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Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

reuters.com

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Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#661

Post by ModernMech »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #480
yodsanklai wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "financial terrorist" As a thought experiment, I like to wonder what would be the maximal amount of damage to humanity an extremely wealthy person could do entirely legally. Or if not damage, just trolling. For instance, writing X on the moon or something like that.

As a thought experiment, I like to wonder what would be the maximal amount of damage to humanity an extremely wealthy person could do entirely legally. Ian Fleming explored that idea rather effectively with Hugo Drax in the original Moonraker novel (which doesn't have much besides the name in common with the movie.) The way things are playing out, Drax must have been Musk's childhood hero.

Yup! You guessed it!

https://www.inverse.com/article/32100-elon-musk-favorite-jam...

The person who asked 7 years ago never forgot that and made the same connection as you:

https://www.threads.net/@pixelastronaut/post/DFFJF9GxE7D?xmt...

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#662

Post by llamaimperative »

lend000 wrote: post #642
alpha_squared wrote: post #102

It feels like Musk is single-handedly making a great case for why unlimited accumulation of wealth is a bad idea. It's pretty colorful language, but my mind immediately jumps to "financial terrorist". He's using his enormous amount of wealth and influence as a weapon to bludgeon anyone and anything in his way.

Genuine question: are people genuinely against the work being done by DOGE? I am frequenting both X and HN + other liberal leaning news sources, and it's like the people in the comments are living in different solar systems. I see a post on X with receipts showing millions of dollars of pretty obvious waste and/or corruption, many involving news outlet grants and subscriptions, including names, amounts, etc. Then I s…

USAID was audited by an (actual) independent (actual) auditor in November of 2024.

They recommended a review of leases and to tighten up their employee expense reporting requirements.

You have no reason to believe Elon is either competent, nor independent, nor well-intentioned on any of this.

No, no one is against “a more efficient government.” Obviously. No one is “pro-fraud.” Obviously.

Please post specific examples of fraud that DOGE has surfaced, not just “things that were congressionally approved but I don’t like.”

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#663

Post by prawn »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #251
Hikikomori wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such a child

On one hand, I used to look at these super successful people with a pretty heavy dose of envy. Now I honestly don't, because I find their behavior reprehensible and disgusting, and just so childishly stupid. Granted, I'm fortunate enough that I really don't want for material goods (that's also because I realized I don't need very much), so I might feel differently if I had to slave away at some job I hated. Being a "…

I'm of a similar vintage and perspective to you. Watching people into their 70s and 80s still working tedious political jobs, or outrageously rich people squandering hours on screens and miserable taunting astounds me.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#664

Post by wyre »

FFRefresh wrote: post #453
pcj-github wrote: post #364

The one thing Musk does not have in his drive for total world domination is AI. Don't let him get it. Profoundly dangerous. Watch as he attempts to use the levers of the now illegitimate US government to force the outcome.

He already owns xAI, valued at $45B+.

My instinct says he wants OpenAI so he can turn ChatGPT into another propaganda machine like he did with Twitter.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#665

Post by chrisco255 »

cyberax wrote: post #585
chairhairair wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the background here? How can we know they use GPL licensed code? Was there some leak?

Their infotaiment uses a customized Debian distro. On a Model S you could easily get a shell into it, because they used a freaking SSH with a password-based authentication over Ethernet to connect from the instrument cluster to the computer in the central console. You could sniff the password with a man-in-the-middle attack, if you knew the host key of the instrument cluster. Here's one from my previous Model S: http…

This is a gist created 1 hour ago. No proof of the attack vector. What's the point of posting a private key?

Also, so what if they used Debian? Linux is used on everything. Debian has multiple licenses, it also has BSD3 and others to choose from: https://www.debian.org/legal/licenses/

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#666

Post by gosub100 »

typs wrote: post #78
averageRoyalty wrote: post #34

With first mover advantage disappearing for OpenAI and very good alternatives appearing, one wonders how long they can sustain a multi billion dollar per year loss[0]. The launch of ChatGPT was earth shaking, but what have they done since that impacts or excites the average consumer? Does their revenue even come from the average consumer, or primarily from API users that will lift and shift to a viable competitor? I…

ChatGPT is an extremely successful consumer product. Looking at Search traffic alone indicates they clearly have large brand value. Usage doesn't just depend on just benchmarks for most consumers.

they just need to find some laws to break or some poor people to exploit so they can be like other big SV startups.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#667

Post by Vecr »

tasty_freeze wrote: post #632
stronglikedan wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

really? I'm curious to know what he's failed at. Seems like he's making all the right moves lately.

Some failures: the boring company hasn't done much of anything, other than a very short loop in Las Vegas. Do you know anyone who has bought one of his solar roof systems, and when was the last time anyone mentioned it? The hyperloop idea didn't go anywhere. Twitter is worth about 25% of what he paid for it, though one could argue being in control of it is worth $30B to him personally. He also said he was going to ge…

He bought Twitter and all he got was congress, the senate, and the presidency. Trump's 2020 loss was a wakeup call for him.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#668

Post by spiderfarmer »

rlt wrote: post #659
dustingetz wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

was looking for a musk margin call in 2023, no such luck, now he’s VP and markets are still fake

[flagged]

I’m pretty sure this was a financial take. Musk and his companies didn’t become immune to criticism when he started meddling in US politics. And by any measure, Tesla stock is crazy overvalued.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#669

Post by xnx »

SergeAx wrote: post #652
xnx wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> indicates they clearly have large brand value BlackBerry, Nokia, Yahoo, and MySpace were popular at one point but couldn't keep up.

Yahoo is still website number 7 or 8 in the US.

Interesting. I would not have guessed that. https://www.similarweb.com/top-websites/united-states/

I don't know a good source for MAU numbers, but they would have to be very different with mobile app usage included.

I would guess that OpenAI (possibly as part of Microsoft or another company) will still be in the top 7 AI companies in a few years.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#670

Post by verve_rat »

amazingamazing wrote: post #398
yodsanklai wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My hope is that he'll eventually make some big mistakes that will send him to jail. Or does presidential grace give him total immunity?

presidents can't pardon state crimes

Although... 4D chess move, if a state starts prosecution against Musk, get the DoJ to do it first and then pardon him after the fact.

Double jeopardy would stop the state from continuing with the prosecution, and the pardon means no consequences.

I hate that I consider this an actually possibly.

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