Yes, Sam Altman did breach trust. Worse, he made it hard for the world to collaborate.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/openai-microsoft-hit-with-new-author-copyright-lawsuit-over-ai-training/ar-AA1kmo8Z

When Sam Altman was fired, some media house reported that the Board felt that with the Open AI Open Day, Sam had taken the organisation towards a commercial direction that did not fit with the original goals of Open AI. 

Open AI was built as a non profit, to create AI for ALL. All being the operative word here. Equitable access to AI capabilities is vital to an equitable world. Whether we like it or not, AI is the competitive advantage of the future. 

But the bigger issue is this - Open AI was trained on possibly yottabytes of data by ordinary citizens and creators of content - on the assumption that the LLM would be used for AI for All. Just like Wikipedia was created by millions of individual contributors giving their time and knowledge for free - on the premise that it was a free, open-to-all public encyclopedia. 

The Microsoft investment was the first dent in the "for ALL". In one stroke, only one company stood to gain the MOST from the LLM - from the contribution of millions of individuals whose work was consumed by Open AI to create Dalle2 and ChatGPT. 

The story is an action replay of the Wikipedia story. Google donated significantly to Wikipedia and magically, Wiki results started appearing on top of Google search results. Searchers found the best information on top, and Wiki got a lot more hits (and donation, of course). It was a win-win for both - but not for the creators who gave hours to create Wiki. They never got compensated. 

It is the same for Open AI. It used content from literally millions of creators to make Picasso like paintings, write in the style of so-and-so author, and write specific types of content - college essays, research papers, opinion pieces - based on the essays, papers, and opinions of people who did not, and never will, see a dime. 

The trend of a nonprofit creating something big and universal, only to sell it to the highest bidder, is not just against the moral principle. It is also a breach of trust. The creators who donated their time and knowledge generously, as they did prompt engineering and provided feedback to ChatGPT, were contributing to AI for ALL. They were not contributing to Bing's Image Generator or Bing ChatGPT.

Secondly, and more importantly, as a creator, why would I trust the next "Good for All"? 

I know I wouldn't, personally speaking. 

And to me, there is something very wrong with both these things. 

Which is why I love this news: 

https://www.reuters.com/legal/openai-microsoft-hit-with-new-author-copyright-lawsuit-over-ai-training-2023-11-21/

But here is something I cannot understand: 

Why would a non-profit need to monetise?

Someone was funding Open AI from 2015 to the time of the MS investment. Why was that model not sustainable? 

In unrelated news: 

Bard can now analyse Youtube videos and give you really intelligent answers. 

https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/topstories/google-bard-ai-can-now-watch-youtube-videos-and-answer-your-questions-here-s-how-to-use-new-feature/ar-AA1koDdn

But the millions of youtube creators that are helping Google monopolise the search market even more, will never see a dime of that multi-billion revenue. 

#InDefenceOfTheCommonMan

How to project your retirement corpus

I did it the painful way - one entry for every year of existence. 

On top, were the expenses rows. 

Under that were the income rows. 

The first thing you need to determine is how long you think you will live. I took my parents' average age and added 5 to it for medicine induced longevity. 

These are the assumptions: 

A. Cost of living expenses go up by 6% YoY if one owns a house and 8% YoY if one does not. 

B. Factor in Full time caretaker cost from the age of 75. Take current values and add 12% YoY inflation until you reach the year of turning 75.  

C. Some Capex that can be expected if one is retiring alone: 

      Cremation and inheritance costs 

      House Maintenance cost every 10 years 

D. Assume about 8% YoY growth in the value of your gold bullion. 

E. I took 5% as the return from FD and 10% from equity. There are no mutual funds in my investment portfolio. 

F. For rentals of properties owned, I assumed a 8% YoY growth and a 60% occupancy rate. 

G. For self earning through consulting and other fun stuff, I took a conservative number and gave it at 5-10% YoY growth. Potential age up to which one can earn - 75 

The objective: 

A. The inflow should be at least 10% higher than the expenses, else the corpus will not be able to keep pace with inflation. 

B. There should be some bullion as liquid assets that can be used to deal with unexpected illness. 

C. Find out the cost structure of assisted living and start planning for that at the age of 50. I assumed entry into assissted living at the age of 70 or thereabouts. 

D. Have a plan to either reverse mortgage or sell any real estate that is not manageable for you after a certain age. 

E. Track your portfolio consistently and see if the income and expenses are keeping pace with the retirement strategy. 

The excel sheet, by the way, looks like this: 

Probe8 is now listed by private book stores in India, US, and Australia!!

I just realised.. with Dymocks.. my book has been listed by private bookstores (not Amazon, but websites of real bookstores) in India, US, and Australia!!! 

And all this without promoting the book one bit! 

Even on Amazon, the rank of the book keeps going up and down, which means sales are happening. 

I don't see a penny of those sales, but am so glad that the book is being recognised and loved on its own merit. 

Of all our labours of love - children are the most dear. Books come a close second. 

If you like the book, do give it a nudge - leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, or our own website. 

One more Australia listing for Probe8!

This is a week of surprises! 

Probe8 was listed on ebay Australia earlier this week but today, imagine my surprise when I found it on Dymocks - a 140 years old bookstore in Australia!! 

https://www.dymocks.com.au/book/probe8-by-nidhi-arora-9798890026521

For some reason, Google is not letting me upload the screenshot!! 

Yay and Yay!! 

This now makes the book listed on private bookstore websites in India, Europe, US, and Australia! Yippee!!!! 

Book Review: The Girl who disappeared by Vikrant Khanna

A pacy thriller. 

That would be the headline of the review. 

Thrillers and mysteries are not an easy genre to write. Primarily because readers have read literally hundreds of plots and are waiting to pre-empt the plot. 

Therefore, the author has to take the reader along on the journey, but also find a way to stay one step ahead of the reader. 

The book has easy, credible characters. The story progresses at an easy, bordering on languid, pace. But the advantage of a book is that one can speed read the slow sections if one wants to. 

The characters and the plot develop simultaneously, with details getting added in each chapter. 

While the overall plot is credible, but just so, the rest of the story also has some plot holes that leave the reader, if not frustrated, definitely wondering. Maybe, a writer cannot cover all bases of probability, or the book would become too big to be readable. 

If you have a flight or a short train/bus ride, or are looking for a pacy read to spend a lazy winter afternoon, this book would be a good fit. 

An Ebay Australia listing for Probe8!

 

This is a new one!!!!

Pakistan becomes the first country to successfully counter illegal residents

 While we were busy with other major news, Pakistan, on October 3rd, asked everyone living illegally in the country to move out voluntarily by November 1st or be arrested, and thousands of people left - on their own.

The UN tried to intervene, the Afghan government tried to influence, but the *interim* government of Pakistan kept its stand unchanged. They must leave, or they will be arrested.

This, from an interim government.

Some of these undocumented people reached Pakistan in 1979 but never documented themselves or applied for refugee/citizen status.

This makes Pakistan the first country in the world to successfully deal with illegal immigration.

PS: Is there a human cost? Sure. Is this the right thing to do? No idea. But I think it deserves to be recognised that Pakistan became the first country to issue a warning and actually get illegal residents to voluntarily leave.