this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023
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Turns out Altman is a lab-leak covid truther, calls virus 'synthetic' according to Spectator piece on AI risk. (archive.is)
submitted 1 year ago by Architeuthis@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems
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Sam Altman, the recently fired (and rehired) chief executive of Open AI, was asked earlier this year by his fellow tech billionaire Patrick Collison what he thought of the risks of synthetic biology. ‘I would like to not have another synthetic pathogen cause a global pandemic. I think we can all agree that wasn’t a great experience,’ he replied. ‘Wasn’t that bad compared to what it could have been, but I’m surprised there has not been more global coordination and I think we should have more of that.’

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[–] gerikson@awful.systems 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I believe the scientific consensus is that it originated in a wet market in Wuhan.

The "lab leak theory", while not impossible, is also shorthand for a morass of conspiracy theories grounded in racist attitudes towards China. It somehow conflates that the pandemic is China's fault, if not an outright attack from China, while simultaneously downplaying any efforts to mitigate such an attack.

[–] MataVatnik@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

I guess most people aren't up to date with this subject. There has been plenty of discussion with experts that point to the possibility of a lab leak. The wet market hypothesis has so many holes in it that it's impossible to take seriously.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

grounded in racist attitudes towards China

I don't understand why that's considered racist? Why is a conspiracy theory that China has a world class biolab capable of a global pandemic racist?

A crazy conspiracy that a foreign power has biotech superiority isn't racism.