Sam Altman Slams Meta’s AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries Will Beat Mercenaries'

Post by epolanski » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 9:58 AM UTC

pj_mukh wrote: post #114

neilv wrote: post #29

Can someone make an honest argument for how OpenAI staff are missionaries, after the coup? I'd be very happy to be convinced that supporting the coup was the right move for true-believer missionaries. (Edit: It's an honest and obvious question, and I think that the joke responses risk burying or discouraging honest answers.)

Honest answer*: I think building super intelligence for the company that owns and will deploy the super intelligence in service of tech's original sin (the algorithmic feed) is a 100x worse than whatever OpenAI is doing, save maybe OpenAI's defense contract, which I have no details about. Meta will try to buoy this by open-sourcing it, which, good for them, but I don't think it's enough. If Meta wants to save itself,…

Post by bdangubic » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 10:02 AM UTC

dandanua wrote: post #8

ilioscio wrote: post #3

At least from the outside, OpenAI's messaging about this seems obnoxiously deluded, maybe some of those employees left because it starts feels like a cult built on foundations of self importance? Or maybe they really do know some things we don't know, but it seems like a lot of people are eager to keep giving them that excuse. But then again, maybe they have such a menagerie of individuals with their heads in the clo…

In our times, every narcissist sees himself as a saint and a messiah on a mission to save the world, while doing the complete opposite of that. And they get very angry when they see other narcissists trying to do the same.

Post by a_c » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 10:06 AM UTC

Festro wrote: post #409

What an odd turn of phrase. Historically speaking, mercenaries have absolutely slaughtered missionaries in every confrontation. If missionaries could be mercenaries, they would.

Post by javcasas » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 10:08 AM UTC

sitkack wrote: post #183

ponector wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is just an act of corpo-ceo bulshitting employees and press about high moral standards, mission, etc. Don't trust any of his words.

Anytime someone tells you to be in it for the mission, you are expendable and underpaid.

Post by yard2010 » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 10:24 AM UTC

surfingdino wrote: post #394

hardwaresofton wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another funny possibly sad coincidence is that the licenses that made open source what it is will probably be absolutely useless going forward, because as recent precedent has shown, companies can train on what they have legally gained access to. On the other hand, AGPL continues to be the future of F/OSS.

And if they AI companies don't like the license, they will ignore it or pay to be given a waver. Long may they rot in hell for doing that.