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A.I. researchers are negotiating $250M pay packages

nytimes.com

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Re: A.I. researchers are negotiating $250M pay packages

#341

Post by throwdbaaway »

exasperaited wrote: post #317
mensetmanusman wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bubble might not burst, if we can improve productivity in every field even 0.5%, that’s massive.

If you agree it is a bubble, you are agreeing it is going to burst. Because that is what defines a bubble. I have two questions about this, really: - is he going to be the last guy getting this kind of value out of a couple of research papers and some intimidated CEO's FOMO? - are we now entering a world where people are effectively hypothetical acquihires ? That is, instead of hiring someone because they have a succ…

> The bubble itself becomes increasingly intellectually dishonest, increasingly unserious, as it inflates.

You started to sound like Dario, who likes to accuse others as intellectually dishonest and unserious. Anyway, perhaps the strict wage structure of Anthropic will be its downfall in this crazy bubble?

Re: A.I. researchers are negotiating $250M pay packages

#342

Post by mizzao »

pseudo0 wrote: post #61

Funding is so plentiful right now that they are really competing with acquihire rates. That amount might sound crazy as straight salary, it comes with multi-year golden handcuffs and avoids having to buy them out for billions if they go start their own endeavor.

For this one, it appears to be something along the lines of $250M in RSUs vesting over 4 years with $100M of it in the first year (almost a seed round per week!)

Re: A.I. researchers are negotiating $250M pay packages

#344

Post by freejazz »

Buttons840 wrote: post #337
ghushn3 wrote: post #331

I don't think I've ever understood the motivation behind working for so much money. If I got paid $250M a year, I'd work a year and then live comfortably for the rest of my life pursuing my passions. Even if the thing I was doing for work was my passion, I'm sure I'd prefer to do it without ownership of that work going to someone else.

You'll never accumulate society warping amounts of money with that attitude.

Jeez!

Re: A.I. researchers are negotiating $250M pay packages

#345

Post by mizzao »

unyttigfjelltol wrote: post #112

I take this as a contrarian signal that Meta has hit serious roadblocks improving their AI despite massive data advantages and are throwing a bunch of "Hail Mary" desperation passes to achieve meaningful further progress.

It's interesting the kind of Hail Mary pass they are throwing here when they already have Yann LeCun...

Re: A.I. researchers are negotiating $250M pay packages

#346

Post by jdefr89 »

simianwords wrote: post #33
monero-xmr wrote: post #19

There are sports stars who are paid similarly - rare talent that is in demand. Luckily there aren’t “software unions” like there are players’ unions to cap the max payment. Any left wing / socialist person on HN should be ecstatic - literally applauding with grins on their faces - that workers are extracting such sums out of the capitalist class. The hate for these salaries is mind boggling to me, and shows a lot of…

it was never about rising salaries, it was always about upper middle class urbanites showing fake concern towards the lower class by disparaging people who earn more than them. one would think that a talented academic/researcher getting a 1B salary would impress the socialist people but it doesn't because it was never about that. it was about bringing rich people down and not much else.

I know. For God sakes who will think of the poor billionaires for once! /saracasm

Re: A.I. researchers are negotiating $250M pay packages

#347

Post by z0r »

jatora wrote: post #94
ehnto wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have exactly the same level of conviction toward an unknowable outcome, I think both of you would be better served by reading the middle ground instead of subscribing to a false dichotomy of boom or bust. I think the biggest confuser here is that there are really two games being played, the money game and the technology game. Investments in AI are going to be largely driven by speculation on their monetary outcom…

You can absolutely be sure of market forces not destroying established behemoths. It simply doesn't happen frequently. Inertia is a real thing. Look at Uber, Tesla, etc. I dont think there necessarily won't be a bust for many fledgeling AI companies though, in fact I'm certain there will be. But thinking Tech Giants are going to crash is woefully ignorant of how the market works and indicates a clear wearing of blind…

You claim to believe in scientific theory and not magic, but you are asserting many things without evidence.

Re: A.I. researchers are negotiating $250M pay packages

#348

Post by jdefr89 »

kgwgk wrote: post #28
monero-xmr wrote: post #19

There are sports stars who are paid similarly - rare talent that is in demand. Luckily there aren’t “software unions” like there are players’ unions to cap the max payment. Any left wing / socialist person on HN should be ecstatic - literally applauding with grins on their faces - that workers are extracting such sums out of the capitalist class. The hate for these salaries is mind boggling to me, and shows a lot of…

People also complain about the high salaries of CEOs. A lot of opposition to labor being paid what they are due is more about envy than class consciousness.

Yea because everyone knows CEOs just take credit for the work the real engineers and others do… I’d far prefer researchers or developers getting this kind of money instead of a CEO…

Re: A.I. researchers are negotiating $250M pay packages

#349

Post by ethan_smith »

gedy wrote: post #2

I suppose I’d rather hire 250 bright kids with $1 million package each instead, but I suppose it gets pr.

The 250:1 substitution doesn't work because breakthrough AI research follows power law distributions where top researchers produce orders of magnitude more value through novel insights that can't be replicated by simply adding more average contributors.

Re: A.I. researchers are negotiating $250M pay packages

#350

Post by mizzao »

SamvitJ wrote: post #220

One way to make sense of this specific case at least. - He's on track to becoming a top-tier AI researcher. Despite having only one year of a PhD under his belt, he already received two top awards as a first-author at major AI conferences [1]. Typically, it takes many more years of experience to do research that receives this level of recognition. Most PhDs never get there. - Molmo, the slate of open vision-language…

It's also possible, based on what happens to those who win the lottery, that his life could become a lot harder. It's not great to have the fact that you're making $2M a week plastered all over the Internet.
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