Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 248 posts

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#111

Post by bostonsre »

nabla9 wrote: post #67
jstummbillig wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is "this kind of stuff"? I am confused as to what the accusation is. I understand that you should be looked at closely and scrutinised when there is a possible conflict of interest, but why would it be okay to vaguely assume foul play when it could just be someone who is committed to making something work? Better/more infrastructure is needed, as is evident every time I send a query to openai/ms. What is bad abo…

>What is bad about trying to make it happen yourself, "So committed I can't be honest"?? If you can't be honest and inform people of possible conflicts of interest, it is bad and you know yourself it's bad.

We don't know if they had a rigorous internal debate where they evaluated all of the options or if it was a decision made from above. We don't know how the chips perform, if there are alternatives, and if there are alternatives, how the price compares.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#112

Post by sokoloff »

infecto wrote: post #78
nabla9 wrote: post #53

This kind of stuff is the reason why Altman was fired. The board lost trust for his honesty from many small things that kept accumulating. Altman is back on condition that there is a investigation.

Was it or is this just projection? There could be conflict of interest or it could also be that OpenAI has no desire to get into the chip business.

It seems clear to me that a conflict of interest exists here. It’s also perfectly normal for a billionaire tech investor with some non-zero expertise in AI to be investing in AI chip makers. (It might seem more strange if he wasn’t.)

The existence of such a conflict is not itself inherently a problem; these situations come up all the time, become disclosed, and extra scrutiny is placed on decisions where the conflict is likely to surface.

I don’t find it at all obvious that a billionaire CEO would improperly influence the company he’s running to buy from a company he’s invested in over a few million in chips. It’s a topic ripe for speculation and insinuation and hopefully the conflict of interest was properly disclosed and someone other than Altman made the final decision to commit to this purchase.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#113

Post by xyzzy4747 »

FartyMcFarter wrote: post #83
nabla9 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The firing was about "Altman not being honest with the board." Since then, journalists have talked to both sides on and off the record and confirmed that the only reason for firing was distrust for Altman's honesty. Altman's history seems to match. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/22/sam-alt... >Four years ago, one of Altman’s mentors, Y Combinator founder Paul Graham, flew from the United Kingdom to…

There has also been at least one former OpenAI employee stating that Altman lied to him multiple times [1]. By itself this wouldn't be worth much, but it adds to the claims of Altman not being an honest guy. [1] https://x.com/geoffreyirving/status/1726754277618491416?s=20

Maybe Altman values achieving a particular goal more than honesty.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#114

Post by coldbrewed »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #86
darkerside wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The orb isn’t a perfect sphere but two halves that come together at an angle that matches the orbit of the Earth Can't tell if this is meaningless, the reporter just failed to convey its actual meaning, or I am too dumb to understand

Has to be one of the first two. Maybe it’s some sort of reference to how the earth itself isn’t actually a perfect sphere?

> After a person’s iris is captured, the biometric data never leaves the orb, they explain, instead converting it into the IrisCode, which itself is only used to create a verification of a person’s uniqueness through a convoluted system of zero-knowledge proofs and proto-danksharding.

It's definitely both of the first two.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#115

Post by andai »

victor106 wrote: post #89
nabla9 wrote: post #53

This kind of stuff is the reason why Altman was fired. The board lost trust for his honesty from many small things that kept accumulating. Altman is back on condition that there is a investigation.

And yet in multiple interviews he says he is not in it for the money. Saying that you are not in it for the money is becoming like a fashion statement. What’s wrong in saying that you’re in it for both money and passion?

You'll put off the majority of people who are sour grapes about money.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#116

Post by belter »

Vt71fcAqt7 wrote: post #109
belter wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently a hoax - http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/EskimoHoax.pdf But the main point of your comment still stands :-)

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apocryphal

That is why I said the main point of the comment still stands, both in form and semantics...

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#117

Post by outside1234 »

nabla9 wrote: post #53

This kind of stuff is the reason why Altman was fired. The board lost trust for his honesty from many small things that kept accumulating. Altman is back on condition that there is a investigation.

What is incredible is that this sort of double dealing is what he got fired from YC for doing - it is almost like nobody actually cares about AI safety or ethics and only about making money.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#118

Post by herval »

victor106 wrote: post #89
nabla9 wrote: post #53

This kind of stuff is the reason why Altman was fired. The board lost trust for his honesty from many small things that kept accumulating. Altman is back on condition that there is a investigation.

And yet in multiple interviews he says he is not in it for the money. Saying that you are not in it for the money is becoming like a fashion statement. What’s wrong in saying that you’re in it for both money and passion?

The moral virtue of saying “I take one dollar a year salary” is a favorite among immorals

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#119

Post by Cornbilly »

Culonavirus wrote: post #34

Come on. A guy mentions Sam's sister in his post and it's immediately flagged and hidden xD this site sometimes, seriously, the techbro team picking and worshipping is something else haha

Sometimes it seems like “techbro” or “startup” culture is just a series of personality cults.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#120

Post by gumballindie »

tsimionescu wrote: post #54
gumballindie wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

He has been accused on Twitter of "climbing in her bed non-consensually" when he was 13 (and she 4). She has also explicitly said she doesn't actually want legal action for "experiences between a baby child and a tween child", again suggesting that anything that happened only happened when he was a child. She also has a history of mental illness.

> only happened when he was a child

Between downplaying the significance of what he did and discrediting the victim i cant tell whether his followers have a similar past or simply bend over to anyone that projects power. I can understand this coming from people in countries where the cult of personality is still alive but not in the western world.

Post reply on HN