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by dougmwne 949 days ago
Ilya just self-immolated the hottest company of the decade with an 80 billion dollar valuation, all to make a point that he thinks AGI is too close and that safety needs to come first before all else. That’s quite the statement!
2 comments
m_ke 949 days ago
Sounds to me like it wasn't just Ilya, but the whole research and engineering team that was tired of his shit. See: https://www.reddit.com/user/Anxious_Bandicoot126
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dougmwne 948 days ago
Yeah I read that and it really came off like a salty engineer who was tired of being pushed by the exec team to crank out more business value. Sounds like this person’s position is that OpenAI should have been a cozy little research lab where the scientists got to play with their cool toys, not ruthlessly execute on a product vision. Billion dollar business are built out of ego. If you want to work in a lab that can’t ship, head over to Deep Mind (that’s a joke, even Deep Mind needs to ship now).
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woeirua 949 days ago
Yeah… I don’t know. A lot of engineers miss the forest for the trees when it comes to business demands. Very possible that a return to a “safety oriented” culture means that OpenAI fades slowly into obscurity.
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m_ke 948 days ago
A lot of engineers are interested in working on important things, not growing at all cost in hope of a large exit.
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disgruntledphd2 948 days ago
Fundamentally, if revenue is not more than expenses, then the organisation won't last long, relying as it does on the kindness of strangers.
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transcriptase 949 days ago
At this point whenever I see someone concerned about "safety" with respect to AI, I assume it's either someone who wants to:

a) Make sure it's sufficiently neutered as to not say something offensive or incongruent with certain ideologies, make certain topics off-limits

or

b) Scare lawmakers into making it impossible for anyone to catch up to OpenAI et al, so they can reap the benefits of cutting-edge AI while keeping the public placated with incremental improvements to outdated and sufficiently hobbled models

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reducesuffering 948 days ago
Neither apply to myself or thousands, so reevaluate your flawed thinking.
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