this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
3 points (100.0% liked)

TechTakes

1397 readers
101 users here now

Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.

For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 month ago

Altman used his multi-stop trip to pitch his plans to progress AI, involving Asia's manufacturing muscle, Middle Eastern money, and U.S. regulators.

Slave labour, oil money and regulatory capture come together to form... whatever the fuck this is.

This really seems like a bad joke. They are setting the world on fire for slightly better chatbots.

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 1 points 1 month ago

Ya gotta imagine that TSMC execs are going to have a "hard-nosed realist" vibe compared to the average Silicon Valley tech guy.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 1 points 1 month ago

TSMC suit: "And is the seven trillion dollars in the room with us right now?"

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 1 points 1 month ago

This guy's all dip and no chips

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This was the guy that Microsoft saved?

[–] golli@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You mean when the board of directors wanted to fire him? Considering the recent news of OpenAI transitioning towards for profit i think they got what they wanted from keeping him in charge. Seems like something Microsoft would benefit from and if they'd have gotten a different CEO at the time who knows if it had come to this point.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How do you profit of a company that hemorrhages a few billion a year?

Even Amazon had AWS, which was the absurdly profitable core business at the center of a cost bleeding distribution center.

OpenAI is doing nothing to generate economic value.

[–] golli@lemm.ee 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How do you profit of a company that hemorrhages a few billion a year?

While it runs a deficit you don't or at least only through increased valuations, which ofc assume that you'll eventually be able to turn a profit. Will this ever happen for OpenAI, i have no idea, but that is the bet. And for the likes of Microsoft spending a few billions on bets like this isn't that big of a deal, just look at how much Meta burns in their VR department.

Even Amazon had AWS, which was the absurdly profitable core business at the center of a cost bleeding distribution center.

Uber was running a deficit for a long time until it turned profitable. It's pretty normal for many new companies to burn money first before they turn a profit. The biggest cost seems to be training new models constantly, and i assume one hope is that eventually this slows down. Then they need to get operating costs down that where i think they currently roughly break even (?) or maybe run a minor loss, but that seems doable, considering the pace at which hardware is still improving.

OpenAI is doing nothing to generate economic value.

I wouldn't say that it is nothing, but at this very moment it probably doesn't equal the immense amount of resources poured into it. That said, if things improve both in terms of the quality of responses you can get from models as well as reduced costs to run them, then there is definitely huge economic potential.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Will this ever happen for OpenAI, i have no idea, but that is the bet.

More than a bet. It's an engineered outcome, as Microsoft tries to force people into their AI walled garden.

Only question is how many people go along for the ride.

Uber was running a deficit for a long time until it turned profitable.

Uber is a great example of negative externalities, as the average Uber driver doesn't earn money once you depreciate the value of the car being used.

That said, if things improve both in terms of the quality of responses you can get from models as well as reduced costs to run them, then there is definitely huge economic potential.

The line I've seen on AI boils down to this. AI won't meet human economic potential. But it will run cheaper, which means paper growth, which means the investment is "worth it" at an industry level.

But at a macro level? Economy wide? Big Number may go up, but real productivity is going to slide the more AI attempts to replace human labor.