Monday Morning Moan - madness, Molotovs and Mordor. Is one AI ‘Ring to rule them all’ really worth all this?

Might that be the most important thing anyone has said about AI this year to date?

Ok, it’s a hoary Lord of Rings metaphor, but look beyond the cliché and consider the sentiment in relation to that other sought-after magical totem, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), always famously five minutes, five weeks, five months, or five years around the corner, depending on which AI-hungry Gandalf is chasing attention at any given time.

Despite their Tolkien-ite tone, those five opening words didn’t come from Middle Earth’s hobbit Samwise Gamgee, but from another Sam altogether - OpenAI’s Sam Altman, a man who, to say the least, hasn’t had a good few days. Now, I’ve got my doubts about Altman, his execution of his role, and his perception of his responsibilities in the AI sector, but he doesn’t deserve what happened to him late last week in any ...