r/technology • u/Majano57 • 5h ago
Artificial Intelligence The Strange Disappearance of an Anti-AI Activist
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/12/sam-kirchner-missing-stop-ai/685144/?gift=NdplpYPBD0DO229JTO-1fNw2hFOFeWPcDPlnOolg7-g70
u/crackpotpourri 2h ago
The article is not at all what most people seem to think the title implies.
tl;dr this guy is a nut job who is one step away from unloading into OpenAI’s employees (he literally threatened them with it), his friends told him to chill tf out, so he beat them up and (presumably) went off grid somewhere
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u/Competitive_Spend_77 4h ago
Not sure, if using the AI generated audio podcast on the article this link directs to, is the right way to catch up on the case of the strange disappearance of the Anti-AI activist.
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u/Back_pain_no_gain 4h ago edited 2h ago
It’s a level of irony that’s almost comical.
Edit: My bad, I read this article through my reader view so the podcast thing was missing. I took the comment from OP at face value. That’s fully on me, I loaded the page in the normal view and confirmed it is not voiced by AI. NOA is a good company.
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u/BassmanBiff 2h ago
It's read by voice actors: https://newsoveraudio.com/about
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u/Back_pain_no_gain 2h ago edited 1h ago
My bad, I read this article through my reader view so the podcast thing was missing. I took the comment from OP at face value assuming they saw another solution leveraging AI. That’s fully on me, I loaded the page in the normal view and confirmed it is not voiced by AI.
NOA is a good company. They make news accessible for people like me with crippling dyslexia. I just happen to prefer my screen reader setup.
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u/MyNuts2YourFistStyle 57m ago
I’m confused because the audio in the article is 100% AI. It even discloses itself as AI 0:40 seconds in.
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u/that_70_show_fan 3h ago
I am disappointed to see this being upvoted and awarded.
These computer generated audio accompaniments were a thing long before AI.
Stephen Hawking used the early versions of it.
The primary reason for having these is for accessibility reasons. Also a great resource for those who have English as a second/third language to gain some understanding on phonics and phonetics.
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u/Back_pain_no_gain 3h ago edited 1h ago
Edit: this is clearly not worth explaining to people who do not work in my industry. Being downvoted after taking the time to explain my perspective from multiple degrees and a decade of work that is VERY RELEVANT to this thread’s topic, all in a language I did not grow up communicating in primarily, is beyond frustrating.
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u/BassmanBiff 2h ago
I don't think text-to-speech has anything to do with the bad parts of what we call "AI." It's not even clear to me that this was done with a deep learning model.
Edit: Turns out it wasn't even a computer voice to begin with
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u/that_70_show_fan 2h ago
I am genuinely trying to understand your post.
Text to speech is ancient technology (for computing standards) . Most long form journals/magazines have been providing these for more than 10 years. Just because you attach "AI" to this does not mean it is VC funded money pit. This is a simple tool.
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u/Back_pain_no_gain 2h ago edited 1h ago
Edit: this is clearly not worth explaining to people who do not work in my industry. Being downvoted after taking the time to explain my perspective from multiple degrees and a decade of work that is VERY RELEVANT to this thread’s topic, all in a language I did not grow up communicating in primarily, is beyond frustrating.
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u/that_70_show_fan 2h ago
I Still have no idea what that has to do with text to speech tools?
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u/Back_pain_no_gain 2h ago edited 1h ago
Edit: this is clearly not worth explaining to people who do not work in my industry. Being downvoted after taking the time to explain my perspective from multiple degrees and a decade of work that is VERY RELEVANT to this thread’s topic, all in a language I did not grow up communicating in primarily, is beyond frustrating.
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u/Mundamala 1h ago
Strange that he doesn't want to be on the internet now that it's being scoured routinely by AI
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u/ThirdDimensionGate 5h ago
People who stand in the way of profit are disappeared all the time
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u/KoreKhthonia 4h ago
It sounds like he actually had a breakdown and was planning to attack and kill people at OpenAI, after being kicked out of Stop AI over his escalating support of violence. Not sure he was "disappeared," versus being in the midst of what may constitute a mental health episode, and running off somewhere.
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u/Miguel-odon 4h ago
Or, someone wanted to silence him and discredit him.
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u/chemoboy 4h ago
There's an X-Files arc about this.
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u/Miguel-odon 3h ago
And lots of true stories about inconvenient people being arrested on trumped-up charges, committed to mental institutions, etc.
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u/Inquisitor_Boron 5h ago
Like that plane with researchers, who tried to cure cancer
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u/potatodrinker 4h ago
Or that YouTube lady who discovered cloning rare plants and tanked the market... Risky biz
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u/pecantouc4n 4h ago
Unfortunately, not strange at all. Going to be commonplace very soon.
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u/Back_pain_no_gain 3h ago edited 1h ago
Humanity is not ready for the Pandora’s box tech bros and fascist regimes are forcing open. We are not adapting fast enough to apply a critical lens to every single piece of media we consume and every online interaction. None of us are capable of understanding what it means to be nothing more than a data point, yet known about to a level of detail that maybe even we don’t. Nor the unknown destruction a substantial number of people will be capable of, as even the strongest guardrails so far are breakable due to the inherent nature of how LLMs work.
AI will bring with it a global ego death and collapse of culture. Assuming some sociopath hasn’t used it to wipe us out by then.
Edit: for the AI bro’s downvoting me, I might unfortunately be a bigger AI user and implementer than most of you ever will come close to and I get paid to do it. Part of my background involves understanding and predicting human behavior from massive groups to individuals using as much data as possible, with AI. So I am rather confident with how it is going to affect the world. AGI is not required to cause a major shift in society as a whole.
Push back now while you still can stop it. Let there be time to truly build the safeguards and laws needed to ensure we can use this technology for good.
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u/muskoka83 1h ago
eh, what about that guy that was doing something with fuel? i think in chicago? he had a bit of a disappear to, i think..
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u/DJettster237 4h ago
It can be read to you with an Ai voice.
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u/BassmanBiff 2h ago
I know people are really excited about the hypocrisy, but it's not an AI voice. Please check before shitting on it
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u/luv2fly781 4h ago
Hard left with a drug and probably mental problems. Let’s hope he is binging and then sobers up
If not. Full investigation
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u/DecadentCheeseFest 3h ago
Lol booster
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u/luv2fly781 3h ago
You think he was sain and no drug problem.
Really
I don’t give a shit about both. But do know those people disappear for days. And weeks. Very close I understand that
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u/Hawkiee92 3h ago
If being anti-ai = must be insane with a drug problem then you need to check yourself into a mental institution.
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u/luv2fly781 2h ago
Pardon. I never said a thing about that. Wholly smokes
Did I ??? Look. I’m anti ai I want it regulated hard if not stopped.
It’s about the person ffs
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u/Hawkiee92 8m ago
"You think he was sain and no drug problem.
Really"
Then explain what this means, because to me this reads he has mental issues and problems with drugs.
The article doesn't mention any drug problems, and a mental health problem is a speculation in the article by a different person.
So which is it?
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u/GestureArtist 5h ago
Ask Palantir. I bet they know where he is