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Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

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Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#421
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely hate how much CEOs acting like children / influencers has become the norm. Maybe they were always like this, and twitter has just given us a window into it, but I for one would wholeheartedly welcome a return to "respectability" norms for business and civic leaders.

I think the grass roots of the tech world has some portion of the blame here. The introduction of hoodies, flip-flops, open drama and bickering, and kicker into the office environment is not unrelated. And it’s not just CEOs, we’ve now got a senator who looks like the guy I bought pot from as a kid. I never thought I’d make this argument, but maybe at least appearing respectable increases the odds that you’ll actuall…

Eh, respectable looking people were responsible for the Holocaust, slavery, segregation, and plenty more.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#422

It feels like Musk is single-handedly making a great case for why unlimited accumulation of wealth is a bad idea. It's pretty colorful language, but my mind immediately jumps to "financial terrorist". He's using his enormous amount of wealth and influence as a weapon to bludgeon anyone and anything in his way.

> "financial terrorist" As a thought experiment, I like to wonder what would be the maximal amount of damage to humanity an extremely wealthy person could do entirely legally. Or if not damage, just trolling. For instance, writing X on the moon or something like that.

>I like to wonder what would be the maximal amount of damage to humanity an extremely wealthy person could do entirely legally.

Run a government. No single person has ever been responsible for more death, suffering and harm as a person wielding a monopoly on violence. Even the Church only managed its bloody conquests, cultural genocides and colonialism because it had the power of imperialist states behind it. If not for Constantine, Christianity would have remained a weird apocalypse cult in the Levant.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#423
post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could it be that part of the the Musk-led group's offer of $100 billion is a tactic to drive up the valuation of Open AI-P, so that it's more painful/difficult for Open AI-P to buy itself out of Open AI-NP?

That's why I said this: > this is fundamentally about: stopping or fundamentally changing OpenAI's plans to be spun off. If OpenAI actually values OpenAI-NP at $40B then they will surely sell it for $97B. The point is the $40B is obviously a dramatic undervaluing and the fact they won't sell it for $97B shows that. This is the wrench.

> If OpenAI actually values OpenAI-NP at $40B then they will surely sell it for $97B. The point is the $40B is obviously a dramatic undervaluing and the fact they won't sell it for $97B shows that. This is the wrench.

"We believe an OpenAI-P owned by Elon is fundamentally against our mission."

While I'm not saying Sam's being an angel here, I do think it's reasonable to say that llms aren't an existential risk and spinning them off to a consumer thing while xrisk and super alignment stays in a nonprofit is plausibly mission aligned, and certainly moreso than giving any amount of control to the guy who's proven his devotion to care and safety in progress by checks notes taking a sledgehammer to the US Treasury.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll see. After throwing out a few Nazi salutes, Tesla sales have been tanking in Europe.

Also after Teslas keep catching on fire more than the damn Ford Pinto did.

Might not be enough data for good statistical significance yet, but IIRC the "die in a fire" probability in a Tesla Refrigerator is something like 17x the Ford Pinto based on current numbers.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#426
post #375

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wow I had no idea the level of discourse on that x website was so low, has it always been like this?

Do not check out Kanye West on x unless you want to see what no censorship means (spoiler alert: a guy with 33m followers posting porn and glorifying nazism).

As of a little while ago, he’s gone from X

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#427
post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I said this: > this is fundamentally about: stopping or fundamentally changing OpenAI's plans to be spun off. If OpenAI actually values OpenAI-NP at $40B then they will surely sell it for $97B. The point is the $40B is obviously a dramatic undervaluing and the fact they won't sell it for $97B shows that. This is the wrench.

Interesting logic, but I think it's obvious to everyone that the reason they won't sell to Elon has nothing to do with the price of the offer.

I'm too smooth brained to see the obvious reason. Would love for someone with more folds to say what the reason is instead of hiding it behind its obviousness.

OpenAI-NP can either have a $40B from spinning out OpenAI-P or $97B in cash. In theory, they could literally just go and buy back their stake in OpenAI-P and have $57B left over for other AI endeavors if the valuation of it at $40B were remotely reasonable! If I'm on the board and I believe the $40B number, I'd do this in a heatbeat.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He's using his enormous amount of wealth and influence as a weapon to bludgeon anyone and anything in his way. Using your "enormous amount of wealth" as a weapon means you'll be frittering away that wealth very quickly. Especially since others will be inclined to take the other side of the bet as soon as they catch on to it happening.

> you'll be frittering away that wealth very quickly Musk’s vulnerability is Tesla. He has personally levered those shares in a way that makes him vulnerable to political retribution. (Banning cameras-only self-driving being one option. Politicising recalls being the nuclear one.)

He’s vulnerable to more than that, but it is definitely the biggest risk.

I genuinely think that a political recall over his language and promises regarding self-driving are the most likely downfall of this man. (Outside maybe from his drug use and rapid political agenda as a target). I think he’s get political green-light from Trump admin to roll out nationwide self-driving and it’ll be a deadly mess, and that will be the unwinding of Tesla and Musk. The rapid recall and mess that will result will tank them in the market, and start a crisis.

Precisely, states will react to the self driving vehicles, allowing consequences outside the control of the federal government, who will happily protect him.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll see. After throwing out a few Nazi salutes, Tesla sales have been tanking in Europe.

[flagged]

It took a while, and a huge investment from the US to avoid the locals flocking to the DDR.

(The Soviets, unable to put in as big an investment, built the wall to stop DDR citizens from making the opposite trip).

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#430
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon's response: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1889062013109703009 > Swindler In another tweet chain: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1889063777792069911 > Scam Altman

I absolutely hate how much CEOs acting like children / influencers has become the norm. Maybe they were always like this, and twitter has just given us a window into it, but I for one would wholeheartedly welcome a return to "respectability" norms for business and civic leaders.

It's a very minor thing in the face of the idiotic insanity going around, but I just saw and was annoyed by Altman's twitter bio: "AI is cool i guess".

Is this like some kind of ironic detachment? It almost makes you long for corporate pablum about building a world for us all.

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