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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

#641

Post by two_in_one »

slg wrote: post #498
shubhamjain wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not claiming how right or wrong the final outcome would be, but owning the technology with a clear "for-profit" objective is definitely a better structure for Microsoft and for Sam Altman as well (considering, his plans for the future). I have no opinion on AI risk. I just think that a super valuable technology under a non-profit objective was simply an untenable structure, regardless of potential threats.

It isn't fear of a sentient AI that enslaves humanity that makes me disappointed with for-profit companies getting a stronger grip on this tech. It is the fear that a greater portion of the value of this technology will go to the stockholders of said companies rather than potentially be shared among a larger percentage of society. Not that I had that much faith in OpenAI, but in general the shift from non-profit to f…

Even if it goes to stockholders it's not lost forever. That's how we got Starship. The question is what they do with it. As for 'sharing', we've seen that. In USSR it ended up with Putin, Lukashenko, turkmenbashi, and so on. In others it's not much better. Europe is slowly falling behind. There should be some balance and culture.

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

#642

Post by Havoc »

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.

I think the employees part is probably wrong here. Can’t imagine they’ll need to act like ones even if they are on paper

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

#643

Post by dimask »

imgabe wrote: post #340
9dev wrote: post #288

I don’t quite buy your Cyberpunk utopia where the Megacorp finally rids us of those pesky ethics qualms (or ”shackles“, as you phrased it.) Microsoft can now proceed without the guidance of a council that actually has humanities interests in mind, not only those of Microsoft shareholders. I don’t know whether all that caution will turn out to have been necessary, but I guess we’re just gleefully heading into whatever…

You might notice that Microsoft shareholders are also part of humanity and destroying humanity would be highly detrimental to Microsoft's profits, so maybe their interests are not as misaligned as you think. I am always bemused by how people assume any corporate interest is automatically a cartoon supervillain who wants to destroy the entire world just because.

They do not want to exterminate humanity or the ecosystem, but rather profit from the controlled destruction of life, as they try to do out of everything.

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

#644

Post by robbywashere_ »

Satya's strategic insight deserves recognition. Certainly, there's a slight risk that Microsoft might fail to yield its substantial investment speculated to be around $10B in OpenAI. However, that's not Satya's principal concern. Rather, his focus is on the next move. Possibly, assemble the most elite AI collective globally, unhindered by the constrictions of a non-profit operating a profit-oriented entity? Offer them a sufficient amount of monetary rewards, and it's likely that a large proportion of OpenAI's workforce would be willing to join the bandwagon led by Sam and Greg. While this process may take some time, the potential payoff could encompass a much larger segment of the future for Microsoft than was previously conceivable through the OpenAI investment.

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

#645

Post by sumitkumar »

In retaliation Ilya/team should just open source everything OpenAI has. The only way to make genAI(GPT the can opener) safe is to make it democratic and available for everyone. Then others can pick it up and make it more efficient. At least MS servers will get a break.

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

#646

Post by imgabe »

rdtsc wrote: post #455
imgabe wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might notice that Microsoft shareholders are also part of humanity and destroying humanity would be highly detrimental to Microsoft's profits, so maybe their interests are not as misaligned as you think. I am always bemused by how people assume any corporate interest is automatically a cartoon supervillain who wants to destroy the entire world just because.

> You might notice that Microsoft shareholders are also part of humanity and destroying humanity would be highly detrimental to Microsoft's profits Will nobody think of the poor shareholders? > I am always bemused by how people assume any corporate interest is automatically a cartoon supervillain. It’s not any more silly than assuming corporate entities with shareholders will somehow necessarily work for the betterme…

> Will nobody think of the poor shareholders?

Do you have a 401k? Index funds? A pension? You’re probably a Microsoft shareholder too.

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

#647

Post by I-M-S »

belter wrote: post #586
upwardbound wrote: post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a misconception that Microsoft has less morals. Their Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Eric Horvitz, was one of the key people behind America's 2022 nuclear weapons policy update which states that we will always maintain a human in the loop for nuclear weapons employment. (i.e., systems like WOPR are now forbidden under US policy.) Here is the full excerpt of the part of the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review whic…

Are you seriously arguing for Microsoft morals...On the basis of a totally logical, from a self-preserving prespective, statement on Nuclear Weapons, from a Scientific Advisor with no involvement on the day to day run of their business? What is next? A statement on Oracle kindness, based on Larry Ellison appreciation of Japanese gardens?

To be fair, corporations as entities have long demonstrated that they are agnostic when it comes to seemingly logical goals such as human self-preservation.

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

#648

Post by andrejguran »

bananapub wrote: post #637
alvis wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leadership - To stay top of the game, you can't just rely on brunch of engineers, but a person/team to pull everything into shape. Seeing how many employees are leaving for sama, you get the sense.

what leadership? what examples of his leadership have been visible to the outside world? as far as I can tell, his entire career was: 1. failed startup 1. YC staff member 1. very creepy cryptocurrency grifter 1. openai ceo where has he demonstrated such enormous value?

the last one in your list

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

#649

Post by neel8986 »

g42gregory wrote: post #185

Wow. This sounds like an amazing coup for Microsoft. They are getting Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, "together with colleagues". With this team, they will be able to rebuild GPT in-house. I fear that with this development, the commercial side of the OpenAI is pretty much gone. Which sounds like what the OpenAI board has intended to do all along. I think this will also spark a big exodus from OpenAI. I am also curious…

This is where other big tech giants need to move. MSFT provides nothing extra which Google/Amazon/Meta can not move. Make it multi platoform and make it more open source.

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

#650

Post by ybob »

nostromo wrote: post #82

This is sorta brilliant. Microsoft has access to almost everything OpenAI does. And now Altman and Brockman will have that access too. Meanwhile, I imagine their tenure at MSFT will be short-lived, because hot-shot startup folks don’t really want to work there. They can stabilize, use OpenAI’s data and models for free, use Microsoft’s GPUs at cost, and start a new company shortly, of which Microsoft will own some lar…

Lets assume the whole structure works, 1-2 years later, Sam becomes the apparent CEO candidate after Satya.
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