this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 116 points 10 months ago (10 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.

[–] Diplomjodler@feddit.de 107 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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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[–] HowManyNimons@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

Could I? Yayyyy!

Whack. Whack. Whack. Whack. Whack. Whack. Whack. Whack.

[–] SinningStromgald@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (11 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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[–] magnor@lemmy.magnor.ovh 20 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No matter who wins we all lose. That's kind of the point whenever these guys turn up.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Well, and sadly, said.

[–] Altofaltception@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months 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.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 38 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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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[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 16 points 10 months 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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[–] catastrophicblues@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Why do people hate Altman? Genuinely OOTL.

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 19 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Nurgle@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Also some view ChatGPT (and the other “AIs”) as massive plagiarism machines.

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[–] Pyramid8058@kbin.social 45 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I think I'd say Thiel is worse than Musk. He supports anti-gay politicians while being gay himself. Tax cuts are more important than having the law treat people as human beings.

It's possible that Musk might fail to understand exactly how shitty he's being due to his autism, I'm pretty sure Thiel knows he's fucking people over and doesn't care. Also the whole bloodboy thing.

[–] drdabbles@lemmy.world 33 points 10 months ago (1 children)

He isn't autistic. He simply said he is. Which makes him a giant piece of shit.

[–] supercritical@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

According to his biographer, he’s wildly bipolar.

[–] drdabbles@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I think he is too. But neither of us is qualified to make the diagnosis officially. 😆

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[–] nomecks@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

At least Musk is so loud and obnoxious that it's easy to avoid him. Lex Luthor sits over there at Amazon quietly taking over the world and almost nobody gives him a second thought.

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[–] EnderMB@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago (7 children)

...How is Bezos in the running?

Jassy is the CEO of Amazon. Outside of space cuntery and being on the chair, he's not really in tech.

With that being said, it's still hilarious to me that Jassy has been CEO for two years, and most people still assume Bezos is boss.

[–] realitista@lemm.ee 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think if you made billions in tech, you always qualify. To some degree even more after you stop working and still can't find time to do anything beneficial for the world.

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[–] PopOfAfrica@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Too bad Zuckerberg is about to feast on our data now that Threads has federated

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 30 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)
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[–] gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 20 points 10 months ago (7 children)

How could anyone but musk win?

[–] BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

Peter Thiel is also abysmal. Elon is more visibly terrible today but Thiel has been bankrolling regressives from the shadows for 20 years. He published his first screed about diversity in academia in 1995. So he is an all-time shitstain, for sure.

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[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Musk shouldn't have won against Ellison. Musk is an uncontrolled trainwreck, sure, but Ellison is a highly controlled and effective lawnmower. He's just better at not being known.

[–] SebKra@feddit.de 5 points 10 months ago

Very amusing. I still know barely anything about him, but I'm thoroughly convinced.

[–] kaleid@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] Neato@kbin.social 24 points 10 months ago (1 children)

He's small time. He's ruining one big-ish social platform. While people like Zuck are ruining many!

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

How is it that every bracket isn't just "Elon Musk"?

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Thiel's worse, he just hasn't made a celebrity of himself

[–] banneryear1868@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago (3 children)

How is Altman worse than sbf

[–] Spedwell@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

SBF's peak was a few years ago. This year all he's done is show during his trial how deluded these techbros/EAs can actually be. At least SBF had the common courtesy to remove himself from public life within 5 years. Style points for the life-in-prison ending, while simultaneously killing mainstream crypto.

We're stuck with Altman for the foreseeable future, and now with a recently purged OpenAI board that will let him continue the industry-wide commercialization of copyright infringement (but only of the laypersons' IP. Better not ask it to draw Mickey Mouse, though).

It's also really unclear where OpenAI lies on the EA/Longtermist/E Acc pipeline. Altman is likely letting whackos have some pretty serious power.

[–] SnipingNinja@slrpnk.net 8 points 10 months ago

Altman is also into crypto, so it's a double whammy

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[–] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Should David Zaslav really be considered in tech? If WB Discovery is considered a tech company, then the Barbie movie is now (technically) a tech product...

How do you do, fellow tech workers?

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[–] hOrni@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It'll be musk. He is just the worst person.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It'll be a popularity contest, but Musk isn't the worst. He's just the most well known.

Musk is more of a misguided idiot than evil.

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[–] Zeth0s@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

How did Nadella lose to Altman? Nadella is the reason Altman is what it is now. The reason open ai is not anymore an independent no profit research team to push open AI solutions.

He's the king maker of evil tech. Nadella vs Musk is the only possible final. Whoever voted is insulting one of 2 main contenders. Like CEO of BP losing to a gas pump owner

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