OpenAI and Government of Malta partner to roll out ChatGPT Plus to all citizens
39 points by bookofjoe 59 minutes ago | 35 comments

blfr 38 minutes ago
The subsidies deployed by the industry are so massive I don't even know if consumers needs public assistance here. It's kinda like the gov was subsidizing web hosting or basic banking. The price for a regular consumer already barely hovers above zero.

Just look at this list of services included in Google's AI Pro subscription[1]. Google took everything it could think any consumer might need and bundled for $20/mo. There's even $10 GCP credit (that you can use for AI API calls).

[1] https://support.google.com/googleone/answer/14534406?hl=en

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dwa3592 26 minutes ago
Thank you for this comment and holy cow, I have the pro subscription and didn't know it came with that many bells.
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ninjahawk1 29 minutes ago
I’m personally not a fan of OpenAI always referring to their model as “providing intelligence as a utility.” Sounds very condescending, are you saying this isn’t something we already have? If that’s the opinion, may be good to reflect on how the models were trained. On millions upon millions of books which no authors were compensated for.

But that’s besides the point, the whole initiative is self-defeating by design. This isn’t like power, it’s something humans do inherently possess, this is simply a way to amplify what already exists. Intelligent people using AI generally seem to be more productive than when they don’t use it, and lazy or unintelligent people generally see cognitive decline, at least based on what I’ve heard online but I could be wrong on that.

So saying “this is where you get intelligence” is both false marketing and destructive to OpenAI as a company, since by all definitions, it isn’t true.

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arcanemachiner 8 minutes ago
> I’m personally not a fan of OpenAI always referring to their model as “providing intelligence as a utility.” Sounds very condescending, are you saying this isn’t something we already have?

Your body also generates electricity and natural gas. Do you also get upset when energy companies claim to provide these services as a utility?

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raq98 59 seconds ago
"Humans also produce farts" is a new low. Can the AI people be interned or moved to some seasteading libertarian hellhole so the rest of us can live a normal life?
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malfist 4 minutes ago
Is the electricity or natural gas that your body produces a defining feature of humanity?

Does AI actually provide intelligence?

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Muromec 8 minutes ago
>I’m personally not a fan of OpenAI always referring to their model as “providing intelligence as a utility.” Sounds very condescending, are you saying this isn’t something we already have?

We do and we don't. If you would go out there and talk to a random person about elliptic curves and matrix multiplications and whether you hit a performance ceiling in a specific 2x2 multiplication thingy with Karatsuba and wnaf, they would not know half the words, but the lying and flattering machine will be able to hold the conversation.

The thing will not get all things right and bullshit me about DSTU4145 using normal basis, will lie about A being set to 1 for all standard curves, but it's definitely more intelligence that you can get from a taxi driver.

If it's not general superintelligence right there for five bucks a piece, I don't know what is

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malfist 4 minutes ago
Is a dictionary intelligent?
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hilariously 44 seconds ago
These philosophical questions are decades if not older https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_room And the answer is "depends on who you ask and how many capabilities it has"
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preisschild 4 minutes ago
> We do and we don't. If you would go out there and talk to a random person about elliptic curves and matrix multiplications and whether you hit a performance ceiling in a specific 2x2 multiplication thingy with Karatsuba and wnaf, they would not know half the words, but the lying and flattering machine will be able to hold the conversation.

Wikipedia has existed for decades...

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pizza 7 minutes ago
you can say the same thing of the watts in a person too
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rtlambh 20 minutes ago
A gambling, money laundering and Mafia paradise where journalists are killed for investigating the Mafia partners with OpenAI. A match made in heaven!

Next, force an eyeball scan on the peasant population.

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Muromec 4 minutes ago
Eyball scans are already there on the border for other people. So are AI turrets shooting people on sight, just a different border
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purrcat259 16 minutes ago
Unfortunate thats the reputation we have :(
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eska 10 minutes ago
I used to work for a hosting company, and all the shady business like exploitation of children and sex workers came from there unfortunately. But that’s because people move their business there for legal reasons, not because of their residents I assume.
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decimalenough 6 minutes ago
It's a one year free trial, after that it costs money.
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musicale 20 minutes ago
What could possibly go wrong?
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zitterbewegung 44 minutes ago
Would be interesting long term if this sways public opinion about data centers in Malta. I do support though AI literacy in general and this is a good step. Would wonder about the deal in how much this is actually costing Malta if at all.
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purrcat259 14 minutes ago
Unlikely. Other than the telcos there's only one proper commercial datacentre here. Space is very constrained and the electricity supply stability + summer heat aren't a fun combination
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varispeed 35 minutes ago
Can't imagine the size of brown envelope. Handing over your entire nation's thoughts to a foreign company operating under US Cloud Act in normal circumstances would be considered a risk to national security. Why not invest in home grown talent and companies?
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applfanboysbgon 28 minutes ago
Malta is the size of a small city, I don't think national security or investing into home grown companies comes into play here.
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phillc73 14 minutes ago
Malta is part of the EU. I am personally very surprised about this partnership, just in the context of data security, privacy and the GDPR. How is the privacy of these EU citizens protected when all their prompts and data is sent to OpenAI? How do these EU citizens submit a request for all their personal data to be deleted from OpenAI records, a right they have under the GDPR with a compliant data processor?
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morkalork 30 minutes ago
Worse than that, it's bi-directional. The model's responses and tuning now influences a whole nation of people.
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alfiedotwtf 36 minutes ago
To be honest, PR pieces don’t all need to go on HN, especially when this is probably not news worthy to anyone here except Maltese living in Malta
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GaggiX 34 minutes ago
I'm not Maltese and I did find it interesting.
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syngrog66 20 minutes ago
Facts for context:

Malta has a population of only 550k.

Everyone in Malta could already, before this deal/plan, and even without it now, use ChatGPT (or any other LLM model/service, whether free or premium.)

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purrcat259 14 minutes ago
Citation needed. I haven't heard of this.

I'm Maltese so feel free to be as detailed as needed.

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collingreen 40 seconds ago
[delayed]
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rendx 46 minutes ago
> "Malta’s AI for All initiative will offer people of all backgrounds the opportunity to learn how AI can be used responsibly through a course developed by the University of Malta. The course is designed to help people understand what AI is, what it can and can’t do, and how to use it responsibly at home and work. After the course is completed, citizens can access ChatGPT Plus for one year at no cost to them."*
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dawnerd 6 minutes ago
Gotta get them hooked and reliant on it. It’s why they subsidized the entire software industry to adopt it.
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julianlam 39 minutes ago
> for one year

snort

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MagicMoonlight 22 minutes ago
It’s a shame ChatGPT is total trash now.
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Muromec 54 seconds ago
Thanks CCP for having providing one that is as lying and flattering but cheaper.
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neon_me 22 minutes ago
... rather than that, they should prepay everyone a few hours of therapy and aroma sticks. A waaay more profit in the long game.
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mock-possum 46 minutes ago
Smart move, just wish a more ethical outfit was making it.
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sauercrowd 45 minutes ago
TL;DR: they made a course for citizens
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