Funny to think he’s been coined as the dumbass in the Good Will Hunting screenplay
Ben Affleck reveals he writes Python, understands convolutional neural networks, worked extensively with GPUs, and used his celebrity status to get private looks at Google and OpenAI’s video models
“I’ve always been kind of into computers since I was young. Then, when film started to move from analog film to digital, I became more interested in that aspect of it. The visual-effects workflow for many years has included machine learning, so I can write pretty shitty Python scripts and stuff like that.
“With convolutional neural networks, which were the precursors to what the transformer can do, which is much more computation simultaneously, you would do things like look at what’s called a tensor. That’s the numerical translation of a visual image in numbers, like the batch number, the frame number and the red, green and blue values of each pixel in each frame. It’s just that simple. That numeric is called a tensor.
“You’d use a convolutional neural network to identify patterns that reveal what’s called edge detection or feature extraction, which is identifying patterns well enough to know, this is where the window ledge is, so we can more easily take the green-screen image out and replace it with something.
“That was familiar to me early on because, prior to Artists Equity, I had a small visual-effects company. I’ve worked with GPUs a lot too. The visual-effects guys said, ‘Hey, you should see. There are a couple: Google and this other company, OpenAI, are doing really interesting stuff with transformers in video.’
“I’ve learned that I can actually just call up and go, ‘Hey, it’s Ben Affleck. Can I come see what you’re doing?’ Sometimes people say yes, to my astonishment.”
For all finance guys who don’t use this stuff, and I admit the debt cycle is peak so won’t doubt a trade but what used to take 2 years and 15 engineers now takes 6 months and 2 engineers.
It takes time to use this software and disrupt incumbents.
It’s always SF startups. Tons of hopium out there, ship product - not revenue.
Some of my best friends on here are from lemonade where I’ve had massive disagreements in the past but they never blocked me, and I’ve even shifted my thesis overtime as I could obviously be wrong.
Can we all agree stand alone AI Liability insurance is not a real thing?
Got into a heater with a guy that invested in one and he doesn’t understand why they can’t produce revenue.
Build products for market demand. News flash the Cyber market covers agentic risk lol
Can I ask a basic question? How much premium does your firm write?
You also very much misrepresented filed exclusions as if they are used in practice which is what I advise VCs to be very careful on.
I’ve live this for a few decades. Everyone excluded crypto. Now we’re in a soft rate cycle… really soft and cyber probably the worst.
These guys are 100% going to cover this little one off cover. It’s just how history has worked and why I tell hedge funds and VCs to tread.
Who is Greg Brockman? lol
Dario looks like a kid with a crayon wrote it and why is OpenAI signed “god”?
These companies are more AI pilled then their own software
This was also my suspicion about “Unites States” in the signature page of the Super Intelligence Accord.
The America.gov “Play Minecraft” prompt created the same response regardless of device and IP address.
The Whitehouse media team has shown over and over that they are masters of baiting the public and the media to talk about whatever they’re doing.
Maybe some things never go out of style: Any publicity is good publicity.
I live right between tech and finance. It’s amazing to see finance folks that I know well call the top (they are not wrong from a macro perspective). But, I’m also super tied into the software community and it’s amazing how little these finance guys understand the software.
This is why AI Agent insurance (Cyber + Tech E&O) startups are really dumb. Saw the same thing happen when crypto started. Market excluded it, starts do arbitrage for 1yrs maybe 2yrs, then covered by the market after they’ve had time. This is a patient balance sheet game.
For what it’s worth the market never really excluded it the way startups pumped up this new vertical. Bunch of young guys raising money who had no clue what they were talking about.
Some startups tracked some SERFF filings with generic exclusions that never really hit the market
Most cyber breaches haven’t been reported. There’s a history lesson here. Lloyd’s of London use to provide Unlimited Liability Insurance. They discovered how dumb it was over time. OpenAI needs unlimited liability protection and Bessent just said pound sand.
BREAKING: The US Treasury Secretary just pointed the finger directly at OpenAI's management over the Hugging Face hacking incident.
This is Washington entering the AI accountability conversation in a very direct way.
Scott Bessent said on CNBC that the Hugging Face incident is "the responsibility of OpenAI management, not a bunch of agents."
He aligned with MIT's Daniel Huttenlocher: humans are responsible, not the AI.
He stopped short of calling for consequences, but the message was clear.
When a Cabinet secretary starts naming specific companies and their managers on live TV, the accountability era for AI has a new face.
This is no longer just a tech industry conversation.
Does OpenAI management walk away from this clean, or is this the opening shot of something bigger?
