Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 711 posts

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#141

Post by BoorishBears »

karmasimida wrote: post #8

Well it begins. OpenAI will be a shell of itself in very short time. Advice: you can't win over a narrative, which is what Sam has become. People and resources will come to him, by themselves.

The advice seems off-point: overall it seems like Sam has operated opposite of the narrative he built (which aggrandized a vision of the future and downplayed the importance of making money) and got fired for it.

If I was OpenAI I'd want to quit today not because I want to follow Sam, but because the same bullshit that people left Google Brain et al. for has managed to catch up with them at OpenAI. It's a shame honestly, it was so exciting to see a company finally free itself of the shackles of navel gazing and just build things, but it seems like that's over today.

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#142

Post by anonymouskimmer »

waihtis wrote: post #119
anonymouskimmer wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more realistic argument is that AI will be used as a power amplifier by the already powerful.

actually is the opposite, it would democratize power at an unprecedented scale, that's why corporations are funding these NGO's (useful idiots)

Through what mechanism would it democratize power? I thought the GPTs were already limited to regular end users due to computational constraints. Most people can't afford dozens of Nvidia GPUs and the API infrastructure to data mine.

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#143

Post by akokanka »

atleastoptimal wrote: post #133
schleck8 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is like a supervillain origin story, Greg and Sam are 100 % going to start something new now, even if it's just out of spite with how much both seem to have liked their work at OpenAI

Would they even be able to compete with OpenAI at this point? Even without Greg and Sam they have Ilya, the models they've trained so far, institutional knowledge, datasets and billions from Microsoft. Could OpenAI be at escape velocity anyway to AGI just continuing on the track it's been on?

There are plenty of investors who would pour billions into these 2. MSFT got it's worth others want too.

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#145

Post by worldsayshi »

bongobingo1 wrote: post #128
quickthrower2 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is swapping LLMs can require rework of all your prompts, and you may be relying on specific features of OpenAI. If you don't then you are at a disadvantage or at least slowing down your work.

Just ask the LLM to rewrite your prompts for the new model.

Does it really have that kind of self awareness to be able to do that successfully? I feel very sceptical.

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#146

Post by karmasimida »

BoorishBears wrote: post #141
karmasimida wrote: post #8

Well it begins. OpenAI will be a shell of itself in very short time. Advice: you can't win over a narrative, which is what Sam has become. People and resources will come to him, by themselves.

The advice seems off-point: overall it seems like Sam has operated opposite of the narrative he built (which aggrandized a vision of the future and downplayed the importance of making money) and got fired for it. If I was OpenAI I'd want to quit today not because I want to follow Sam, but because the same bullshit that people left Google Brain et al. for has managed to catch up with them at OpenAI. It's a shame hones…

You misunderstood my point.

The narrative I am referring to is a simple one: take back what should be his. A.k.a, revenge. That is for sure a strong word.

People live on stories (collective imagination, if fancier), and what they like most is a wronged prince/princess took back his/her crown. It is the same with Taylor Swift rerecording her albums. The story potential will feed itself, until it is fully realized. The OpenAI board had committed a historical misstep, but maybe it is indeed what it is designed for: they hold no stakes in the business, so their view can't be held accountable in a business microscope. But money will really dislike it.

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#147

Post by BoorishBears »

namdnay wrote: post #68
Simon_ORourke wrote: post #50

The board is like a who's who of privilege and nepotism - https://sfstandard.com/2023/11/17/openai-sam-altman-firing-b...

Why nepotism? The article you linked to has no mention of particular family ties that got them there? If anything it’s a remarkably meritocratic board, when compared with most other industries The fact that it’s all well connected wealthy people is kind of the point, the board is there (among others) to bring advice and experience

If you really want to nitpick you could say it's cronyism, but we all know what nepotism means in this context, and there's no requirement nepotism be based on family ties anyways.

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#148

Post by aidaman »

resolutebat wrote: post #57
siva7 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google and Microsoft are todays big winners.

Microsoft has a huge stake in OpenAI, so they're very much a loser.

IdK Satya might sense there's a wounded gazette in the midst, and starve OpenAI for funds, and pick up the pieces.

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#149

Post by RichieAHB »

Makes we wonder how much of the investor’s money was put in to OpenAI as a company or in Sam and the leadership. I think the answer is probably the latter, and the fact that Sam’s firing was this easy (and would likely have the effect of others going in quick order) seems like a massive oversight in terms of investor due diligence in board structure etc.

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#150

Post by 3cats-in-a-coat »

waihtis wrote: post #25
lannisterstark wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doomerism when it comes to technology has always been such a weird mindset to me. "oh no, they're gonna take the horses/horse buggies/telegram/landlines away!" "Goddamn, how dare they invent the bigger cannons!?" - Romans, 1453, in Constantinople probably. (One incident where I can use my exempt powers).

its not even that, they have literally one argument and its nanobots

Don't misrepresent the problem.
Post reply on HN