Live data from Hacker News

Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers

apnews.com

621–630 of 1001 posts

Re: Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers

#621
post #299
post #282

I saw Stargate trending on Bluesky and got my hopes up about an announcement of a new show/movie/something. Disappointing.

Yep, they should fund Brad Wright with one of the billions.

At least do something about the SGU cliffhanger....

Re: Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers

#622
post #589

This is so much money with which we could actually solve problems in the world. maybe even stop wars which break out because of scarcity issues. maybe i am getting to old or to friendly to humans, but it's staggering to me how the priorities are for such things.

For less than this same price tag, we could’ve eliminated student loan debt for ~20 million Americans. It would in turn open a myriad number of opportunities, like owning a home and/or feeling more comfortable starting a family. It would stimulate the economy in predictable ways.

Instead we gave a small number of people all of this money for a moonshot in a state where they squabble over who’s allowed to use which bathroom and if I need an abortion I might die.

Re: Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers

#623
post #608
post #589

This is so much money with which we could actually solve problems in the world. maybe even stop wars which break out because of scarcity issues. maybe i am getting to old or to friendly to humans, but it's staggering to me how the priorities are for such things.

>wars which break out because of scarcity issues That doesn't seem to be much of a thing these days. If you look at Russia/Ukraine or China/Taiwan there's not much scarcity. It's more bullying dictator wants to control the neighbours issues.

> That doesn't seem to be much of a thing these days.

If you ignore Gaza and whole of Africa, maybe.

Re: Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers

#624
post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a money making scheme.

This has cosmological significance if it leads to superintelligence

It won't unless there's another (r)evolution in the underlying technology / science / algorithms, at this point scaling up just means they use bigger datasets or more iterations, but it's more finetuning and improving the existing output then coming up with a next generation / superintelligence.

Re: Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers

#625
post #622
post #589

This is so much money with which we could actually solve problems in the world. maybe even stop wars which break out because of scarcity issues. maybe i am getting to old or to friendly to humans, but it's staggering to me how the priorities are for such things.

For less than this same price tag, we could’ve eliminated student loan debt for ~20 million Americans. It would in turn open a myriad number of opportunities, like owning a home and/or feeling more comfortable starting a family. It would stimulate the economy in predictable ways. Instead we gave a small number of people all of this money for a moonshot in a state where they squabble over who’s allowed to use which ba…

This is the problem with capitalists / the billionaires currently hoarding the money and the US' policy, it's all for short term gain. But the conservatives that look back to the 50's or 80's or whatever decade their rose-tinted glasses are tuned to should also realise that the good parts of that came from families not being neck-deep in debt.

Re: Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers

#626
post #622
post #589

This is so much money with which we could actually solve problems in the world. maybe even stop wars which break out because of scarcity issues. maybe i am getting to old or to friendly to humans, but it's staggering to me how the priorities are for such things.

For less than this same price tag, we could’ve eliminated student loan debt for ~20 million Americans. It would in turn open a myriad number of opportunities, like owning a home and/or feeling more comfortable starting a family. It would stimulate the economy in predictable ways. Instead we gave a small number of people all of this money for a moonshot in a state where they squabble over who’s allowed to use which ba…

Repaying student loans makes a lot of people a little richer. The current initiative makes a few people a lot richer. If you ask some people, the former is a very communist/socialist way of thinking (bad), while the latter is pure, unadulterated capitalism (good).

Re: Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers

#627
post #608
post #589

This is so much money with which we could actually solve problems in the world. maybe even stop wars which break out because of scarcity issues. maybe i am getting to old or to friendly to humans, but it's staggering to me how the priorities are for such things.

>wars which break out because of scarcity issues That doesn't seem to be much of a thing these days. If you look at Russia/Ukraine or China/Taiwan there's not much scarcity. It's more bullying dictator wants to control the neighbours issues.

It will be, or, it's slowly happening already. Climate change is triggering water and food shortages, both abroad and on your doorstep (California wildfires), which in turn trigger mass migrations. If a richer and/or more militarily equipped country decides they want another country's resources to survive, we'll see wars erupt everywhere.

Then again, it's more of a logistics challenge, and if e.g. California were to invade Canada for its water supply, how are they going to get it all the way down there?

I can see it happening in Africa though, a long string of countries rely on the Nile, but large hydropower dams built in Sudan and Ethiopia are reducing the water flow, which Egypt is really not happy about as it's costing them water supply and irrigated land. I wouldn't be surprised if Egypt and its allies declares war on those countries and aims to have the dams broken. Then again, that's been going on for some years now and nothing has happened yet as far as I'm aware.

(the above is armchair theorycrafting from thousands of miles away based on superficial information and a lively imagination at best)

Re: Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers

#628
post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a money making scheme.

This has cosmological significance if it leads to superintelligence

"this generation shall not pass"... to me that's about as credible as wanting to "preserve human consciousness" by going to Mars.

Setting the world on fire and disrupting societies gleefully, while basically building bunkers (figuratively more than literally) and consolidating surveillance and propaganda to ride out the cataclysm, that's what I'm seeing.

And the stories to sell people on continuing to put up with that are not even good IMO. Just because the people who use the story to consolidate wealth and control are excited about that, we're somehow expected to be excited about the promise of a pair of socks made from barbed wire they gave us for Christmas. It's the narcissistic experience: "this is shit. this benefits you, not me. this hurts me."

One thing is sure, actual intelligence, regardless of how you may define it, something that is able to reason and speak freely, is NOT what people who fire engineers for correcting them want. It's not about a sort of oracle for humanity to enjoy and benefit from, that just speaks "truth".

Re: Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers

#629
post #558

Apart from my general queasiness about the whole AGI scaling business and the power concentration that comes with it, these are the exact four people/entities that I would not want to be at the tip of said power concentration.

Just Ellison alone brings unwelcome feeling of having Oracle craziness forced down our collective throats, but I share your concern about the unholy alliance generated in front of us.

Re: Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers

#630
post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft has lots of revenue streams tied to that capex outlay. Does OpenAI have similar revenue numbers to Microsoft?

OpenAI has a very healthy revenue stream in the form of other companies throwing money at them. But to answer your question, no they aren’t even profitable by themselves.

They do get a lot of customers buying their stuff, but on top of that, a company with unique IP and mindshare can get investors to open their wallet easily enough; I keep thinking of AMD that was not or barely profitable for like 15 years in a row.
Post reply on HN