OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive • Hacker News Board

Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive

#401

Post by mooreds » Wed, May 21, 2025, 7:11 PM UTC

belter wrote: post #382

RC_ITR wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to stem pointless debates before they flame up - both these acquisitions appear to be primarily if not exclusively for stock. Sure, if you want to get into theoretical finance, OpenAI could have sold these new shares for cash, so technically there's no difference, but OpenAI is only spending opportunity cost cash, rather than fiat. OpenAI's fiat likely still goes to the things you'd expect, like training models…

The AI hype seems driven more by stock valuations than genuine productivity gains. Developers now spend excessive time crafting prompts and managing AI generated pull requests :-) tasks that a simple email to a junior coder could have handled efficiently. We need a study that shows the lost productivity. When CEOs aggressively promote such tech solutions, it signals we're deep into bubble territory: “If you go forwar…

Are these quotes all from 2025? Would be awesome to put actual dates on them so we can revisit in N years and see if they were right or just hyping.

Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive

#402

Post by samtp » Wed, May 21, 2025, 7:12 PM UTC

lordofmoria wrote: post #375

I don't understand all the pessimism and incredulity about the valuation. This is an acquisition to take on and disrupt Apple. Ives + Altman is perceived as a viable successor to the Ives + Jobs partnership that made Apple successful. Apple is weak and doesn't seem capable of innovating anymore, nor do they seem to understand how to build AI into products. There's an opportunity to build an Apple-sized hardware weara…

How exactly does OpenAI go about disrupting Apple? Are they going to build an entire OS, line of hardware products, and create a massive developer ecosystem to for apps to be available?

I just don't exactly see how that is done by hiring a bunch of designers to a company whose current offering is a chatbot & API interface.

Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive

#403

Post by butlike » Wed, May 21, 2025, 7:12 PM UTC

nickrubin wrote: post #7

OpenAI announcement: https://openai.com/sam-and-jony/

First of all, the video is 9 minutes.

Secondly, is it a weird Sora-stitchedc video? It feels like they just filmed their parts separately like they're not even talking to each other/interacting with each other. Very peculiar.

Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive

#404

Post by woah » Wed, May 21, 2025, 7:12 PM UTC

0xB31B1B wrote: post #17

interesting back door way to get sam altman some equity in openAI. I wonder how much of this is downstream from them not being able to convert to a for profit and giving sam a slug of equity

How does that work?

Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive

#405

Post by asadotzler » Wed, May 21, 2025, 7:13 PM UTC

bigzyg33k wrote: post #153

pixelpoet wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's ignore the 46 billion dollars wasted on the metaverse: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/meta-platforms-has-spent-$46...

Meta haven't abandoned the metaverse, and made it very clear from the beginning that "the metaverse" was something that does not exist, and will not exist in any form until the end of the decade. They continuously reiterate this during earnings calls, while increasing their capital expenditures on it. You cannot determine it's a waste if the effort isn't completed, and if you have no insight into their progress.

Certainly the part of those investements wasted on cramming a whole PC into goggles that smash into your face with straps around your head and pretty much all of the Meta and Meta subsidized content to go along with that can be evaluated now, and not in 5 more years. The fact that Quest stalled out 2 years ago with only about 7M actives after tens of billions spent trying to make it go is pretty much all anyone needs to know about Zuck's metaverse investments. Now they're pivoting to glasses with a heads up display and pretending that was the plan all along because Zuck won't admit the cash bonfire that Quest and Horizon Worlds has been, about $100B sunk for only about $15B return with only a few million users.

Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive

#406

Post by franze » Wed, May 21, 2025, 7:13 PM UTC

karaterobot wrote: post #30

Sometimes two collaborators make each other better than either are alone. I get the sense that's how Steve Jobs and Jony Ive were. I've not seen anything Ive has done since be as good as what he did before. Someone has to hold the spike so the other one can swing the hammer. My guess is that's not how this relationship with Altman will work. And that picture is terrifying, please take it down and destroy the camera t…

the photo is a play on a historical image https://imgur.com/a/VnTMINR

Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive

#407

Post by samtp » Wed, May 21, 2025, 7:14 PM UTC

neom wrote: post #82

IshKebab wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The manor criticism of them is that they are just phone apps pointlessly shoved into an extra piece of hardware. What about them do you think was directionally correct? I.e. why not just use your phone?

"phone" is over - I would just make better devices, there would be a communications device, you could call it a phone or whatever. (Frankly: I just genuinely believe I could do a really good job here is all, I have no real reason to believe that except pure ego, I'm fine admitting that)

Saying the phone is over because of AI is like saying websites are over because of AI. Frankly, complete nonsense.

Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive

#408

Post by voidspark » Wed, May 21, 2025, 7:15 PM UTC

lordofmoria wrote: post #375

I don't understand all the pessimism and incredulity about the valuation. This is an acquisition to take on and disrupt Apple. Ives + Altman is perceived as a viable successor to the Ives + Jobs partnership that made Apple successful. Apple is weak and doesn't seem capable of innovating anymore, nor do they seem to understand how to build AI into products. There's an opportunity to build an Apple-sized hardware weara…

[dead]

Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive

#409

Post by ryanSrich » Wed, May 21, 2025, 7:15 PM UTC

gip wrote: post #312

It is fascinating how design has become the new gold standard in the AI era. It really looks the strongest signals come from taste and design quality and AI is killing other signals.

Funny how the reality is exactly the opposite of what you're saying. Design was already on life support and AI was the final plug pull.

Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive

#410

Post by woah » Wed, May 21, 2025, 7:15 PM UTC

A collaboration built upon friendship, curiosity and shared values quickly grew in ambition. Tentative ideas and explorations evolved into tangible designs.

The ideas seemed important and useful. They were optimistic and hopeful. They were inspiring. They made everyone smile. They reminded us of a time when we celebrated human achievement, grateful for new tools that helped us learn, explore and create.