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

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

#461

Post by saubeidl »

_heimdall wrote: post #459
saubeidl wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's even crazier is that China are the good guys when it comes to open source AI.

We would have to know their intent to really know if they fit a general understanding "the good guys." Its very possible that China is open sourcing LLMs because its currently in their best interest to do so, not because of some moral or principled stance.

I don't think the intent really matters once the thing is out in the open.

I want open source AI i can run myself without any creepy surveillance capitalist or state agency using it to slurp up my data.

Chinese companies are giving me that - I don't really care about what their grand plan is. Grand plans have a habit of not working out, but open source software is open source software nonetheless.

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

#463

Post by basfo »

It always makes me laugh this millionaire rhetoric about “THE MISSION.” I once had a CEO who suddenly wanted us to be on call 24/7, every other week. His argument? Commitment. The importance of "the mission". Becoming a market leader, and so on.

As AlbertaTech says, “we make sparkling water.” I mean, what’s the mission? A can of sparkling water on every table? Spreading the joy of carbonated water to the world? No. You sell sparkling water because you want to make a profit. That kind of speech is just a way to hide the fact that you're trying to cut three full-time positions and make your employees work off-hours to increase margins. Or, like in this case, pay them less than the competition with the same objective.

Sam Altman might actually have a mission, turning us all into robot slaves, but that’s a whole different conversation.

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

#464

Post by vasco »

jack_riminton wrote: post #306
ryandrake wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We shouldn’t even be using the offensive word “poaching.” As an employee, I am not a deer or wild boar owned by a feudal lord by working for his company. And another employer isn’t some thief stealing me away. I have agency and control over who I enter into an employment arrangement with!

Would "bought" be better then? implies slavery!

There's a word for this, it's called being hired.

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

#465

Post by redman25 »

jorvi wrote: post #303
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.

Yup. The book torrenting case is pretty nuts. If I can reproduce the entirety of most books off the top of my head and sell that to people as a service, it's a copyright violation. If AI does it, it's fair use. Pants-on-head idiotic judge.

Sad to say but it would have put US companies at a major disadvantage if they were not allowed to.

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

#466

Post by conartist6 »

keeeba wrote: post #428

Just checking my notes here. This is the same Sam Altman who abandoned OpenAI’s founding mission in favour of profit? No it can’t be

Yeah I can't help but think he is starting to more closely fit the definition for mercenary.

For example, I'm on a mission to build a better code editor for the world. That's cost me 4 years of my life and several hundred thousand dollars.

He wanted one, so he bought it for 3 billion. I think he's doomed to fail there for pretty much the exact reasons he states here...

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

#468

Post by 999900000999 »

lonesword wrote: post #405
mbac32768 wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could Facebook hire away OpenAI people just by matching their comp? Doubtful. Facebook is widely hated and embarrassing to work at. Facebook has to offer significantly more. And if someone at OpenAI says hey Facebook just offered me more money to jump ship, that's when OpenAI says "Sorry to hear, best of luck. Seeya!" In this scenario, you're only underpaid by staying at OpenAI if you have no sense of shame.

> Facebook is widely hated and embarrassing to work at. Not sure it's widely hated (disclaimer: I work there), despite all the bad press. The vast majority of people I meet respond with "oh how cool!" when they hear that someone works for the company that owns Instagram. "Embarassing to work at" - I can count on one hand the number of developers I've met who would refuse to work for Meta out of principle. They are th…

Honestly I’d be happy to work at any FAANG. Early FB in particular was great in terms of keeping up with friends.

I’ve only interviewed with Meta once and failed during a final interview. Aside from online dating and defense I don’t have any moral qualms regarding employment.

My dream in my younger days was to hit 500k tc and retire by 40. Too late now

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

#470

Post by conartist6 »

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.

Yeah apparently being well fed and paid and extensive lly prepared helped? It's like these mercenaries were actually what you would call "professionals"
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