6 ms·
Doesn’t make any sense. He is ideologically driven - why would he risk a once in a lifetime opportunity for a mere sale? Desperate times calls for desperate me
by podnami 3y ago
Doesn’t make any sense. He is ideologically driven - why would he risk a once in a lifetime opportunity for a mere sale?
Desperate times calls for desperate measures. This is a swift way for OpenAI to shield the business from something which is a PR disaster, probably something which would make Sam persona non grata in any business context.
- dogcomplex 3y agoHe claims to be ideologically driven. OpenAI's actions as a company up til now point otherwise
- majesticglue 3y ago100%. Man I was worried he'd be a worse, more slimy elon musk who'd constantly say one thing but his actions portray another story. People will be fooled again.
- lainga 3y agoSay what you will, but in true hacker spirit he has created a product that automated his job away at scale.
- dmix 3y agoSam didn't take equity in OpenAi so I don't see a personal ulterior profit motive as being a big likelihood. We could just wait to find out instead of speculating...
- gremlinunderway 3y ago[flagged]
- jliptzin 3y agoThat's no fun though
- objektif 3y agoWhat do you mean did not take equity? As a CEO he did not get equity comp?
- WanderPanda 3y agoIt was supposed to be a non-profit
- marvin 3y agoCEO of the first company to own the «machine that’s better than all humans at most economically valuable work» is far rarer than getting rich.
- jeffwask 3y agoHe's already set for life rich
- voisin 3y agoIs he? Loopy only sold for $40m and then he managed YC and then OpenAI on a salary? Where are the riches from?
- dragonwriter 3y agohttps://www.thestreet.com/investors/sam-altman-net-worth-how-does-he-make-money https://www.thestreet.com/investors/sam-altman-net-worth-how...
- ljm 3y agoPlus, he succeeded in making HN the most boring forum ever. 8 out of 10 posts are about LLMs.
- oldgradstudent 3y agoThe other two are written by LLMs.
- voisin 3y ago[flagged]
- cpeth 3y agoIn terms of impact, LLMs might be the biggest leap forward in computing history, surpassing the internet and mobile computing. And we are just at the dawn of it. Even if not full AGI, computers can now understand humans and reason. The excitement is justified.
- wahnfrieden 3y agois that even certain, or is that his line to mean that one of his holding companies or investment firms he has a stake in holds openai equity but not him as an individual
- dustingetz 3y agoopenai (the brand) has complex corporate structure with split for profit non profit entities and afaik the details are private. It would appear that the statement “Sam didn’t take equity in OAI” has been PR engineered based on technicalities related to this shadow structure.
- jppope 3y agoI would suspect this as well...
- Aeolun 3y agoHow so? Seems they’re doing a pretty good job of making their stuff accessible while still being profitable.
- capableweb 3y agoTo be fair, we don't really know if OpenAI is successful because of Altman or despite Altman (or anything in-between).
- sumthingsumthng 3y agodo you have reason to believe none of the two?
- golemotron 3y agoProfit? It's a 501(c).
- static_motion 3y agoDepends if you're talking about "OpenAI, Inc." (non-profit) or "OpenAI Global, LLC" (for profit corporation). They're both under the same umbrella corporation.
- dragonwriter 3y agoThe parent is, OpenAI Global, LLC is a for profit non-wholly-owned subsidiary with outside investors; there's also OpenAI LP, which is a for-profit limited partnership with the no profit as general partner, also with outside investors (I thought it was the predecessor of the LLC, but they both seem to have been formed in 2019 and still exist?) OpenAI has for years been a nonprofit shell around a for-profit firm. EDIT: A somewhat more detailed view of the structure, based on OpenAI’s own description, is at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38312577 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38312577
- mrandish 3y agoThanks for explaining the basic structure. It seems quite opaque and probably designed to be. It would be nice if someone can determine which entities he currently still has a position or equity in. Since this news managed to crush HN's servers it's definitely a topic of significant interest.
- enonimal 3y agoWorldcoin https://worldcoin.org/ https://worldcoin.org/ deserves a mention
- latexr 3y agohttps://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1048981/worldcoin-cryptocurrency-biometrics-web3/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1048981/worldcoi... https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/richardnieva/worldcoin-crypto-eyeball-scanning-orb-problems https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/richardnieva/worldcoin-...
- krick 3y agoHmm, curious, what this is about? I click. > On a sunny morning last December, Iyus Ruswandi, a 35-year-old furniture maker in the village of Gunungguruh, Indonesia, was woken up early by his mother ...Ok, closing that bullshit, let's try the other link. > As Kudzanayi strolled through the mall with friends Jesus fucking Christ I HATE journalists. Like really, really hate them.
- trompetenaccoun 3y agoI mean it's Buzzfeed, it shouldn't even be called journalism. That's the outlet that just three days ago sneakily removed an article from their website that lauded a journalist for talking to school kids about his sexuality. After he recently got charged with distributing child pornography. Many of the people working for mass media are their own worst enemy when it comes to the profession's reputation. And then they complain that there's too much distrust in the general public. Anyway,the short regarding that project is that they use biometric data, encrypt it and put a "hash"* of it on their blockchain. That's been controversial from the start for obvious reasons although most of the mainstream criticism is misguided and by people who don't understand the tech. *They call it a hash but I think it's technically not. https://whitepaper.worldcoin.org/technical-implementation https://whitepaper.worldcoin.org/technical-implementation
- ammma 3y agoI love that you think Sam A is ideologically driven - dive a little deeper than the surface. man's a snake
- VirusNewbie 3y agoI'm a @sama hater (I have a whole post on it) but I haven't heard this particular gossip, so do tell.
- sersi 3y agoLink to the post?
- VirusNewbie 3y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34471720 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34471720
- solardev 3y agoThey didn't say which ideology ;)
- stanislavb 3y agoSimilar to E.Musk. Maybe a little less obvious.
- strikelaserclaw 3y agolike SBF and his effective altruism?
- smcleod 3y agoI highly doubt he's ideologically driven. He's as much of a VC loving silicon valley tech-bro as the next. The company has been anything but "open".
- rsrsrs86 3y ago_That_ is his ideology.
- freedomben 3y agoHe doesn't have equity, so what would be driving him if not ideology?
- snickerbockers 3y agoIf he is ideologically motivated, it's not the same ideology the company is named after
- objektif 3y agoLike 0? How about trying to sell the company to MS in exchange for something something?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Apocryphon 3y agoCould always be planning to parlay it for an even bigger role in the future
- JohnFen 3y agoHaving equity is far from the only way he could profit from the endeavor. And we don't really know for certain that he doesn't have equity anyway. It's even possible (just stating possibilities, not even saying I suspect this is true) that he did get equity through a cutout of some sort, and the board found out about it, and that's why they fired him.
- 3y ago
- kashyapc 3y agoFrom where I'm sitting (not in Silicon Valley; but Western EU), Altman never inspired long-term confidence in heading "Open"AI (the name is an insult to all those truly working on open models, but I digress). Many of us who are following the "AI story" have seen his recent communication / "testimony"[1] with the US Congress. It was abundantly obvious how he was using weasel language like "I'm very 'nervous' and a 'little bit scared' about what we've created [at OpenAI]" and other such BS. We know he was after "moat" and "regulatory capture", which we know where it all leads to — a net [long-term] loss for the society. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35960125 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35960125
- xkekjrktllss 3y ago> Many of us who are following the "AI story" have seen his recent communication / "testimony"[1] with the US Congress. The discussions here would make you think otherwise. Clearly that is what this is about.
- hhnhaada728288 3y agoYeah I pretty much agree with this take.
- kdmccormick 3y ago> "Open"AI (the name is an insult to all those truly working on open models, but I digress) Thank you. I don't see this expressed enough. A true idealist would be committed to working on open models. Anyone who thinks Sam was in it for the good of humanity is falling for the same "I'm-rich-but-I-care" schtick pulled off by Elon, SBF, and others.
- vyzU9AjsoQe 3y ago[flagged]
- jjoonathan 3y agoElon Musk is responsible for the "OpenAI" name and regularly agrees with you that the current form of the company makes a mockery of the name. He divested in 2018 due to conflict-of-interest with Tesla and while I'm sure Musk would have made equally commercial bad decisions, your analysis of the name situation is as close as can be to factually correct.
- brap 3y agoSame guy who ran a crypto scam that somehow involved scanning the retinas of third-world citizens?
- bambax 3y agoThis is what did it for me. No way anyone doing this can be "good". It's unfathomable.
- bmitc 3y ago> He is ideologically driven Is that actually confirmed? What has he done to make that a true statement? Is he not just an investor? He seems pretty egoist like every other Silicon Valley venture capitalist and executive.
- goatherders 3y agoBillions of dollars is a "mere sale?" Lol
- PaulRobinson 3y agoIt is probably - for him - a once in a lifetime sale.