Ilya Sutskever's SSI Inc raises $1B • Hacker News Board

Re: Ilya Sutskever's SSI Inc raises $1B

#41

Post by HarHarVeryFunny » Wed, Sep 04, 2024, 2:28 PM UTC

moralestapia wrote: post #33

paxys wrote: post #13

$1B raise, $5B valuation. For a company that is a couple months old and doesn't have a product or even a single line of code in production. Wild.

It's because is Ilya. This deal was cooked way back, though, perhaps even before the coup. Now, can they make a product that makes at least $1B + 1 dollar in revenue? Doubt it, I honestly don't see a market for "AI safety/security".

I wonder if "Super Intelligence" means anything .. just LLMs, or maybe they are pursuing new architectures and shooting for AGI ?

Re: Ilya Sutskever's SSI Inc raises $1B

#42

Post by highfrequency » Wed, Sep 04, 2024, 2:29 PM UTC

“…a straight shot to safe superintelligence and in particular to spend a couple of years doing R&D on our product before bringing it to market," Gross said in an interview.”

A couple years??

Re: Ilya Sutskever's SSI Inc raises $1B

#43

Post by pclmulqdq » Wed, Sep 04, 2024, 2:29 PM UTC

HPMOR wrote: post #36

paxys wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Closest thing we have to a Manhattan Project in the modern era? Minus the urgency, scientific process, well-defined goals, target dates, public ownership, accountability...

The Manhattan Project had none of these things publicly declared. And Ilya is a top flight scientist.

The word "publicly" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. There is no indication that SSI has any of these at all.

Re: Ilya Sutskever's SSI Inc raises $1B

#44

Post by danielovichdk » Wed, Sep 04, 2024, 2:29 PM UTC

"It will focus on building a small highly trusted team of researchers and engineers split between Palo Alto, California and Tel Aviv, Israel."

Why Tel Aviv in Israel ?

Re: Ilya Sutskever's SSI Inc raises $1B

#45

Post by nlh » Wed, Sep 04, 2024, 2:30 PM UTC

danielovichdk wrote: post #44

"It will focus on building a small highly trusted team of researchers and engineers split between Palo Alto, California and Tel Aviv, Israel." Why Tel Aviv in Israel ?

Because it's a startup hub, there is great engineering talent there, and the cost of living is lower than the US.

Re: Ilya Sutskever's SSI Inc raises $1B

#46

Post by delusional » Wed, Sep 04, 2024, 2:32 PM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #25

paxys wrote: post #13

$1B raise, $5B valuation. For a company that is a couple months old and doesn't have a product or even a single line of code in production. Wild.

For these kinds of capital-intensive startups, though, that almost seems like a requirement, and I guess there are really 2 "types" of valuations. In this case, everyone knows it takes hundreds of millions to train models. So I'm investors are essentially rolling the dice on an extremely well-regarded team. And if it takes about a billion just to get off the ground, the valuation would need to at least be in the coup…

This explains what would need to be true for this to make sense, but i doesn't explain how it makes sense right now.

How is this going to ever pay the investors back? How is it going to raise more money at such an insane valuation?

I just dont see how you justify such a crazy valuation from day 1 financially.

Re: Ilya Sutskever's SSI Inc raises $1B

#47

Post by Yizahi » Wed, Sep 04, 2024, 2:33 PM UTC

xianshou wrote: post #19

Same funding as OpenAI when they started, but SSI explicitly declared their intention not to release a single product until superintelligence is reached. Closest thing we have to a Manhattan Project in the modern era?

There is significant possibility that true AI (what Ilia calls superintelligence) is impossible to build using neural networks. So it is closer to some tokenbro project than to nuclear research.

Or he will simply shift goalposts, and call some LLM superintelligent.

Re: Ilya Sutskever's SSI Inc raises $1B

#48

Post by theptip » Wed, Sep 04, 2024, 2:33 PM UTC

EGreg wrote: post #34

paxys wrote: post #13

$1B raise, $5B valuation. For a company that is a couple months old and doesn't have a product or even a single line of code in production. Wild.

Welcome to capitalism. It’s all about your existing capital and connections. Capital attracts capital.

Talent attracts capital. Ilya is a legendary visionary, with a proven track record of turning billions into hundreds of billions. Of course he can raise unlimited money.

Re: Ilya Sutskever's SSI Inc raises $1B

#49

Post by lijok » Wed, Sep 04, 2024, 2:34 PM UTC

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #41

moralestapia wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because is Ilya. This deal was cooked way back, though, perhaps even before the coup. Now, can they make a product that makes at least $1B + 1 dollar in revenue? Doubt it, I honestly don't see a market for "AI safety/security".

I wonder if "Super Intelligence" means anything .. just LLMs, or maybe they are pursuing new architectures and shooting for AGI ?

They're shooting straight for AGI

Re: Ilya Sutskever's SSI Inc raises $1B

#50

Post by fkyoureadthedoc » Wed, Sep 04, 2024, 2:35 PM UTC

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #41

moralestapia wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because is Ilya. This deal was cooked way back, though, perhaps even before the coup. Now, can they make a product that makes at least $1B + 1 dollar in revenue? Doubt it, I honestly don't see a market for "AI safety/security".

I wonder if "Super Intelligence" means anything .. just LLMs, or maybe they are pursuing new architectures and shooting for AGI ?

It's certainly in their best interest not to tell us that it's just going to be another pile of LLMs that they've trained not to say or do anything that isn't business friendly.