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Why I Joined OpenAI

brendangregg.com

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Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#81

Post by mschild »

amluto wrote: post #12

> She was worried about a friend who was travelling in a far-away city, with little timezone overlap when they could chat, but she could talk to ChatGPT anytime about what the city was like and what tourist activities her friend might be doing, which helped her feel connected. She liked the memory feature too, saying it was like talking to a person who was living there. This seems rather sad. Is this really what AI i…

> A small local model or batched inference of a small model should do just fine.

Or, you know, Signal/Matrix/WhatsApp/{your_preferred_chat_app}. If you're already texting things, might as well do that.

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#82

Post by rkomorn »

manuelmoreale wrote: post #78
UltraSane wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it as something to talk to about incredibly nerdy and/or obscure things no one else would be willing to talk about.

That’s honestly just sad. Not the fact you doing it, but rather the fact you have nobody to talk to about those things.

I feel like this kind of response is a good example of why someone wouldn't talk to others about things.

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#83

Post by pillefitz »

perf99999999999 wrote: post #69

Brendan, I'm a big fan of your book, and work. I don't have a problem with you joining OpenAI; best of luck there! However, I'm not sure your analysis is quite correct, in this case. If OpenAI can mobilize X (giga)dollars to buy Y amounts of energy, your work there will not reduce X or Y, it will simply help them produce more "tokens" (or whatever "unit of AI") for a given amount of energy. So in a sense you're helpi…

And the consequence of burning more tokens, of course, is more widespread adoption, weaving AI more deeply into the fabric of our reality.

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#85

Post by pillefitz »

brendangregg wrote: post #58
brendangregg wrote: post #15

To answer a few people at once: I did mention compensation as a factor in the post, but I didn't elaborate details, so easy to miss. Comp is important of course, but so are the other factors. It feels like I can't go for a day without reading about the cost of AI datacenters in the news, and I can do something about it.

Again, many comments here saying I only care about the money, and while comp is an important factor I think it characterizes me as someone I'm not, and forgets what I've been doing for the past two decades. I've spent thousands of hours of my life writing textbooks for roughly minimum wage, as I want to help others like me (I came from nothing, with no access tech meetups or conferences, and books were the gateway to…

The issue is that you're doing lot, but not saving the planet.

What do you think is happening with the efficiency gains? You're making rich people richer and helping AI to become an integral (i.e. positive ROI from business perspective) part of our lives. And that's perfectly fine if it aligns with your philosophy. It's not for quite a few others, and you not owning up to it leads to all kinds of negativity in the comments.

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#86

Post by bigtones »

brendangregg wrote: post #58
brendangregg wrote: post #15

To answer a few people at once: I did mention compensation as a factor in the post, but I didn't elaborate details, so easy to miss. Comp is important of course, but so are the other factors. It feels like I can't go for a day without reading about the cost of AI datacenters in the news, and I can do something about it.

Again, many comments here saying I only care about the money, and while comp is an important factor I think it characterizes me as someone I'm not, and forgets what I've been doing for the past two decades. I've spent thousands of hours of my life writing textbooks for roughly minimum wage, as I want to help others like me (I came from nothing, with no access tech meetups or conferences, and books were the gateway to…

Great to see you're in Sydney Brendan, and let the haters hate.

You have done a brilliant job elevating your chosen specialty to the world, and encouraging and inspiring others in the industry for a long time - so you should be fairly compensated for that lofty position. I don't envy the late nights or very early mornings you have ahead of you on conference calls with SF, but good luck at OpenAI mate !

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#87

Post by trhway »

pillefitz wrote: post #85
brendangregg wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, many comments here saying I only care about the money, and while comp is an important factor I think it characterizes me as someone I'm not, and forgets what I've been doing for the past two decades. I've spent thousands of hours of my life writing textbooks for roughly minimum wage, as I want to help others like me (I came from nothing, with no access tech meetups or conferences, and books were the gateway to…

The issue is that you're doing lot, but not saving the planet. What do you think is happening with the efficiency gains? You're making rich people richer and helping AI to become an integral (i.e. positive ROI from business perspective) part of our lives. And that's perfectly fine if it aligns with your philosophy. It's not for quite a few others, and you not owning up to it leads to all kinds of negativity in the co…

>What do you think is happening with the efficiency gains?

may it happen that the efficiency gains decrease demand and thus postpone investment into and development of new and better energy sources? If one couldn't get by just by bringing 20 trucks with gas turbines, may be he would have invested in fusion development :)

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#88

Post by bigyabai »

pillefitz wrote: post #83
perf99999999999 wrote: post #69

Brendan, I'm a big fan of your book, and work. I don't have a problem with you joining OpenAI; best of luck there! However, I'm not sure your analysis is quite correct, in this case. If OpenAI can mobilize X (giga)dollars to buy Y amounts of energy, your work there will not reduce X or Y, it will simply help them produce more "tokens" (or whatever "unit of AI") for a given amount of energy. So in a sense you're helpi…

And the consequence of burning more tokens, of course, is more widespread adoption, weaving AI more deeply into the fabric of our reality.

That's a possible second-order effect, but not guaranteed.

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#89

Post by pyrale »

Banditoz wrote: post #4

> ...it's not just about saving costs – it's about saving the planet There's something that doesn't sit right with me about this statement, and I'm not sure what it is. Are you sure you didn't just join for the money? (edit: cool problems, too)

Probably because "making the world a better place" has been a trope used so much in the industry that it's made it to a TV show [1]. It's fine to be passionate about your job. It's fine to be paid well. You don't need to make us believe that you're mother Theresa on top of it.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8C5sjjhsso

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#90

Post by altmanaltman »

brendangregg wrote: post #58
brendangregg wrote: post #15

To answer a few people at once: I did mention compensation as a factor in the post, but I didn't elaborate details, so easy to miss. Comp is important of course, but so are the other factors. It feels like I can't go for a day without reading about the cost of AI datacenters in the news, and I can do something about it.

Again, many comments here saying I only care about the money, and while comp is an important factor I think it characterizes me as someone I'm not, and forgets what I've been doing for the past two decades. I've spent thousands of hours of my life writing textbooks for roughly minimum wage, as I want to help others like me (I came from nothing, with no access tech meetups or conferences, and books were the gateway to…

It's okay to want to make money. You don't really have to justify it this hard unless you want people to really think you don't think comp is important, which is a bit sus to be fair.
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