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Mira Murati’s AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12B in early-stage funding

reuters.com

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Re: Mira Murati’s AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12B in early-stage funding

#141

Post by Roark66 »

bossyTeacher wrote: post #36
pdabbadabba wrote: post #32

Could somebody explain why there is so much negativity towards Thinking Machines in this thread? I realize that they haven't publicly announced a product yet but presumably the VCs have some idea of what Thinking Machines is building, and they have some pretty significant OpenAI talent on board, including Murati herself. Some amount of skepticism is warranted, of course, but a lot of these comments read as closer to…

Because it looks like VC are spendings ridicoulous amounts of money for hype while many startups with actual products and a product market fit struggle to attract investors because their product is not related to transformers.

It makes perfect sense... Why spend time and money on building a product in hope of attracting VCs that may like it? Instead present your idea in an intentionally vague way that makes everyone's imagination fill in the blanks in the most favorable way.

Re: Mira Murati’s AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12B in early-stage funding

#142

Post by chii »

edanm wrote: post #135
geodel wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. People here can be like this. I have not forgotten even the greatest juice maker of all times, Juicero was similarly disparaged with all this negativity.

Yes. VCs invested money. It ended up a flop. And this hurts us... how exactly? Other than some VCs losing their money on a bad bet, who cares?

These people somehow imagine that they (as taxpayers perhaps) are going to pay the cost one way or another. Not to mention there's a tinge of jealousy over the level of VC money involved - they imagine these people do not "deserve" it.

Re: Mira Murati’s AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12B in early-stage funding

#143

Post by TrackerFF »

miohtama wrote: post #120
pdabbadabba wrote: post #32

Could somebody explain why there is so much negativity towards Thinking Machines in this thread? I realize that they haven't publicly announced a product yet but presumably the VCs have some idea of what Thinking Machines is building, and they have some pretty significant OpenAI talent on board, including Murati herself. Some amount of skepticism is warranted, of course, but a lot of these comments read as closer to…

This place used to be a place for hackers and founders. Now it is mostly a place for middle aged software engineers who hate someone else to success, change and hope for the future of Linux desktop. Thinking Machines presents both change and success .

Thinking Machines represent the new elite. People with the right pedigree that can raise billions with only an idea. If they fail, they’ll get paid anyway - and they’ll become billionaires.

It is a position that is completely unreachable for 99.9999% of people even in tech.

It is of course easy to write off critics as jealous has-beens and bozos.

Re: Mira Murati’s AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12B in early-stage funding

#144

Post by lm28469 »

edanm wrote: post #135
geodel wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. People here can be like this. I have not forgotten even the greatest juice maker of all times, Juicero was similarly disparaged with all this negativity.

Yes. VCs invested money. It ended up a flop. And this hurts us... how exactly? Other than some VCs losing their money on a bad bet, who cares?

It's a bad look on the entire industry. We send billions to serial grifters selling vaporware while the backbone of the internet is basically powered by $5 donations

Re: Mira Murati’s AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12B in early-stage funding

#145

Post by bluelightning2k »

This is so weird to me.

Yes, she was there at OpenAI and by all accounts a super respected non researcher.

Clearly she's incredible, her reputation proceeds her etc. but is operational strength (being a good exec) really what gets to AGI?

Feels almost like cargo-culting.

Re: Mira Murati’s AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12B in early-stage funding

#146

Post by andy_ppp »

techpineapple wrote: post #87
pdabbadabba wrote: post #32

Could somebody explain why there is so much negativity towards Thinking Machines in this thread? I realize that they haven't publicly announced a product yet but presumably the VCs have some idea of what Thinking Machines is building, and they have some pretty significant OpenAI talent on board, including Murati herself. Some amount of skepticism is warranted, of course, but a lot of these comments read as closer to…

My opinion: AI is taking all the money that could be spent on cool advancements that could give the average person hope and putting it towards a pipe dream. Why not be hostile towards the perceived death of an industry you love?

The whole system has gone crazy because of the wealthy having so much that the current game of coming up with stupid stories (AGI, Self Driving Cars, Robots that can do your household chores, Crypto) to convince people that a company can be worth 50-100 times earnings or valueless internet points will go up in price forever! There is no way these companies can possibly meet these expectations but the money sloshing around in the system makes it possible for rich people to keep believing (religiously) as there are no investments actually left for them to earn real money from a population that increasingly has nothing and earns less and less of the pie while valueless investments skyrocket.

Re: Mira Murati’s AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12B in early-stage funding

#147

Post by rl1987 »

paxys wrote: post #81
bgwalter wrote: post #77

Andreessen Horowitz is not gambling with their own money: https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/andreessen-horowitz... Moreover, if some banks will fail in the aftermath, they'll be bailed out at the expense of you know whom.

How do you think VC firms work? There is no "own money". Their entire business is getting rich people, institutional investors, governments, pension funds, endowments etc. to give them money and investing that money in startups, keeping a cut for themselves.

Exactly the point they are making?

Re: Mira Murati’s AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12B in early-stage funding

#149

Post by ritzaco »

> The fundraise also saw participation from AI chip giant Nvidia

This is really obvious 'round-tripping' no? Nvidia invests in startups that are going to spend a majority of their funds on GPUs, Nvidia's revenue goes up, Nvidia's stock goes up, Nvidia makes more 'investments' in startups who use that investment to continue the cycle?

Re: Mira Murati’s AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12B in early-stage funding

#150

Post by Havoc »

ritzaco wrote: post #149

> The fundraise also saw participation from AI chip giant Nvidia This is really obvious 'round-tripping' no? Nvidia invests in startups that are going to spend a majority of their funds on GPUs, Nvidia's revenue goes up, Nvidia's stock goes up, Nvidia makes more 'investments' in startups who use that investment to continue the cycle?

Yes, though realistically they’d be buying the GPUs regardless of who the investors and this sort of vertical integration isn’t directly illegal
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