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Reid Hoffman says SpaceX 'not an AI company', xAI 'complete train wreck'

fortune.com

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Re: Reid Hoffman says SpaceX 'not an AI company', xAI 'complete train wreck'

#171

Post by empath75 »

indoordin0saur wrote: post #165
kklisura wrote: post #86

SpaceX renting out their compute to competitors is what crashes the "AI company" notion. They are either datacenter company or an AI company - but it cannot be both.

The fact that dozens of companies seem to have been able to produce great models, and the mid-tier ones are only months behind the frontier models tells me that just having a great model is not much of a moat. It may actually be having the physical stuff that makes all of this possible is the bigger revenue generator.

Data centers do not trade on 100x earnings, and if you believe that they should, then there are plenty that don't have rocket ship and social media companies attached to them.

Re: Reid Hoffman says SpaceX 'not an AI company', xAI 'complete train wreck'

#172

Post by epistasis »

mbmbn wrote: post #84
epistasis wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a very good comparison because Jobs was well known for very pointed and accurate critique of software, which was one of his super powers at Apple. Bill Gates was known for figuring out how to manage software engineering, but nobody would listen to Gates about that, and in fact the only time I ever saw him critique software, talking about the complete usability failure of Windows and Microsoft's supporting…

It’s an analogy, it’s always going to be imperfect! Jesus Christ.

Sorry if that came across a bit too strong with too much overthinking, but in a pool of comments like this I'm trying to add a bit more meat instead of the lazy cynicism I see elsewhere!

Re: Reid Hoffman says SpaceX 'not an AI company', xAI 'complete train wreck'

#173

Post by mrhottakes »

andsoitis wrote: post #143
jcgrillo wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such an out of touch attempt to get the youths onboard the hype train.. ok boomer.

> ok boomer. Reid Hoffman is not a boomer. He was born in 1967. Also: ageism isn't sexy.

> Also: ageism isn't sexy.

Typical boomer needing things to be based on sex all the time.

Re: Reid Hoffman says SpaceX 'not an AI company', xAI 'complete train wreck'

#174

Post by lp4v4n »

alpineman wrote: post #98

>> “I’ve been thinking about writing an essay on the kind of mistakes that are made by college graduates booing or otherwise dissing AI,” he said. As if speaking to all of Gen Z, he added: “You guys have the opportunity to be generation AI—where you come into the workforce saying, ‘I know this a lot better than all of you" Quite patronising. Maybe they really do know it a lot better than you, Reid, but not in the way…

He is just being solipsistic and talking to a small circle of wealthy and well-connected Gen Zs that he probably knows in real life or who are part of his acquaintances. Or do you really think that people with his level of wealth remotely care about real career paths for the average youth?

Re: Reid Hoffman says SpaceX 'not an AI company', xAI 'complete train wreck'

#175

Post by fmajid »

kklisura wrote: post #86

SpaceX renting out their compute to competitors is what crashes the "AI company" notion. They are either datacenter company or an AI company - but it cannot be both.

SpaceX is an ISP with a sideline in rocket launches, and xAI is a neocloud with delusions of grandeur.

Re: Reid Hoffman says SpaceX 'not an AI company', xAI 'complete train wreck'

#176

Post by jcgrillo »

andsoitis wrote: post #170
jedimastert wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The usage of the phrase has evolved past carrying about the actual generation (kind of like how people still talk about "millennials" like they're college students). Also, Hoffman very intentionally opened the door to talking about generational differences, this kind of feels like the commenter may have touched a nerve

"Ok boomer", as I understand it, basically means "I'm not going to engage seriously with that outdated perspective", often used to shut down a conversation rather than to continue it. I don't know that what Reid is expressing is an outdated perspective, but that's of course subjective.

> You guys have the opportunity to be generation AI—where you come into the workforce saying, ‘I know this a lot better than all of you'

Yeah, it was expressly my intent to shut this kind of nonsense down. This is just a different version of "get on board right now or you'll all be left behind". Enough with the lying.

Re: Reid Hoffman says SpaceX 'not an AI company', xAI 'complete train wreck'

#177

Post by RattlesnakeJake »

emil-lp wrote: post #156
mahoho wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's time to give up your silly cynicism, embrace being a professional slop shoveler and doing work with higher volume, more repetition and less creativity than ever.

I've embraced it, and I'm coding faster than all my colleagues, some days I open more PRs than the rest of my team combined.

Are your colleagues slower because they're spending all their time reviewing your PRs?

Re: Reid Hoffman says SpaceX 'not an AI company', xAI 'complete train wreck'

#178

Post by mrhottakes »

jerf wrote: post #70
otterley wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the article said, Reid Hoffman is on Microsoft’s board and is an investor both in OpenAI and Anthropic.

So, a guy with probably one of the largest incentives in the world to trash xAI is trashing xAI? The information content of this is rather minimal. Even if everything he says is literally true it's hard to tell through the massive, massive vested interest he has. And it doesn't help that... 'Hoffman, who is an investor in both Anthropic and OpenAI, pushed back firmly on the narrative that the two companies are in a z…

> This is just trash talk.

Trash talk is Musk's entire M.O., so that seems like a good way to proceed in 2026.

Re: Reid Hoffman says SpaceX 'not an AI company', xAI 'complete train wreck'

#179

Post by JumpCrisscross »

nailer wrote: post #161
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How is Reid Hoffman relevant? What does this actually mean? I’ve always taken this use of relevance as an influencer metric.

It means why do we care what the LinkedIn founder has to say about xAI. The answer seems to be "we don't, he's on the board of a competiting AI company"

> answer seems to be "we don't, he's on the board of a competiting AI company"

That seems like a good reason to listen to him? He is prominently placed in the field. Has a lot to lose by knowingly making false statements in public about a competitor. And has an incentive (and the resources with which) to dig deeply into them in a way e.g. a trash-talking YouTuber does not.

He has his set of biases. But Board member at a multi-trillion dollar established software and AI kingmaker seems like a weird way to dismiss an opinion.

Re: Reid Hoffman says SpaceX 'not an AI company', xAI 'complete train wreck'

#180

Post by andsoitis »

jcgrillo wrote: post #176
andsoitis wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Ok boomer", as I understand it, basically means "I'm not going to engage seriously with that outdated perspective", often used to shut down a conversation rather than to continue it. I don't know that what Reid is expressing is an outdated perspective, but that's of course subjective.

> You guys have the opportunity to be generation AI—where you come into the workforce saying, ‘I know this a lot better than all of you' Yeah, it was expressly my intent to shut this kind of nonsense down. This is just a different version of "get on board right now or you'll all be left behind". Enough with the lying.

This version is more effective in expressing your sentiment, FWIW.
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