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OpenAI Has New Focus (on the IPO)

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11–20 of 281 posts

Re: OpenAI Has New Focus (on the IPO)

#11

Focus on programming since they just bruteforce the type checkers/compilers to find out if their slop was correct the first time. Basically an illusion. Imagine if they focused on medical tech instead? You cant bruteforce vaccines or radiation therapy

> they just bruteforce the type checkers/compilers to find out if their slop was correct

Have you used an AI coding model at all in the last year and a half? I think your knowledge is pretty outdated now.

Re: OpenAI Has New Focus (on the IPO)

#12

  One thing odd, maybe just to me, is why OpenAI has been stuffing its ranks with former Facebookers who are known to juice growth, find edges, and keep people addicted. They have little background in getting enterprises to buy into a product. Simo herself ran the Facebook app. That organization’s genius is consumer engagement: behavioral hooks, dopamine loops, the relentless optimization of the feed. You can see that in the recent iterations of ChatGPT. It has become such a sycophant, and creates answers and options, that you end up engaging with it. That’s juicing growth. Facebook style.
This is because ChatGPT is gearing up to sell ads. It's the only way to sustain a free chat service in the long term. Ads require engagement and usage. Hiring former Meta employees for this is smart business - even if HN crowd doesn't like it.

People say OpenAI is burning money and is on the verge of collapse. The same people will say OpenAI building an ads business on ChatGPT is "enshittifcation". These people are quite insufferable, no offense to the many who are exactly as I described.

Re: OpenAI Has New Focus (on the IPO)

#14
post #2

I thought it is against OpenAI interest to IPO, especially now that it has made a deal with the Pentagon. IPO would likely prevent the company from burning money at the current rate and pursue shorter terms profit.

It's not about OpenAI's interest, it is about the current stockholders' ability to divest OpenAI stock on people who don't know what the state of affairs in the AI domain is where OpenAI still has tremendous name recognition. If they don't IPO then they'll lose that window of opportunity, the stock market is super precarious right now and if it should tank the IPO window will close for a long time.

Re: OpenAI Has New Focus (on the IPO)

#15
There’s a strong chance the IPO window has passed. I just don’t see investors willing to jump in here given all the questions about the financial viability of AI.

The bulk of those investing now are broadly just pumping cash into the fire to keep their prior investments from going to zero.

We have hit a mass deceleration of what the current tech can do with transformers. The tech is also on a path to hyper-commoditization which will destroy the value of the big players as there zero moat to be had here. Absent a new major breakthrough it looks like we’re well on our way into the “trough of disillusionment” for the current AI hype cycle.

Will be interesting to see how all this plays out, but get your popcorn ready.

Re: OpenAI Has New Focus (on the IPO)

#16
post #5

From the article: "You can see that in the recent iterations of ChatGPT. It has become such a sycophant, and creates answers and options, that you end up engaging with it. That’s juicing growth. Facebook style." This is something I relalized lately. ChatGPT is juicing growth Facebook style. The last time, I asked it a medical question, it answered the question, but ended the answer with something like "Can I tell you…

I don't have a problem with the suggestions. Google search does the same at the end of searches. It does very often suggest things I want to know more about.

Suggestions are absolutely fine. But this is baiting. Chatgpt could have easily given me that information without the bait. And I would have happily consumed it. And maybe if it did it once, it was fine - but it kept on doing it - bait after bait after bait.

The objective was to increase the engagement "metrics" clearly. The seems to me as if the leadership will take all 'shortcuts' required for growth.

Re: OpenAI Has New Focus (on the IPO)

#18
post #5

From the article: "You can see that in the recent iterations of ChatGPT. It has become such a sycophant, and creates answers and options, that you end up engaging with it. That’s juicing growth. Facebook style." This is something I relalized lately. ChatGPT is juicing growth Facebook style. The last time, I asked it a medical question, it answered the question, but ended the answer with something like "Can I tell you…

Well they are realizing they just can't compete in terms of raw productivity gains with Anthropic, their moat is in their brand and user base (and government contracts, I suppose, at least while Trump is still in office--although a few years of setting up the architecture might be enough to cement it there).

Re: OpenAI Has New Focus (on the IPO)

#19
post #11

Focus on programming since they just bruteforce the type checkers/compilers to find out if their slop was correct the first time. Basically an illusion. Imagine if they focused on medical tech instead? You cant bruteforce vaccines or radiation therapy

> they just bruteforce the type checkers/compilers to find out if their slop was correct Have you used an AI coding model at all in the last year and a half? I think your knowledge is pretty outdated now.

Yes, gpt 5.4 always tries to compile/check my c++ code after every prompt. Despite it being in my AGENTS.md to never run builds. Then I have to explicitly mention it, but it will do it again randomly after.

What this means is the training/RL was trained with this workflow ;) But as you can tell, this workflow has no uses outside programming. Its just a hack to make it seem like the model is smart, but in fact its just them performing loops to get it right.

Re: OpenAI Has New Focus (on the IPO)

#20
post #5

From the article: "You can see that in the recent iterations of ChatGPT. It has become such a sycophant, and creates answers and options, that you end up engaging with it. That’s juicing growth. Facebook style." This is something I relalized lately. ChatGPT is juicing growth Facebook style. The last time, I asked it a medical question, it answered the question, but ended the answer with something like "Can I tell you…

The output is also very manipulative in order to keep you using it. They want you to feel good. I don't use ChatGPT at all anymore, as it is misleading too badly. But it will work for masses as it worked with Facebook/Instagram etc.
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