8 ms·

Sam Altman at the Family, Paris [video]

99 points by malloryerik 10y ago

gamechangr 10y ago
Anyone have good resources on the future of internet security??? I do think it's about to get crazy if (like Sam mentions) individuals use superior AI to attack systems.
- mkagenius 10y ago
  I don't really want to talk about projects when it's not yet finished. But we are gathering[1][2] training data as of now everyday on how a pentester uses a proxy such as mitmproxy by recording keystrokes and marks a API vulnerable. With enough data it will be a matter of choosing an ML model to train on it. For an analogy, its like gathering data for self driving car. 1. https://github.com/mkagenius/mitmproxy/commit/fa706a479aeecf6c3e4eaf8ca71021f972249a41 https://github.com/mkagenius/mitmproxy/commit/fa706a479aeecf... 2. https://github.com/mkagenius/mitmproxy/commit/407f636b4fe1bc3580a269fc71486f1f0a1b852b https://github.com/mkagenius/mitmproxy/commit/407f636b4fe1bc...
gamechangr 10y ago
Surprising to hear Sam say that SV has no advantages. Just because it's nice to tell an international crowd, doesn't make it true.
- 59nadir 10y ago
  While the length of your comment and the lack of real content in it probably makes sense on Twitter, here you have no character limit, so would you mind actually expounding on it? There's no sense in not adding what it is that you actually think.
  - gamechangr 10y ago
    Sure... "lack of real content"....It's hard to say things without it sounding negative. I think many countries have talented engineers, but I will try. When the whole world asks if they can compete with SV, they ask it for a reason. SV is in fact - exceptional. There is no other SV. That is why the world asks "Can we compete?". Can you imagine the reverse? There are no groups of people attending a talk in SV asking "can we compete with Paris?". That doesn't mean that Paris, or any other city, doesn't have smart people at work on great things. I am sure they do. But to imply there are no advantages in SV is a bit hard to believe. After all, the people in the video gathered to hear the SV expert :)
    - 59nadir 10y ago
      When I asked for your real opinion on this I thought it was obvious that I asked what it was that made SV special... Not for you to again state that you think it's special.
      - gamechangr 10y ago
        no - you were not clear at all. No worries :) Maybe this will help. This is Paul Graham (Y combinator) writing "How to be Silicon Valley" http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html
      - vmarsy 10y ago
        not the parent, but I can think of the major research labs originally in SV, now major tech companies, and the big universities such as Stanford with great technical talent. Those are big factors in what makes SV technically strong. There's also many country-related advantages not specific to SV but to the U.S. in general: How easy it is to create your company and work from your garage compared to other countries. This makes SV business friendly The international crowd in SV: People from every continent share and mix their ideas, this usually leads to great results since the people who immigrate to SV for the purpose of entrepreneurship usually all share that great ambition and can bring the best of their home countries cultures and know-how.
      - ericd 10y ago
        There is a critical mass of technical talent, companies, and financing. Those attract more of each to locate there. I say this as someone who wishes that other US cities had a tech scene a quarter as strong as SV.
- caminante 10y ago
  Around ~38m, Altman says SV has (imitable) advantages including ambition and capital.
  - gamechangr 10y ago
    great point - I upvoted you
- bambax 10y ago
  He really didn't say that. He sees two advantages to SV: - American optimism on steroids; people will take you seriously when you say you're going to change the world with [some kind of unproven tech or business model] - availability of capital. He also said talent is evenly distributed the world over, and that over 50% of startups founded by YC come from non-US founders. But that's not the same thing as saying SV has no advantages.
horsecaptin 10y ago
Must be nice to not have to do things that you find boring. I don't think most founders are in that position. I know founders who try to be in that position by unloading the boring tasks to other people. If it is boring for you, chances are pretty good that it is boring for someone else (unless it's their chosen profession). Of course, it's a great way to gauge power - delegate something that you think is boring to see if someone will just do it without complaining. If they do it, great! You're more powerful than they are. They'll also resent you and stab you in the back when they get a chance.
- johnomarkid 10y ago
  Most founders aren't in that position, and Sama said that. Startups are mostly about doing the same thing over and over.
- educar 10y ago
  You are thinking CEO and not founder
- erichurkman 10y ago
  Delegate the fun work. Delegate the stuff _you_ want to do. It's harder than it sounds.
dorianm 10y ago
Anybody knows if there is a transcript?
- snorrah 10y ago
  I'm sure it'll get delegated to someone soon! :)
_kyran 10y ago
This was a really refreshing event to attend and the open Q & A resulted in a lot of different questions than were typically seem to get asked when a talk only has a chance for a few questions at the end. On a related note, can someone explain France's obsession with chatbots to me?
- pinouchon 10y ago
  I wonder the same. My best guess is that it's because of the movie Her... Although, if I recall correctly, Rus Salakhutdinov said in a recent talk at the Simon's Institute that chatbots are nowhere near ready. (https://simons.berkeley.edu/talks/russ-salakhutdinov-2017-3-29 https://simons.berkeley.edu/talks/russ-salakhutdinov-2017-3-...)
orthoganol 10y ago
I appreciate his comments about SV being special because it's actually acceptable to be ambitious, you're allowed to be someone who in most circles would be considered tedious because you only think and talk about your serious projects, probably sometimes met with yawns and "isn't that nice." SV is special in this regards. I'm now realizing that's one of the main reasons I'll probably never move back home. Family, old friends, the culture of other cities will, in reality, put a bunch of shitty social pressure on you unless you're already rich and successful. As a side note, I still bet most of this forum is against this ambitious personality, affirming at the end of the day that "there is more to life than your projects, go out and live, meet someone, fill out your social schedule, etc." That's certainly all wonderful, but it's the same social fabric that exists everywhere that's not Silicon Valley. Sam put his finger on something that is uniquely SV, and I think it's something to protect and cherish. As another side note, I think it's kind of a shame SV is migrating to SF, because SF doesn't afford that protection. There are locals everywhere who despise the ambitious entrepreneur techie type. It's a bit of a struggle in subtle and sometimes unsubtle ways. It's obviously a face of the real world with class tension undertones and what not, but outside of maybe a few bubbles in the city which seem to me to all be in SoMa, it's just not a great environment if you are one of these ambitious personalities IMO. That and there are no late night hacker friendly cafes... why?
- eiliant 10y ago
  Don't agree at all, I find the same attitude in many major cities in the world ex. Sao Paulo, Shanghai, NYC, Tokyo and others - it also strongly depends on who you talk to.
  - orthoganol 10y ago
    Yeah I've lived in a lot of places and I could see NYC (and I could see Hong Kong too; most definitely not Tokyo, nor Shanghai nor Sao Paulo unless you're just talking about wealthy neighborhood ex-pat communities). I think it's an env that's hard to find, at its scale anyways.
    - 10y ago
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
bambax 10y ago
Regarding universal basic income, Sam says we need to study what happens when people have no jobs: > no matter how much people complain about their jobs, they like having somewhere to go everyday, they like having colleagues, like having a sense of mission in their lives (As an aside, this statement, oft repeated, always struck me as weird because the one thing I've always not wanted to do was "having somewhere to go everyday".) But there are a lot of people who don't have a job, have revenue, and seem extremely happy and fulfilled: the retirees. In developed countries people retire around 60, and then go on to live 25 more years on average [1]. The least we could do if we want to study what happens when people have no jobs, would be to study them? [1] http://www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/population-ageing-data/life-expectancy-at-60/ http://www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/population-ageing-dat...
- paganel 10y ago
  > they like having colleagues Even though there's nothing stopping me from telecommuting instead of going to the office almost every day the thought of being alone in the house almost all day, 5 days per week, working, scares the s*it out of me. Having someone to whom you can talk during coffee breaks or whom you can see just in front of you while you're working is extremely valuable for my mental well-being. And no, SO and family don't count, I don't like mixing work with private life. We are social beings.
  - borplk 10y ago
    I'm 100% the opposite. Have been working alone from home and couldn't be happier. I don't want to chit chat or have anyone in front of me.
- louithethrid 10y ago
  To be honest retirees make for a bad example. They have unpaid jobs, usually engaging with other retirees in a hobby, a community service or endless doctor visits. And those who dont - die really fast from bad lifestyle choices resulting from doing nothing. So bad example.
  - 10y ago
wuschel 10y ago
The Family & Co. is a friendly bunch. Like other actors in Paris, they make a good contribution to the ecosystem. Nice to see them get this kind of attention.
peterwwillis 10y ago
"I think repetitive work jobs will be replaced by machines in 10 years" OK, George Jetson, make sure and let me know when all the repetitive work in the world is replaced by an algorithm, because I don't want to miss it. Also, he talks about the idea of a single corporation controlling the "infinite intelligence" of AI - buddy, they won't, the government will, and another government will go to war with our government for it, and it'll start WWIII. So I really wouldn't worry about who owns AI in the future. More like, invest in SpaceX to catch the first pod to Mars.
- tim333 10y ago
  He said repetitive jobs will be done better by machines in the next 10 years. Which is slightly different to your quote.
  - personlurking 10y ago
    I think it was, to paraphrase, "the repetetive part of jobs", which is, according to him, "75-80% of what most of us do". Just a slight distinction, between all jobs, "repetitive jobs" and what I mention, "repetitive part of jobs". Interesting to compare this idea with last week's Ask HN (How much of your time at work do you spend not working?) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14082599 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14082599
thesmallestcat 10y ago
You're literally a Rails developer, so I think parent nailed it.
- dang 10y ago
  That crosses into personal attack. Please don't do that here. We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14129541 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14129541 and marked it off-topic.
s3nnyy 10y ago
Sam refers to the advances in ML in the last two years that will truly change jobs / work and everything. Which particular advancement in AI / ML is he referring to?

99 points by malloryerik 10y ago

Anyone have good resources on the future of internet security??? I do think it's about to get crazy if (like Sam mentions) individuals use superior AI to attack systems.

mkagenius 10y ago
I don't really want to talk about projects when it's not yet finished. But we are gathering[1][2] training data as of now everyday on how a pentester uses a proxy such as mitmproxy by recording keystrokes and marks a API vulnerable. With enough data it will be a matter of choosing an ML model to train on it. For an analogy, its like gathering data for self driving car. 1. https://github.com/mkagenius/mitmproxy/commit/fa706a479aeecf6c3e4eaf8ca71021f972249a41 https://github.com/mkagenius/mitmproxy/commit/fa706a479aeecf... 2. https://github.com/mkagenius/mitmproxy/commit/407f636b4fe1bc3580a269fc71486f1f0a1b852b https://github.com/mkagenius/mitmproxy/commit/407f636b4fe1bc...

gamechangr 10y ago

Surprising to hear Sam say that SV has no advantages. Just because it's nice to tell an international crowd, doesn't make it true.

59nadir 10y ago
While the length of your comment and the lack of real content in it probably makes sense on Twitter, here you have no character limit, so would you mind actually expounding on it? There's no sense in not adding what it is that you actually think.
- gamechangr 10y ago
  Sure... "lack of real content"....It's hard to say things without it sounding negative. I think many countries have talented engineers, but I will try. When the whole world asks if they can compete with SV, they ask it for a reason. SV is in fact - exceptional. There is no other SV. That is why the world asks "Can we compete?". Can you imagine the reverse? There are no groups of people attending a talk in SV asking "can we compete with Paris?". That doesn't mean that Paris, or any other city, doesn't have smart people at work on great things. I am sure they do. But to imply there are no advantages in SV is a bit hard to believe. After all, the people in the video gathered to hear the SV expert :)
  - 59nadir 10y ago
    When I asked for your real opinion on this I thought it was obvious that I asked what it was that made SV special... Not for you to again state that you think it's special.
    - gamechangr 10y ago
      no - you were not clear at all. No worries :) Maybe this will help. This is Paul Graham (Y combinator) writing "How to be Silicon Valley" http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html
    - vmarsy 10y ago
      not the parent, but I can think of the major research labs originally in SV, now major tech companies, and the big universities such as Stanford with great technical talent. Those are big factors in what makes SV technically strong. There's also many country-related advantages not specific to SV but to the U.S. in general: How easy it is to create your company and work from your garage compared to other countries. This makes SV business friendly The international crowd in SV: People from every continent share and mix their ideas, this usually leads to great results since the people who immigrate to SV for the purpose of entrepreneurship usually all share that great ambition and can bring the best of their home countries cultures and know-how.
    - ericd 10y ago
      There is a critical mass of technical talent, companies, and financing. Those attract more of each to locate there. I say this as someone who wishes that other US cities had a tech scene a quarter as strong as SV.
caminante 10y ago
Around ~38m, Altman says SV has (imitable) advantages including ambition and capital.
- gamechangr 10y ago
  great point - I upvoted you
bambax 10y ago
He really didn't say that. He sees two advantages to SV: - American optimism on steroids; people will take you seriously when you say you're going to change the world with [some kind of unproven tech or business model] - availability of capital. He also said talent is evenly distributed the world over, and that over 50% of startups founded by YC come from non-US founders. But that's not the same thing as saying SV has no advantages.

horsecaptin 10y ago

Must be nice to not have to do things that you find boring. I don't think most founders are in that position. I know founders who try to be in that position by unloading the boring tasks to other people. If it is boring for you, chances are pretty good that it is boring for someone else (unless it's their chosen profession). Of course, it's a great way to gauge power - delegate something that you think is boring to see if someone will just do it without complaining. If they do it, great! You're more powerful than they are. They'll also resent you and stab you in the back when they get a chance.

johnomarkid 10y ago
Most founders aren't in that position, and Sama said that. Startups are mostly about doing the same thing over and over.
educar 10y ago
You are thinking CEO and not founder
erichurkman 10y ago
Delegate the fun work. Delegate the stuff _you_ want to do. It's harder than it sounds.

dorianm 10y ago

Anybody knows if there is a transcript?

snorrah 10y ago
I'm sure it'll get delegated to someone soon! :)

_kyran 10y ago

This was a really refreshing event to attend and the open Q & A resulted in a lot of different questions than were typically seem to get asked when a talk only has a chance for a few questions at the end. On a related note, can someone explain France's obsession with chatbots to me?

pinouchon 10y ago
I wonder the same. My best guess is that it's because of the movie Her... Although, if I recall correctly, Rus Salakhutdinov said in a recent talk at the Simon's Institute that chatbots are nowhere near ready. (https://simons.berkeley.edu/talks/russ-salakhutdinov-2017-3-29 https://simons.berkeley.edu/talks/russ-salakhutdinov-2017-3-...)

orthoganol 10y ago

I appreciate his comments about SV being special because it's actually acceptable to be ambitious, you're allowed to be someone who in most circles would be considered tedious because you only think and talk about your serious projects, probably sometimes met with yawns and "isn't that nice." SV is special in this regards. I'm now realizing that's one of the main reasons I'll probably never move back home. Family, old friends, the culture of other cities will, in reality, put a bunch of shitty social pressure on you unless you're already rich and successful. As a side note, I still bet most of this forum is against this ambitious personality, affirming at the end of the day that "there is more to life than your projects, go out and live, meet someone, fill out your social schedule, etc." That's certainly all wonderful, but it's the same social fabric that exists everywhere that's not Silicon Valley. Sam put his finger on something that is uniquely SV, and I think it's something to protect and cherish. As another side note, I think it's kind of a shame SV is migrating to SF, because SF doesn't afford that protection. There are locals everywhere who despise the ambitious entrepreneur techie type. It's a bit of a struggle in subtle and sometimes unsubtle ways. It's obviously a face of the real world with class tension undertones and what not, but outside of maybe a few bubbles in the city which seem to me to all be in SoMa, it's just not a great environment if you are one of these ambitious personalities IMO. That and there are no late night hacker friendly cafes... why?

eiliant 10y ago
Don't agree at all, I find the same attitude in many major cities in the world ex. Sao Paulo, Shanghai, NYC, Tokyo and others - it also strongly depends on who you talk to.
- orthoganol 10y ago
  Yeah I've lived in a lot of places and I could see NYC (and I could see Hong Kong too; most definitely not Tokyo, nor Shanghai nor Sao Paulo unless you're just talking about wealthy neighborhood ex-pat communities). I think it's an env that's hard to find, at its scale anyways.
  - 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

bambax 10y ago

Regarding universal basic income, Sam says we need to study what happens when people have no jobs: > no matter how much people complain about their jobs, they like having somewhere to go everyday, they like having colleagues, like having a sense of mission in their lives (As an aside, this statement, oft repeated, always struck me as weird because the one thing I've always not wanted to do was "having somewhere to go everyday".) But there are a lot of people who don't have a job, have revenue, and seem extremely happy and fulfilled: the retirees. In developed countries people retire around 60, and then go on to live 25 more years on average [1]. The least we could do if we want to study what happens when people have no jobs, would be to study them? [1] http://www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/population-ageing-data/life-expectancy-at-60/ http://www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/population-ageing-dat...

paganel 10y ago
> they like having colleagues Even though there's nothing stopping me from telecommuting instead of going to the office almost every day the thought of being alone in the house almost all day, 5 days per week, working, scares the s*it out of me. Having someone to whom you can talk during coffee breaks or whom you can see just in front of you while you're working is extremely valuable for my mental well-being. And no, SO and family don't count, I don't like mixing work with private life. We are social beings.
- borplk 10y ago
  I'm 100% the opposite. Have been working alone from home and couldn't be happier. I don't want to chit chat or have anyone in front of me.
louithethrid 10y ago
To be honest retirees make for a bad example. They have unpaid jobs, usually engaging with other retirees in a hobby, a community service or endless doctor visits. And those who dont - die really fast from bad lifestyle choices resulting from doing nothing. So bad example.
- 10y ago

wuschel 10y ago

The Family & Co. is a friendly bunch. Like other actors in Paris, they make a good contribution to the ecosystem. Nice to see them get this kind of attention.

peterwwillis 10y ago

"I think repetitive work jobs will be replaced by machines in 10 years" OK, George Jetson, make sure and let me know when all the repetitive work in the world is replaced by an algorithm, because I don't want to miss it. Also, he talks about the idea of a single corporation controlling the "infinite intelligence" of AI - buddy, they won't, the government will, and another government will go to war with our government for it, and it'll start WWIII. So I really wouldn't worry about who owns AI in the future. More like, invest in SpaceX to catch the first pod to Mars.

tim333 10y ago
He said repetitive jobs will be done better by machines in the next 10 years. Which is slightly different to your quote.
- personlurking 10y ago
  I think it was, to paraphrase, "the repetetive part of jobs", which is, according to him, "75-80% of what most of us do". Just a slight distinction, between all jobs, "repetitive jobs" and what I mention, "repetitive part of jobs". Interesting to compare this idea with last week's Ask HN (How much of your time at work do you spend not working?) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14082599 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14082599

thesmallestcat 10y ago

You're literally a Rails developer, so I think parent nailed it.

dang 10y ago
That crosses into personal attack. Please don't do that here. We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14129541 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14129541 and marked it off-topic.

s3nnyy 10y ago

Sam refers to the advances in ML in the last two years that will truly change jobs / work and everything. Which particular advancement in AI / ML is he referring to?