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YC's Biggest Scandals

ycombinator.fyi

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Re: YC's Biggest Scandals

#61

Post by AirMax98 »

danabramov wrote: post #5
williamtrask wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fwiw - i think the design looks good.

I mean mostly the writing. The visual design is fine but the grandiose tone is clearly LLM, as well as attempt to be “data-driven” to an absurd degree. The screaming “DAMAGE” blocks, “body count”, “(EXHIBIT)”, “7.8X MORE SCANDALS PER YEAR”, all of this looks extremely stupid, screams LLM, and undermines the points the authors want to make.

I do agree. The Gary Tan takedown page is equally sensational, kinda for no reason? There’s a lot to rag on with Gary, but this webpage makes it seemed like he killed a guy or something.

Re: YC's Biggest Scandals

#62

Post by bigyabai »

The_Blade wrote: post #45
varenc wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They make a very fast "AI powered" turret shotgun. It automatically selects, aims, and shoots down targets. I imagine this is great for shooting down swarms of small fiber optic or autonomous drones impervious to electronic attacks. But automated weapons like this can easily pivot into uses besides anti-drone. Taking humans out of the loop on deadly kinetic weapons is concerning. But personally, I don't really see an…

is it in a rimworld mod

If it was, I'm pretty sure we could all agree it wouldn't be used against mechanoids.

Re: YC's Biggest Scandals

#63

Post by kranke155 »

Loughla wrote: post #53
tptacek wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... so don't defend against the slaughterbots? (I don't know anything about the company we're discussing here, but this is a weird premise.)

That means 18 year olds will get splattered. I'm not for that. The kids who die in the military are just kids, regardless of their job. They aren't personally responsible for the shit orders they get. The problem is that anything made for defense is almost inherently useful for offense, and the US is not the most trustworthy government right now. It's, sadly, not inconceivable that an automatic turret mounted shotgun…

I don’t understand this whole idea that we are going to not having drone and autonomous weapons. Ukraine is being fought with drones. It’s the first drone war. 300k people have died in the Russian side alone. 1 million casualties.

How do you suggest we stop the lessons from the first major drone war from spreading? With hope? Prayers? The terrifying thing about it is - the US is actually already behind on this technology, China can build 1000x more drones than the whole West.

Re: YC's Biggest Scandals

#65

Post by 2ndorderthought »

bigyabai wrote: post #57
dadrian wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something ironic about vibe-coding an anti-YC site. They're why OpenAI exists!

OpenAI has their own fair share of critiques, I'd be careful lifting them up as a shining example.

Wait you mean the open ai nonprofit company that doesn't offer open models and is now for profit isn't a good example of a trustworthy company? What?

Re: YC's Biggest Scandals

#66

Post by bigyabai »

kranke155 wrote: post #63
Loughla wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That means 18 year olds will get splattered. I'm not for that. The kids who die in the military are just kids, regardless of their job. They aren't personally responsible for the shit orders they get. The problem is that anything made for defense is almost inherently useful for offense, and the US is not the most trustworthy government right now. It's, sadly, not inconceivable that an automatic turret mounted shotgun…

I don’t understand this whole idea that we are going to not having drone and autonomous weapons. Ukraine is being fought with drones. It’s the first drone war. 300k people have died in the Russian side alone. 1 million casualties. How do you suggest we stop the lessons from the first major drone war from spreading? With hope? Prayers? The terrifying thing about it is - the US is actually already behind on this techno…

Many civilians have seen how drones were used in Lebanon and Gaza, and hesitate to trust Western leadership with that type of kill chain.

It's a borderline certainty that 9 Mothers employees will eventually contribute to the death of an innocent protestor or journalist that opposed the state.

Re: YC's Biggest Scandals

#68

Post by notahacker »

tptacek wrote: post #23

YC has funded over 5000 companies, and this page catalogs 39 that failed, many of which, on the sites own terms, are simply business failures, with no additional drama. I don't think the authors of the site realize the case they're actually making here.

it mostly seems to be targeting Garry Tan by suggesting that there are vastly more under his leadership.

But yeah, if you're going to consider startups that just never made enough money as a scandal, then Garry and his predecessors presided over rather a lot more (as would be expected from any accelerator). And if you're not, some harmless AI startup that never made much money or some entity that didn't do anything except sue someone else for their bad behaviour isn't really in the same ballpark as Zenefits or the consumer investment scams YC funded.

Especially if you're going to call this data analysis https://ycombinator.fyi/timeline

I think a FuckedCompany style overview of everything Ycombinator would be fun (and probably not overly flattering to Garry Tan) but I guess that would take more effort.

Re: YC's Biggest Scandals

#69

Post by ianm218 »

delbronski wrote: post #55
ianm218 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean killer drones are absolutely dystopian but they already exist. This critique is like the common Bay Area tactic of pretending homeless don't exist because they are inconvenient. There is tons of offensive capability companies YC has invested in they seem like a more appropriate target. I feel like most people want there to be protection from drone swarms.

Yeah, but the whole thing is still dystopian. If there was a company A planting mind controlling chips in your mind, and company B selling a service to destroy those chips… neither company makes the whole thing less dystopian.

In this situation company B is clearly making the world less dystopian then.

But anyway - the parent comment is upset about YC investing in a defense company that isn’t doing offensive systems because they find the idea that dystopian weapon exist at all uncomfortable. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

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