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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

#761

Post by joshstrange »

I find the glee in this thread quite disturbing. That and the “MS is the winner, OpenAI is so stupid” general tenor.

You all know who you are cheering for right? It seems that profits or potential profits is all that matter here in the end for this community and the high-minded “OpenAI should be ‘Open’” was all bullshit.

I know this comment is going against the grain but I find the HN response to this (and previous responses to Altman’s firing, treating him like a god) to be quite disgusting.

Apple fanboys don’t have anything on the top comments here.

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

#765

Post by dareobasanjo »

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…

The idea that OpenAI people whose focus is building an AGI that can replace humans in every viable human activity will create a more ethical outcome than Microsoft whose focus is using AI to empower workers to do more sounds extremely unlikely.

People have gotten into their heads that researchers are good and corporations are bad in every case which is simply not true. OpenAI's mission is worse for humanity than Microsoft's.

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

#766

Post by suslik »

cornel_io wrote: post #84
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.

They're likely going to be the ones who manage the OpenAI relationship...what better way to fuck the people who fucked them than by becoming the ones who literally control the resources that they need?

OpenAI can also jump ship and get a nice deal with amazon or google. In fact, right now they are ripe for the taking.

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

#767

Post by cyanydeez »

vasco wrote: post #691
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…

I don't know any of these people's intentions but I definitely have an inate distrust of whoever brands themselves as "a council that actually has humanities interests in mind". Can you get any more populist than that?

considering how an AI is built, it's ironic that you're skeptical of popular thinking.

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

#768

Post by jampekka »

stingraycharles wrote: post #702
TerrifiedMouse wrote: post #636

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s a bit tragic that Ilya and company achieved the exact opposite of what they intended apparently, by driving those they attempted to slow down into the arms of people with more money and less morals. Well. If they didn’t fire him, Altman will just continue to run hog wild over their charter. In that sense they lose either way. At least this way, OpenAI can continue to operate independently instead of being Micr…

How will they be able to continue doing their things without money? It seems like people forget that it was the investors’ money that made all this possible in the first place.

Developing new algorithms and methods doesn't necessarily, or even typically, take billions.

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

#770

Post by suslik »

pembrook wrote: post #759
coahn wrote: post #344

It's really telling of US tech culture, how AI hype quickly turned from "Open" and "we're doing it for humanity" into a mega-corp cash grab *show. I understand what money does to principles, but this is comical.

What’s ironic is how backwards people here have the narrative. Not sure you’re fully aware of what happened at OpenAI. The “Open” types, ironically, wanted to keep LLMs hidden away from the public (something something religious AGI hysteria). These are the people who think they know better than you, and that we should centralize control with them for our own safety (see also, communism). The evil profit motive you’re…

"Open"AI indeed was, and is, ironic, but in reality, MS acquisition of Altman and co is not going to change anything for anybody besides a bunch of California socialites. Not sure what sort of democratisation you are referring to, but I can bet my firstborn that whatever product MS develops will be just as open as GPT4.
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