel has had so much influence over the years, including elevating Elon Musk to the position where he is today. I guess if it's the worst of 2023 and we're restricting it solely to what we know they've said and done in 2023, it would be Musk. But I think overall, it is probably Thiel just because there wouldn't be an Elon Musk anyone had heard about without Peter Thiel.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago

    In the first matchup, I would pick Musk over Thiel for being a bigger POS in general.

    But Musk's acquisition of Twitter is in itself subservient to Theil's overarching political goals. One has been in the limelight more, but the other has caused more harm overall.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    This is the 2023 matchup. You don’t consider Jordan’s performance at UNC when determining their championship status this year. Heck, despite the past damage done, i don’t think. Bezos, for his 2023 tech fuckery, should have made it out of the first round.

    By the same metric, Musk easily tops Thiel first 2023 and is the clear shoo-in as champion of the worst.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Why do people hate Altman? Genuinely OOTL.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    He's not really as bad as the other three, but he did take a nonprofit company and turn it into a multibillion dollar profit machine which has a massive carbon and fresh water footprint.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    His world coin project is one of the sketchiest. Paying people in poor countries to get scanned by this creepy orb thing? Odd.

    His sister has also vociferously accused him of molesting her for a period of time when she was 4 and he was 13.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    What did Thiel do to make the internet hate him as much as the other three?

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  • [–] [S] 17 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It's a full time job to answer completely, but from what I know he finances escape fantasies for the rich which they call seasteading. He calls it a libertarian ideal to create these new colonial city states, but what he means is liberty for his ilk from taxes, regulation and societal rules. Meanwhile his brainchild Palantir erodes the rights of the poor people who are left behind through surveillance, military technology and ICE funding. But this is all in line with his ideology, because apartheid "works" in South Africa according to Thiel

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