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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

#901

Post by Geee »

Zigurd wrote: post #896
Geee wrote: post #620

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true. Tesla recently released new Model Y [0], and there's a gap in sales because of that transition. The old Model Y was the best selling car of any kind in 2024 globally. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ6e4-1uuGA

It's either "a new car" or the same model that accounts for nearly all Tesla sales making it "best selling" compared to makers with newer cars and a wider selection. So... which?

What? They updated Model Y, which has been the best selling car in 2023 and 2024.

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

#902

Post by apothegm »

Timber-6539 wrote: post #754
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.

Capitalism is bad because Elon won the game. Never mind that Sam Altman is a board member of the same non-profit he is trying to sell to himself for pennies.

Why not both?

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

#903

Post by knowaveragejoe »

stackedinserter wrote: post #868
whamlastxmas wrote: post #741

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s pretty wild to try to claim twitter wasn’t a propaganda machine before musk

You don't understand, it was promotion of _the right things_, it doesn't count as propaganda. /s

The twitter files broke so many people's brains. They revealed essentially nothing of consequence, but it validates those who were already convinced that twitter was "silencing conservative voices".

Of course when we look at any sort of success metrics that actually matter to a twitter personality, the top spots are overwhelmingly conservative pundits, and essentially always have been.

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

#904

Post by latentcall »

paulddraper wrote: post #744
teaearlgraycold wrote: post #728

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need an income and a wealth cap.

Such an idea runs counter to the principles of individual liberty.

Maybe but it would be for the greater good, a concept probably hard for many Americans to understand by design.

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

#905

Post by cloverich »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #841
WheatMillington wrote: post #587

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been hearing about the inevitable decline of Tesla for about 10 years now.

Most of that was from Republican climate change deniers trying to make a culture war out of EVs. Musk switching sides on that seems a good time to re-evaluate who is making the predictions now and why.

There's an entertaining conspiracy theory that Musk isn't actually pro Dem or Repub; instead he simply realized that everyone who would buy an EV on the left already did, and so now by pandering to the right he can tap into a new market.

But to your point, as the child of someone who parrot's right wing talking points, I am looking forward to see whether their remarks on EV's change over the next few years or not.

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

#906

Post by lend000 »

llamaimperative wrote: post #662
lend000 wrote: post #642

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 example…

This is what I saw most recently: [0]. Whether or not it could be vaguely considered to be congressionally authorized (the executive branch has leeway in the execution of said laws) is more or less irrelevant to whether it's wasteful and/or fraudulent, but it looks like those examples were not documented in law anyway.

I imagine it will be thousands and thousands of examples of "small time corruption" with a few million here and a few tens of millions here that in no sane world should be spent. And for some reason, people prefer to hate billionaires that create wealth when instructed by multimillionaires who siphon wealth from taxpayers but happen to own newspapers.

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

You could say the last two about anyone, but to deny that Elon is competent, especially coming from an anonymous internet commenter... okay.

[0] https://x.com/ricwe123/status/1887562751364481290

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

#907

Post by Geee »

roywiggins wrote: post #625
soared wrote: post #614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon did good things. And then it went to his head. Look at almost every tech billionaire today and how many good things they (aren’t) doing. And the argument is moot anyway - he wasted tens of billions on Twitter. If he was doing good things (true scotsman) he would’ve built schools.

Remember when he didn't solve world hunger? https://truthout.org/articles/musk-pledged-6b-to-solve-world...

“If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it,” Musk said.

They didn't come up with a plan, because it's obviously impossible to solve world hunger with $6 billion. If it was possible, why USAID $40 billion annually couldn't do it.

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

#908

Post by DirkH »

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.

Why illegitimate? The Americans voted for him.

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

#909

Post by lend000 »

mjamesaustin wrote: post #751
lend000 wrote: post #642

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If DOGE was serious about finding cost savings, they would start with the biggest budget hog, the one that has never once passed an audit in its entire history – the Pentagon. US "defense" spending is so absurdly overflowing with bloat and waste, it would be like a kid in a candy store. But instead DOGE started with a tiny department controlling ~1% of spending, one which has routinely passed independent audits and a…

> If DOGE was serious about finding cost savings, they would start with the biggest budget hog, the one that has never once passed an audit in its entire history – the Pentagon.

I imagine that's the goal, but we're literally just a few weeks in and a large amount of the DoD is extremely secretive and difficult to access by the elected government (which is concerning enough as it is). From what I understand they are already moving to downsize the FBI, and the more secretive three letter agencies will hopefully follow.

> Preventing the release of existing supplies of medicine and food to literal starving children in third world countries.

This is really your strongest point, but if you look at the US track record abroad, most of that aid is damage control for wars/coups/etc. started directly or indirectly by the US. Most of those people, and certainly US taxpayers, would be better off with no US influence in the long run. Whether that will actually happen under this administration remains to be seen.

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

#910

Post by roywiggins »

Geee wrote: post #907
roywiggins wrote: post #625

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember when he didn't solve world hunger? https://truthout.org/articles/musk-pledged-6b-to-solve-world...

“If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it,” Musk said. They didn't come up with a plan, because it's obviously impossible to solve world hunger with $6 billion. If it was possible, why USAID $40 billion annually couldn't do it.

As far as I can tell, WFP never said they could "solve" world hunger with $6B. They did put together a report about what they could do with $6B, which didn't seem to interest Musk after all.

CNN maybe wrote a bad headline? Doesn't really seem like the sort of thing to pretend to offer and then deny 42M people food aid over, but then I'm not a trillionaire. I don't think he bothered to actually read the story, instead just tweeted after reading a screenshot of a headline. He got mad about something the WFP didn't even say, and then people decided they must have said that because he got mad about it. They didn't!

If he really wanted to know what $6B could do, he could have donated it and found out. It was cheap enough for him to donate $6B to sit in the "foundation" that he personally controls, so it's not like he was hard up for cash.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/26/economy/musk-world-hunger-wfp...

> Correction: An earlier version of this story’s headline incorrectly stated that the director of the UN’s food scarcity organization believes 2% of Elon Musk’s wealth could solve world hunger. He believes it could help solve world hunger.

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