LinkedIn founder quits OpenAI board; here’s why

Happy AI Tuesday.

It’s a thing now, trust us.

On to the news.

🤖 Top Stories

🤯 Reid Hoffman leaves OpenAI board

OpenAI lost a pivotal board member, but it’s for a good reason.

Reid Hoffman, former LinkedIn co-founder and prominent investor in silicon valley, is leaving the board.

He’s currently a partner at Greylock, a prominent VC firm.

Turns out that's why he wanted to step down. He cited it as a potential conflict of interest. 

He wants all that sweet, sweet investing upside of OpenAI’s startup customers without the ethical downside.

That’s it.

Here’s the thing. OpenAI’s got a weird structure.

Hoffmann was a board member of the OpenAI nonprofit. Its nonprofit arm is technically different from its core business. They have a capped profits structure. Any excess profits beyond the cap flow to the nonprofit.

This would be a big loss for a normal startup. Given the hype around AI, it’s doubtful OpenAI will hurt for board members anytime soon.

👀 A HUGE creator tool gets Stable Diffusion

The next video game you play might have whole environments generated by AI.

That’s what Stability AI, makers of Stable Diffusion, hopes will happen.

Blender, the most popular program for 3D animation, just got a Stable Diffusion plugin.

Crazy part? Stable Diffusion handles the generation. So you can create these assets without a crazy-expensive computer.

Pump the brakes though. This integration doesn’t solve EVERYTHING about generating 3D characters. It sure does make it a lot easier.

You’ve got to wonder, though. What will the artists against AI think of this?

😬 Your “friend” calling you might be AI…

Your phone rings . It’s your best friend. You answer. They sound panicked, and scared. They tell you they need money. Right now. You have to go to the nearest ATM and withdraw as much as you can. Now. It’s the only way to help them.

You got scammed. And not by a professional voice impersonator.

By AI.

It’s a harsh reality that AI could make phone scamming even more difficult to detect.

In a recent article from the Washington Post, several people highlight how exactly they were almost scammed by these AI-generated voices.

All it takes is a 30 second clip to get a fake that’s “good enough.” 

Most TikTok profiles are public.

To help, here are some tips to avoid these scams, courtesy of the Minnesota Attorney General.

• Ask for the caller's name or employee number and call the company back using a trusted source.

• Avoid sharing personal or financial information over the phone. Especially if you didn't start the call.

• Remember your rights when contacted by a debt collector.

• Generally, you can't win a prize if you didn't enter a contest.

• Hang up if something seems off, especially if it sounds too good to be true.

• Never give out your Social Security or Medicare number to an unsolicited caller. Medicare and Social Security will not call you to update your information or issue a new card.

😎 AI tools, news, tips

1. ChatGPT hackathon ideas. (We’ll cover this, don’t worry.)

2. Hubspot co-founder can’t stop that grind.

3. More AI-powered search.

4. Dunks. In more than one way.

5. Upload any PDF, get answers.

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