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You realize 1) There were no personal threats, you're being deceptive here and 2) Bushmaster threatened Bubeck (of OpenAI) first? Bushmaster redacted 90% of the
by tristanj 4d ago
You realize 1) There were no personal threats, you're being deceptive here and 2) Bushmaster threatened Bubeck (of OpenAI) first? Bushmaster redacted 90% of their conversation to stir up as much FUD as possible, but you can review Bubeck's later statements to fill in what actually happened.
From the statement:
I said that if OpenAI released its result in the way proposed I would go public with what happened.
Translation: If you release this result, I will go public with my concerns that you plagiarized my work.
The reply was, “Why would you ruin your career?” I replied that I am an academic, and asked why he thought going public would ruin my career.
Translation: Typically, making unfounded accusations of plagiarism will ruin your career. Why would you do that to yourself?
Bushmaster then redacts 90% of what Bubeck says next (because it would detract from the narrative he's trying to portray) and only includes the most inflammatory line.
The reply was, “If you don’t want me to be nice, then I don’t have to be nice.”
Translation: You were the closest person to solving the problem. Even though we solved it and you didn't, we offered you to give you the Millennium prize and put your name on the paper, so long as you remove your coauthor (who works at Anthropic). We offered you this because we're being nice. Since you don't want to be nice (by accusing us of doing things we did not do), we're not going to be nice (and offer you the prize/co-authorship of the paper).
When you fill in the context, it's clear: 1) there is no personal threat like you claim and 2) this is hardly a threat, on a scale of threats you can make, this scores a 1.5 out of 10.
For context: Bushmaster is pissed at OpenAI because they sniped a problem he was toiling on for the past year, so during this conversation I believe emotions are quite heated.
I don't claim this interpretation is 100% accurate, but if you disagree, do reply with a better one yourself.
- xigoi 3d ago> Translation: You were the closest person to solving the problem. Even though we solved it and you didn't, we offered you to give you the Millennium prize and put your name on the paper, so long as you remove your coauthor (who works at Anthropic). We offered you this because we're being nice. So nice of them to give an ultimatum where the paper will be published in an academically dishonest way no matter what you choose.
- tristanj 3d agoI actually misworded this. OpenAI did not ask to remove a co-author, they only invited Buckmaster as a coauthor and not Alpöge. Having Alpöge (an Anthropic employee) on an OpenAI paper is bad optics, so they only wanted Buckmaster.