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Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

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Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#61

Post by abhinavk »

bitcharmer wrote: post #42
lannisterstark wrote: post #2

Listen. I was confused when the whole thing was going down. I was more confused when the whole "board wants to backtrack and maybe resign" thing was going down. I got even more confused when Emmett Shear was announced as the CEO. ...but never in a hundred years would I have imagined "haha just join Microsoft" as an actual alternative. I remain, confused.

I am confused why everyone is freaking out about some business person being let go from a tech shop.

The business person is a SV darling. And previously the President of YCombinator.

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#62

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

Presumably Sam and Greg now get to pick up where they left off and keep productizing GPT-4 since Microsoft has the IP and is hosting their own GPT-4 models on Azure, right?

The more interesting thing is whether or not they'll be able to build and release something equivalent to GPT-5, using Microsoft's immense resources, before OpenAI is able to.

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#63

Post by smooc »

karmasimida wrote: post #32
lannisterstark wrote: post #2

Listen. I was confused when the whole thing was going down. I was more confused when the whole "board wants to backtrack and maybe resign" thing was going down. I got even more confused when Emmett Shear was announced as the CEO. ...but never in a hundred years would I have imagined "haha just join Microsoft" as an actual alternative. I remain, confused.

And for the OpenAI employees, they can just switch the badge in a blink second, it almost feel like a no-brainer to many. I think Sam just took the easier route to rebuild OpenAI within MSFT. Now the trouble comes to the SV VCs they now will be furious.

He wasn't the guy who built it, he was the guy who got things funded. Let's see how many of the core OpenAI people join. I.e. the ones that weren't (just) there for the money / post ChatGPT.

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#65

Post by [deleted] »

lannisterstark wrote: post #2

Listen. I was confused when the whole thing was going down. I was more confused when the whole "board wants to backtrack and maybe resign" thing was going down. I got even more confused when Emmett Shear was announced as the CEO. ...but never in a hundred years would I have imagined "haha just join Microsoft" as an actual alternative. I remain, confused.

[deleted]

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#66

Post by paganel »

waihtis wrote: post #8

Anyone else find it strange that startup founders of the magnitude of Sam & Greg would join a gigantic corporation as employees? It sounds very out of line of what you'd expect.

Presumably they’ll both get their C-level positions out of the gate (for that AI entity MS is setting up specially for this) so not just “mere” employees.

But, yeah, kind of confusing, especially for Altman.

He was the kind of guy on the way to become worth $100 billion and more, with enough luck, meaning to be the next Musk or Zuckerberg of AI, but if he chooses to remain inside a behemoth like MS the “most” that he can aspire to is a few hundred millions, maybe a billion or two at the most, but nothing more than that.

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#67

Post by frabcus »

beoberha wrote: post #34
ChatGTP wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What value does Sam bring now? They have all the money they could want. All the connections they’d need. Weird situation for him.

Agreed. Sam isn’t some AI visionary, he’s a startup guy. Unless he’s leading a team that’s going to spin out a new company, I don’t get it.

I guess he'll make the consumer hardware product he's been developing with Jony Ive, and also spin up the chip company he was working on anyway.

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#68

Post by tempusalaria »

aneutron wrote: post #43
tempusalaria wrote: post #27

Sam and Greg obviously haven’t heard that Microsoft Research doesn’t get any GPU access (:

Haven't worked at Microsoft, but usually, when folks up high have their balls at stake, resources and budgets magically start getting approved faster than the Concorde.

More like this is a PR stunt and Sam will launch a startup once the furore dies down

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#69

Post by reducesuffering »

This confirms that Sam and Greg don't belong as heads of a non-profit who's sole objective is to develop AGI for the benefit of all of humanity. Because if your Plan B is to join Microsoft, whose mission is to make profit for shareholders, then your heart wasn't really in it, as that won't achieve your original goal.

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#70

Post by ascorbic »

danwee wrote: post #54
waihtis wrote: post #8

Anyone else find it strange that startup founders of the magnitude of Sam & Greg would join a gigantic corporation as employees? It sounds very out of line of what you'd expect.

What? If anything a startup founder (in general) wants to become a gigantic corporation. The bigger the better.

There's an infinite difference between turning your startup into a giant corporation and getting a job at one.
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