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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

#41

Post by hollerith »

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…

Would you say that same thing about executives and CEOs?

I'm guessing not, but both the AI expert and the CEO are agents for the owner class: it is owners like Elon and Sam Altman that are deciding to pay these huge salaries and they are doing it for the same reason that corporate boards of directors pay CEOs huge salaries: namely, to help the owners accumulate more capital.

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

#42

Post by theshackleford »

midnightclubbed wrote: post #37
ed_elliott_asc wrote: post #14

Imagine if any one of these tech companies decided the future was in solving problems for humanity rather than how to serve adverts in a future where content was autogenerated. The money and resources they have available is astronomical. Instead they spend it on future proofing their profits. What a sad world we have built.

For a few years it seemed like Tesla and SpaceX were those companies - reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, boosting clean transportation and solar, pushing forward space exploration. But the promises turned into stock boosting lies; the environmental good into vote buying for climate change deniers, and space exploration into low earth cell-towers.

> For a few years it seemed like Tesla

Those years were a long time ago for me. I’ve been arguing musk is a snake oil salesman since at least 2014. I lost friends over it at the time, people who were very heavily invested into musk, both financially and for some reason, emotionally.

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

#43

Post by demiters »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #38
tzury wrote: post #15

Do you need any more signs, or is it clear now? For me the Meta storm of billions in hiring was enough to start selling any tech giant related stock. It is about to crash, harder than ever.

Where would put their money into though? It’s such a weird economy, especially with the expected decrease in younger population.

Before an imminent recession you might want to focus on funds that primarily cover sectors that enjoy steady demand even during crisis, like utilities, consumer staples, healthcare, maybe some hedge against inflation like precious metals. I would avoid tech and luxuries and would definitely avoid crypto also. There is no historical data to show how it would perform during a serious recession (Bitcoin was basically born during the last one) but I doubt it would be pretty.

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

#44

Post by em500 »

tzury wrote: post #15

Do you need any more signs, or is it clear now? For me the Meta storm of billions in hiring was enough to start selling any tech giant related stock. It is about to crash, harder than ever.

That’s similar to what people on HN said a few decades ago when Google bought Youtube and Facebook bought Instagram and Whatsapp for billions.

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

#45

Post by khazhoux »

Good for him. Unfortunately, though, what I have seen is that luminaries like this never match their external accomplishment once inside. I have names I saw firsthand but it would be rude to share. A couple of exceptions come to mind. It seems Marc Levoy has been as effective pushing imaging technology inside BigCo's as he was at Stanford Research, e.g. But more often it's one-hit wonders.

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

#46

Post by meekaaku »

why the negativity? no one bats an eye when ronaldo/messi or steph curry or other top athletes get insane salaries.

These AI researchers will probably have far more impact on society (good or bad I dont know) than the athletes, and the people who pay them (ie zuck et al) certainly thinks its worth paying them this much because they provide value.

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

#47

Post by tossandthrow »

simianwords wrote: post #31
tossandthrow wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not an appropriate comparison as sports stars (you write it yourself) is in the entertainment industry - they are paid for their talent. A 1b $ anonymous software engineer is likely leading to 5000 more revenue than a 200k talented Ai engineer.

you just described how it is the same thing

Yeah, I forgot a "not" leading to...

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

#48

Post by benreesman »

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…

I don't get the down votes. Any good leftist likes seeing skilled workers having unskilled rentiers over the barrel.

Personal anecdote time. One of the people named in the press as having turned down one of these hyper-offers used to work in an adjacent team, same "pod" maybe, whatever adjacent. That person is crazy smart, stands out even among elite glory days FAANG types. Anyways they left and when back on the market I was part of the lobby to get them back at any price, had to run it fairly high up the flagpole (might have been Sheryl who had to sign off, maybe it was Mark).

Went on to make it back for the company a hundred fold the first year. Clearly a good choice to "pay over market".

Now it's a little comical for it to be a billion or whatever, that person was part of a clique of people at that level and there's a lot of "brand" going into a price tag like that: the people out of our little set who did compilers or whatever instead of FAIR are just as good and what is called "AI" now is frankly not that differentiated (the person in question maintained as much back in the day).

But a luck and ruthlessness hire like Zuckerberg on bended knee to a legitimate monster hacker and still getting dissed? Applause. I had Claude write a greentext for the amusement of my chums. I recommend it kek.

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

#49

Post by serial_dev »

raphinou wrote: post #17
tzury wrote: post #15

Do you need any more signs, or is it clear now? For me the Meta storm of billions in hiring was enough to start selling any tech giant related stock. It is about to crash, harder than ever.

I thought that when Apple reached a market cap of 1 trillion, but here we are today.... I since then abandoned any such prediction, even if i share your feeling

The fact is that the incumbents with all their money are in a good position to defend against anything and counterattack.

When OpenAI was making waves the first time, then Google launched their neutered incapable competitor, I thought it is “over” for Google because why would anyone use search anymore (apart from the 1% of use cases where it gives better results faster), and clearly they are incapable of building good new products anymore…

and now they are there with the best LLMs and they are at the top of the pack again.

Billions of dollars in the bank, great developers, good connections to politicians and institutions mean that you are hard to replace even if you fumble it a couple of times.

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

#50

Post by saubeidl »

tzury wrote: post #15

Do you need any more signs, or is it clear now? For me the Meta storm of billions in hiring was enough to start selling any tech giant related stock. It is about to crash, harder than ever.

It might be time to sell your USD too, while you're at it. Don't think it won't take it all with it.

EUR:USD has been rising for a reason.

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