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Tesla hires Andrej Karpathy

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Re: Tesla hires Andrej Karpathy

#91

Post by babyrainbow »

chc wrote: post #67
babyrainbow wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are downvoting you. But I think this is a really good point...

It isn't, though. The two tasks aren't very similar. It's a pithy put-down if you already don't like the idea of driving AI for other reasons, but nobody who's looking to objectively evaluate a technology for use in cars would say, "Hang on, let's first try to make it fold laundry."

> The two tasks aren't very similar..

Care to elaborate? Is folding laundry harder than driving? Doesn't both involve following visual cues and making corrections continuously based on that...

>It's a pithy put-down if you already don't like the idea of driving AI for other reasons

And your comment can be seen as a pithy attack on criticism of something you are overly enthusiastic about "for other reasons"...

>nobody who's looking to objectively evaluate a technology for use in cars would say, "Hang on, let's first try to make it fold laundry."

That is not the point. Point is to evaluating how capable the current AI/visual processing technology is.

And why not test advancement in AI with something much safer, like folding laundry? Instead of putting it in a car that can actually kill people...

It is a good point.

Re: Tesla hires Andrej Karpathy

#93

Post by psadri »

geodel wrote: post #42
pscsbs wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow! Tesla's official statement: "Chris just wasn’t the right fit for Tesla, and we’ve decided to make a change. We wish him the best." [0] Chris's response: "Turns out that Tesla isn't a good fit for me after all. I'm interested to hear about interesting roles for a seasoned engineering leader!" I don't think I've ever seen a tech company throw an employee under the bus so publicly. I wonder what Lattner did to warr…

Don't people like it here when a company does not indulge in pc bullshit. I think Tesla statement is to the point.

You have to be careful how you let people go if you want to attract good talent. There is always a chance of a misfit, and the right thing to do is to part ways as soon either party realizes it, but you want to do this in a way that is not unnecessarily damaging to either party's reputation. Otherwise, good people with a reputation may think twice about working with you.

Re: Tesla hires Andrej Karpathy

#94

Post by AndrewKemendo »

cityhall wrote: post #26

Anyone have any insight into what the top ML people are being paid right now?

500k+ for someone with a lot of experience.

300k+ for a new hire ML/CV/NLP PhD with some relevant experience.

150k+ for a new hire ML/CV/NLP MS with little to no experience

We were working with a very expert ML contractor that is doing 800k on his own from pop-up projects.

Re: Tesla hires Andrej Karpathy

#95

Post by ryandrake »

kornish wrote: post #80
dmix wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Media coverage and popularity always works this way. I'm not sure why so many people perpetually can't wrap their head around it. There have been endless comments online where people are offended or surprised that x person is getting attention, but they are just like these other people who are just as good. But obviously there's more to drawing people's attention than the individual skill or a comparable position at…

Karpathy in particular has built an excellent personal brand, lots of which is through his blog. It seems that technically backgrounded "explainers", á la Neil deGrasse Tyson or Richard Feynman, Elon Musk or even Bill Nye, can credibly straddle both expert and layperson worlds. People like to feel like they know what's going on.

Part of me dies inside every time I read the phrase "personal brand". I think it's sad that it is no longer enough to be good at what you do--you need to self-promote, blog, and talk talk talk in order to make it these days. What happened to also recognizing the quiet but competent craftsmen?

Re: Tesla hires Andrej Karpathy

#97

Post by kornish »

ryandrake wrote: post #95
kornish wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Karpathy in particular has built an excellent personal brand, lots of which is through his blog. It seems that technically backgrounded "explainers", á la Neil deGrasse Tyson or Richard Feynman, Elon Musk or even Bill Nye, can credibly straddle both expert and layperson worlds. People like to feel like they know what's going on.

Part of me dies inside every time I read the phrase "personal brand". I think it's sad that it is no longer enough to be good at what you do--you need to self-promote, blog, and talk talk talk in order to make it these days. What happened to also recognizing the quiet but competent craftsmen?

Out of interest, what makes you think it was ever not this way? I recently reread the Isaacson Ben Franklin biography and one thing which struck me was how much time he put into crafting his public persona.

The comment up this thread holds true: human attention is not evenly distributed. That doesn't mean, however, that there's an imperative to "network" or build a "personal brand" – plenty of people gain a deep satisfaction from excelling at their craft.

Re: Tesla hires Andrej Karpathy

#98

Post by ghaff »

ryandrake wrote: post #95
kornish wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Karpathy in particular has built an excellent personal brand, lots of which is through his blog. It seems that technically backgrounded "explainers", á la Neil deGrasse Tyson or Richard Feynman, Elon Musk or even Bill Nye, can credibly straddle both expert and layperson worlds. People like to feel like they know what's going on.

Part of me dies inside every time I read the phrase "personal brand". I think it's sad that it is no longer enough to be good at what you do--you need to self-promote, blog, and talk talk talk in order to make it these days. What happened to also recognizing the quiet but competent craftsmen?

It may have not been called a personal brand, but I think it's fair to say that many past inventors, scientists, generals, artists, etc. who we remember today were pretty adept at self-promotion.

Re: Tesla hires Andrej Karpathy

#99

Post by pscsbs »

hueving wrote: post #88
pscsbs wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The equity packages tend to be in the tens of millions for a 4-year vest. Source: I am a manager who has given offers to top-tier ML experts.

Just to be clear, "tens" as in multiples of 10 million (i.e 20+ million)?

Depends how close to the "top" you are, but yes. 20-30 million/4 years is not unheard of for the very top -- comparable to an acquisition.

Re: Tesla hires Andrej Karpathy

#100

Post by pscsbs »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #94
cityhall wrote: post #26

Anyone have any insight into what the top ML people are being paid right now?

500k+ for someone with a lot of experience. 300k+ for a new hire ML/CV/NLP PhD with some relevant experience. 150k+ for a new hire ML/CV/NLP MS with little to no experience We were working with a very expert ML contractor that is doing 800k on his own from pop-up projects.

The top of the range you're quoting is for a typical Staff Software Engineer at Google/Facebook/Microsoft. "Top ML experts" garner much, much higher comp packages.
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