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The anti-Musk stuff would qualify as brigading in nearly any other community. It shocks me that people have such a visceral, irrational engagement with anything

The anti-Musk stuff would qualify as brigading in nearly any other community. It shocks me that people have such a visceral, irrational engagement with anything in Musk's orbit. I probably shouldn't have, but I expected better from the HN crowd for some reason. It's an excellent model. GPT 5.4/5.5 level, some things better, others not, but extremely fast. A wonderful technical improvement. If a Chinese company or random startup released the model, people would be glazing it like crazy. xAI is competently keeping up with the frontier, just as well as any of the Chinese labs or Mistral. Given any significant breakthroughs, xAI will be better positioned to capitalize on them than nearly any other entity. I can't wait to see what Meta comes up with; with 4 contenders in the US race, we'd have a lot of be grateful for.

davmar 2mo ago
[flagged]
- adamtaylor_13 2mo ago
  A very quick search showed that USAID had extensive ethical compromise throughout the organization. Were we supposed to just subsidize that forever? It did some good, yes, but from what I can tell, it was better to shut it down. That's just one example, but frankly I get the feeling that if I dug into more examples they'd end up the same: easily explained and not entirely shocking.
  - G0lg0thvn 2mo ago
    What sources did your quick search turn up? Also you didn’t give any examples. You just plainly made the statement they were ethically compromised without saying how.
  - davmar 2mo ago
    [flagged]
  - solid_fuel 2mo ago
    If people have issues with how USAID was being run, they can address them through action in congress - congress established the agency and has authority. What Musk participated in was illegal, motivated by self-interest and personal gain, and undermines our democratic processes. Don’t be surprised that people are mad at the oligarch acting like an oligarch. Musk deserves exactly as much say in the American government as anyone else - one vote - but in his arrogance he has taken his resources and used them to buy influence that is not his to own. It is fundamentally unamerican.
    - adamtaylor_13 2mo ago
      I see what you're saying, and perhaps you're right. However, I will point out that illegal != immoral. Sometimes when you have the power to do the right thing, you do it. Especially if the "within the law" approach won't work (see: Congress) I recognize that many would disagree with me, and many would especially disagree regarding whether it was "right". I'm incredibly disillusioned that we even have the ability to course-correct as a nation; especially not through Congress. So... idk. I'm conflicted. Musk hardly seems like the biggest problem this country is facing, and at least he's doing whatever is within his power to address it.
      - G0lg0thvn 2mo ago
        We do have the mechanisms to course correct. He just chose to illegally and immorally ignore those in favor of his feelings and against all actual data.
  - SmirkingRevenge 2mo ago
    > It did some good, yes, but from what I can tell, it was better to shut it down. Whatever you are reading is badly misinforming you. I'm sure there was some reform and cleanup to do in certain USAID programs, but the programs Musk killed or interrupted were literally the best lives-saved-per-dollar programs on the planet. PEPFAR, for example, is credited with saving 25+ million lives since it was created during GWB's term. There's also the rather important point that what Musk did was totally illegal. These are programs created by congress and their funding is mandated by law.
Gigachad 2mo ago
[flagged]
simianwords 2mo ago
50 years ago we had religion for people to have something common to believe in. Now we have this. I think most people want a common enemy/scapegoat and an in-group presence. I doubt its about morals but more about self identity. A poster who reactively posts "but Elon is a Nazi!!1!" does it not do out of care for Jews but more for establishing their own self identity. Within the mini-group, the poster aims to get the moral high-ground and status by speaking out against Nazi salute. It is absolutely not a moral thing because Natanyahu himself wrote a tweet vindicating Elon. The same type of people show excessive concern towards AI's climate impact, "big tech bad" etc. Ultimately its a new religion replacing the old one.
- Capricorn2481 2mo ago
  > It is absolutely not a moral thing because Natanyahu himself wrote a tweet vindicating Elon A corrupt war criminal who regularly gatekeeps Jewish identity based on perceived loyalty courts a billionaire. HN applauds, sneers at people with eyes.
  - zuzululu 2mo ago
    What you wrote is antisemitic
- breezybottom 2mo ago
  Do you actually think Nazis were only a threat to Jews?
Traster 2mo ago
The praise for the Chinese labs is generally around how they deliver fantastic results with less resources. xAI is the opposite, they're struggling to keep up with frontier - massive churn, selling off compute because of lack of adoption, acquihiring to fix their deficits, whilst having the most resources of any AI Lab. It makes it difficult to evaluate things like "Is the API price competitive because they have an efficient model, or because they don't need to make money".

davmar 2mo ago

[flagged]

adamtaylor_13 2mo ago
A very quick search showed that USAID had extensive ethical compromise throughout the organization. Were we supposed to just subsidize that forever? It did some good, yes, but from what I can tell, it was better to shut it down. That's just one example, but frankly I get the feeling that if I dug into more examples they'd end up the same: easily explained and not entirely shocking.
- G0lg0thvn 2mo ago
  What sources did your quick search turn up? Also you didn’t give any examples. You just plainly made the statement they were ethically compromised without saying how.
- davmar 2mo ago
  [flagged]
- solid_fuel 2mo ago
  If people have issues with how USAID was being run, they can address them through action in congress - congress established the agency and has authority. What Musk participated in was illegal, motivated by self-interest and personal gain, and undermines our democratic processes. Don’t be surprised that people are mad at the oligarch acting like an oligarch. Musk deserves exactly as much say in the American government as anyone else - one vote - but in his arrogance he has taken his resources and used them to buy influence that is not his to own. It is fundamentally unamerican.
  - adamtaylor_13 2mo ago
    I see what you're saying, and perhaps you're right. However, I will point out that illegal != immoral. Sometimes when you have the power to do the right thing, you do it. Especially if the "within the law" approach won't work (see: Congress) I recognize that many would disagree with me, and many would especially disagree regarding whether it was "right". I'm incredibly disillusioned that we even have the ability to course-correct as a nation; especially not through Congress. So... idk. I'm conflicted. Musk hardly seems like the biggest problem this country is facing, and at least he's doing whatever is within his power to address it.
    - G0lg0thvn 2mo ago
      We do have the mechanisms to course correct. He just chose to illegally and immorally ignore those in favor of his feelings and against all actual data.
- SmirkingRevenge 2mo ago
  > It did some good, yes, but from what I can tell, it was better to shut it down. Whatever you are reading is badly misinforming you. I'm sure there was some reform and cleanup to do in certain USAID programs, but the programs Musk killed or interrupted were literally the best lives-saved-per-dollar programs on the planet. PEPFAR, for example, is credited with saving 25+ million lives since it was created during GWB's term. There's also the rather important point that what Musk did was totally illegal. These are programs created by congress and their funding is mandated by law.

Gigachad 2mo ago

[flagged]

simianwords 2mo ago

50 years ago we had religion for people to have something common to believe in. Now we have this. I think most people want a common enemy/scapegoat and an in-group presence. I doubt its about morals but more about self identity. A poster who reactively posts "but Elon is a Nazi!!1!" does it not do out of care for Jews but more for establishing their own self identity. Within the mini-group, the poster aims to get the moral high-ground and status by speaking out against Nazi salute. It is absolutely not a moral thing because Natanyahu himself wrote a tweet vindicating Elon. The same type of people show excessive concern towards AI's climate impact, "big tech bad" etc. Ultimately its a new religion replacing the old one.

Capricorn2481 2mo ago
> It is absolutely not a moral thing because Natanyahu himself wrote a tweet vindicating Elon A corrupt war criminal who regularly gatekeeps Jewish identity based on perceived loyalty courts a billionaire. HN applauds, sneers at people with eyes.
- zuzululu 2mo ago
  What you wrote is antisemitic
breezybottom 2mo ago
Do you actually think Nazis were only a threat to Jews?

Traster 2mo ago

The praise for the Chinese labs is generally around how they deliver fantastic results with less resources. xAI is the opposite, they're struggling to keep up with frontier - massive churn, selling off compute because of lack of adoption, acquihiring to fix their deficits, whilst having the most resources of any AI Lab. It makes it difficult to evaluate things like "Is the API price competitive because they have an efficient model, or because they don't need to make money".