Todd Owens

Founder and CEO at Kevala. Flexible scheduling for healthcare.

[David Sacks @DavidSacks]

Dario has written that we need to “pace the frontier,” and Sam has agreed. People may be surprised by my response: go ahead.

You guys are the frontier. By any reasonable metric — market share, revenue growth, model capability — the two of you have a duopoly on frontier intelligence. You’ve also claimed the lead is widening because of recursive self-improvement.

I don’t see what you see in the lab. If the unreleased models are scary enough that you think you should slow down, I support your decision to be responsible.

But stop pretending you need anyone else’s permission. Stop pretending antitrust law has to be suspended so you can form a cartel. Stop pretending you need a regulatory approval process that supersedes product liability. Stop pretending METR is independent when it is intertwined with Anthropic’s investors and staff. Stop pretending you need those same evaluators to police competitors who aren’t even at the frontier.

Most of all, stop pretending the motivation to slow down is purely altruistic. You face massive product-liability exposure if your products enable a truly damaging cyberattack. The market already punishes models that behave in unpredictable or unauthorized ways. After the Hugging Face episode, it is simply good business for OpenAI and Anthropic to trade some raw power for reliability and predictability. Call it alignment if you want. It is also just giving customers what they want.

Pacing the frontier would also create breathing room for a more intelligent conversation about regulation than Bernie Sanders’ “shut it all down.” China is very unlikely to join a global agreement, as you know, and that has to be taken into account as well.

So go ahead and pace the frontier. You are the ones setting it. The easiest way not to build superintelligence is for you to agree not to build it. Demanding your preferred regulatory framework as the price of that will look like blackmail of the public and the political system. So just do it.

If you do, you’ll buy goodwill for the next conversation. If you don’t, we’ll know this was just another bid for regulatory capture — or an election-season psyop.

[Todd Owens @toddcowens]

Fun opportunity to reflect!

[GeekWire @geekwire]

Tech Vets: Kevala CEO Todd Owens leads startup much like he navigated his role on Navy submarine https://t.co/IZPYd2UauW

[Todd Owens @toddcowens]

@BillAckman @MIT @greggottesman

[Todd Owens @toddcowens]

@BillAckman @Harvard She’d better hope her counsel is better than the counsel advising her before the congressional testimony. Clearly her own intellect is lacking.

[Todd Owens @toddcowens]

@BillAckman @Harvard @MIT @Penn I’m shocked

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

The presidents of @Harvard, @MIT, and @Penn were all asked the following question under oath at today’s congressional hearing on antisemitism:

Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university’s] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying or harassment?

The answers they gave reflect the profound moral bankruptcy of Presidents Gay, Magill and Kornbluth.

Representative @EliseStefanik was so shocked with the answers that she asked each of them the same question over and over again, and they gave the same answers over and over again.

In short, they said:

It ‘depends on the context’ and ‘whether the speech turns into conduct,’ that is, actually killing Jews.

This could be the most extraordinary testimony ever elicited in the Congress, certainly on the topic of genocide, which to remind us all is:

“the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group”

The presidents’ answers reflect the profound educational, moral and ethical failures that pervade certain of our elite educational institutions due in large part to their failed leadership.

Don’t take my word for it.

You must watch the following three minutes. By the end, you will be where I am.

They must all resign in disgrace.

If a CEO of one of our companies gave a similar answer, he or she would be toast within the hour.

Why has antisemitism exploded on campus and around the world?

Because of leaders like Presidents Gay, Magill and Kornbluth who believe genocide depends on the context.

To think that these are the leaders of Ivy League institutions that are charged with the responsibility to educate our best and brightest.

On the bright side, our congressional leaders deserve accolades for showing tremendous leadership and moral clarity in their statements, by the questions they asked, and the respectfulness with which they conducted the hearing.

It was a masterclass of how our government and democracy should operate.

If you have time, please watch the entire hearing. Throughout the hearing, the three behaved like hostile witnesses, exhibiting a profound disdain for the Congress with their smiles and smirks, and their outright refusal to answer basic questions with a yes or no answer.

[Todd Owens @toddcowens]

@amyecheetham @Forbes @kevalacare @gomalga @highnotesocial @Highline_Co @BillGOPayments @TrullyAI You are the best, so lucky to work with you through the ups and downs of life and business!

[Amy Cheetham @amyecheetham]

Proud to be included on the @Forbes 2023 Midas Brink List! We are only as good as the founders we get to back & I'm beyond grateful I get to work with the amazing teams at @kevalacare @gomalga @highnotesocial @Highline_Co @BillGOPayments @TrullyAI + more!
https://t.co/cKkkTyk6iR

[Greg Sands @gsands]

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." Mark Twain

[Kevala @kevalacare]

You heard it here first. Kevala + @SnapNurse is creating the 🌏's most reliable workforce of clinicians. https://t.co/aSfOgdnHX0

[Kevala @kevalacare]

Proud to announce that @SnapNurse partners with Kevala to streamline per diem staffing in healthcare. The partnership allows Kevala's clients to access SnapNurse’s pool of over 350,000 clinicians through our scheduling and workforce management technology. https://t.co/8eeCUpzQwk

[Ben Phillips @benphillips76]

Just massive kudos for the person who created this Halloween squirrel feeder https://t.co/urlKXsR5ot

[Kevala @kevalacare]

Noah and Lucas are enjoying time at the @Natl_Inv_Ctr Fall Conference! Connecting with industry leaders such as @joshcrisptweets and @seniorlivingfan of @btgvoice is always a blast. Are you at NIC? Make sure to say hi to learn how we can help address your staffing needs.

[Kevala @kevalacare]

Last month, Amy Cheetham sat down with some of the women of Kevala to talk all things venture capital. As a partner at @costanoavc, her experience and insight was so valuable to our team. Thanks, Amy!

And a bonus thanks to Seattle's Ti22 Asian Fusion for lunch. Delicious!

[Todd Owens @toddcowens]

And yes I’m responding to my own tweet lol

[Todd Owens @toddcowens]

Will be interesting to see where our local government spends this money. Kirkland and Bellevue (where I live) are booming - $30m of federal relief coming our way? Please send it somewhere else. #AmericanRescuePlan

[Todd Owens @toddcowens]

And now we experience the inflation that resulted from this unnecessary infusion of capital

[Todd Owens @toddcowens]

@LeslieFeinzaig Trick candle?

[Todd Owens @toddcowens]

@amyecheetham @andrew__rea And fun! It’s a dangerous combination.

[Todd Owens @toddcowens]

@nathaliejacoby1 Me

[Todd Owens @toddcowens]

@mattcharney @indeed