Why I Joined OpenAI • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#21

Post by UltraSane » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 3:10 AM UTC

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…

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

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#22

Post by matt_daemon » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 3:12 AM UTC

> Mia the hairstylist got to work, and casually asked what I do for a living. "I'm an Intel fellow, I work on datacenter performance." Silence.

How could she not know?

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#23

Post by satvikpendem » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 3:14 AM UTC

I_am_tiberius wrote: post #9

If it's in your power, make sure user prompts and llm responses are never read, never analyzed and never used for training - not anonymized, not derived, not at all.

It's a little too late for that, all the models train on prompts and responses.

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#24

Post by DeepYogurt » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 3:15 AM UTC

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.

You gonna open source it?

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#25

Post by tayo42 » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 3:15 AM UTC

QuantumNoodle wrote: post #16

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)

Right? Like what an incredibly naive thing to think, that BG is going to contain power consumption lmao. OpenAI is always going to run their hardware hot. If BG frees up compute, a new workload will just fill it. Sure you might argue "well if they can do more with less they won't need as many data centers." But who is going to believe that a company that can squeeze more money from their investment won't grow? Tangen…

They're going to grow either way. Those new workloads are going to be run

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#26

Post by politelemon » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 3:16 AM UTC

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.

It would be good if the performance improvements made can be applicable across the industry so everyone benefits. But it doesn't sound unbelievable that OpenAi may want to keep some of it secret to keep an advantage over others?

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#27

Post by QuantumNoodle » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 3:17 AM UTC

tayo42 wrote: post #25

QuantumNoodle wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right? Like what an incredibly naive thing to think, that BG is going to contain power consumption lmao. OpenAI is always going to run their hardware hot. If BG frees up compute, a new workload will just fill it. Sure you might argue "well if they can do more with less they won't need as many data centers." But who is going to believe that a company that can squeeze more money from their investment won't grow? Tangen…

They're going to grow either way. Those new workloads are going to be run

Ya, we know. Just humbling the author ;)

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#28

Post by SanjayMehta » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 3:17 AM UTC

[flagged]

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#29

Post by Insanity » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 3:20 AM UTC

matt_daemon wrote: post #22

> Mia the hairstylist got to work, and casually asked what I do for a living. "I'm an Intel fellow, I work on datacenter performance." Silence. How could she not know?

For people who’s main computing devices are phones, this isn’t hard to believe at all.

Interacting outside of the tech bubble is eye opening. Conversely, the hair stylist might have mentioned the brand of a super popular scissor supplier/other equipment you’d have never heard of.

Re: Why I Joined OpenAI

#30

Post by bahmboo » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 3:20 AM UTC

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.

Thanks for taking the risk in this environment and posting about your experience from a personal standpoint. [environment: people will come at you from all angles with very passionate opinions]