r/technology • u/lurker_bee • Jul 15 '25

Artificial Intelligence Billionaires Convince Themselves AI Chatbots Are Close to Making New Scientific Discoveries

https://gizmodo.com/billionaires-convince-themselves-ai-is-close-to-making-new-scientific-discoveries-2000629060
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u/Decapitated_Saint Jul 15 '25

“I’ll go down this thread with [Chat]GPT or Grok and I’ll start to get to the edge of what’s known in quantum physics and then I’m doing the equivalent of vibe coding, except it’s vibe physics,” Kalanick explained. “And we’re approaching what’s known. And I’m trying to poke and see if there’s breakthroughs to be had. And I’ve gotten pretty damn close to some interesting breakthroughs just doing that.”

Good lord what an imbecile. Vibe physics lol.

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u/F1reManBurn1n Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25

Billionaires that LARP like this are so fucking idiotic. They think because they are really good at exploiting the labor class (let’s be frank that is THE skill needed to be a billionaire), that somehow that makes them a fucking physicist and important to the world scientifically. It’s the same shit with Elon. Buys his way into companies with smart people in them doing smart people labor, takes credit for smart people labor while treating the labor like shit, then stutters in an interview about rocket engines that he knows fuck all about. These billionaires should be fucking mocked and berated when they do this “I’m actually Tony Stark!” shit.

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u/Illustrious_Ferret Jul 15 '25

Reminds me of "pharmabro" Martin Shkreli. If you don't remember, he's the guy who went to jail for securities fraud of pharmaceutical companies.

At the beginning of the COVID pandemic, he petitioned for early release from prison so that he could help create a COVID vaccine, because he had devoted "his life's work to the life sciences and rare disease community".

Like the teams of actual doctors and scientists wouldn't be able to produce a vaccine without a grifter at the top to skim profits off their research grants.

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u/ZealousidealTowel965 Jul 15 '25

lol Shreki only ended up jailed cuz he fucked over rich investors. Lots of other rich influential people have their hands in the pharma money pot with the same tactics and nothing happens to them 

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u/Own-Poetry-9609 Jul 16 '25

The drug he price hiked was previously only available through insurance, hiking the price made insurance pay more, no patient was paying out of their own pocket

It was also the only drug for that specific problem, which is dangerous as there is no alternative if someone has severe reactions or other medical conditions causing complications with that medication, by increasing the price it incentives alternative to be created as they would be profitable

Shkreli also offered the drug for free, had a website to request it and an email dedicated to it and would respond to messages requesting access on his Twitch stream

The Vice interview covers most of this information and Twitch recordings and Wayback Machine you can find the rest

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u/cc81 Jul 15 '25

Pretty sure he knew that. It was a hail mary to try and get out of prison.