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Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

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141–150 of 798 posts

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#141
post #76
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is nothing that is a red flag for me in the above story. Elizabeth? Is that you?

If Elizabeth Holmes had been able to pull off some successful product that made a lot of money, no doubt all the "fake it 'til you make it" she did at the beginning (showing demos that didn't work, sending tests to outside labs and saying they were run on their equipment) would have been forgiven no doubt. Just another nostalgic Silicon Valley "hustler" story.

She really only got into trouble because her lies became obvious and she risked people's lives. If it was some CRUD app and she didn't get enough customers or whatever, more than likely she'd have gotten money for another company.

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#142

I don’t have a strong opinion on the events of the past several days. But a lot of the behavior I’ve seen on twitter from Open AI employees, some led by Sam, feels very cult like: posting in all lower case, the heart emojis, rumors of employees calling each other in the middle of the night to pressure people to sign letters supporting Sam. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong of this behavior. It is good to like yo…

[deleted]

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did this start, actually? the first I can really think of is Jobs (at least in the billionaire category); treatment of Hubbard had a lot of the same vibes, but not the money.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology

This is a very interesting read from the New Thought original sources: Prentice Mulford’s Your Forces and How to Use Them.

https://archive.org/details/yourforceshowtou02mulfiala/yourf...

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's a YC guy who made a lot of money in tech and this is a YC website full of people wishing they made a lot of money in tech.

I think you will get downvoted soon (and I for mentioning this) but this is the simplest and most logical explanation on this thread by far.

It is a bit of a cultish environment no doubt. But there are a lot of very very nice people here too.

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#145

Now that he’s back with MSOAI I think we’ve got AGI disaster in 7 years. Thin possibility of good path for humanity. I wish he’d stuck to his guns and gone his own way, no MS, and no OAI. No disrespect to MS, they good, but this path is bad.

[flagged]

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Billionaire-jesus and his followers, reborn every 10 years.

When did this start, actually? the first I can really think of is Jobs (at least in the billionaire category); treatment of Hubbard had a lot of the same vibes, but not the money.

It's the vibe in almost all of the big silicon valley companies and probably most of the smaller ones too. Founder worship etc. Just silicon valley culture I assume. I guess it takes a certain mindset to dedicate the prime of your years to making someone else incredibly rich.

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#147
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> mostly because of money/shares How do you know?

Occam's razor. Maybe the simplest explanation isn't the right one for 100% of the people that followed Sam (or were ready to), but it's the right one for 90% of them, which is what matters for practical purposes. Follow the money.

These people are at the top of the AI industry, they’d make bank in a ton of jobs if they left tomorrow. They weren’t getting equity at Microsoft yet they still chose that opportunity as an alternative.

Clearly they care about working on the most interesting AI around instead of continuing to work under a CEO and board whose whole plan is to cripple AI development. Both the interim CEO Shear and likely coup leader Toner made it clear they are anti-AI and want to slow progress. Toner specifically said she’d be okay with the company collapsing as that was in line with the charter.

Occams Razor is people working on the most interesting stuff in the tech industry want to keep working on it rather than follow some radical EA doomer plan to kill it off well before we get near AGI.

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hadn't seen the tweet from Geoffrey Irving before: https://twitter.com/geoffreyirving/status/172675427022402397... > 1. He was always nice to me. > 2. He lied to me on various occasions > 3. He was deceptive, manipulative, and worse to others, including my close friends (again, only nice to me, for reasons)

This is the kind of person we have controlling the future of AI. He and Elon Musk. Between these two we are assured complete destruction.

What is wrong with Musk again?

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#150
post #76
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is nothing that is a red flag for me in the above story. Elizabeth? Is that you?

If Elizabeth Holmes had been able to pull off some successful product that made a lot of money, no doubt all the "fake it 'til you make it" she did at the beginning (showing demos that didn't work, sending tests to outside labs and saying they were run on their equipment) would have been forgiven no doubt. Just another nostalgic Silicon Valley "hustler" story.

Only that Theranos product was techically impossible. Which makes the whole thing even crazier, nobody did even the slightest due dilligence there. Seems to be par of th cours so, other exhibits are FTX and WeWork.
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