4 ms·

At least four Google AI researchers have joined OpenAI

53 points by izzygonzalez 4y ago

Xcelerate 4y ago
It seems like, at least initially, FB and Google had far superior tech and talent compared to OpenAI. But they were slow to move, and with the recent media hype and the giant support from Microsoft, the best people seem to be jumping ship quickly over there now. I wonder how this will play out.
- krackers 4y ago
  I wonder if the recent Google firings also influenced the decision
- throwawaycxy 4y ago
  I think chatgpt is over hyped like hyperloop. Feels good it must be good is what media belives
  - pertsix 4y ago
    People said the same thing about cloud computing and machine learning. When the cost per compute approached commodity status for both, those opinions quickly changed.
    - sowuttho 4y ago
      People will say whatever the status quo says or they’ll be booted off the island. All that’s been proven is we can apply patterns of discovery well defined by info theorists a century ago to electron state in a machine. We’ve hardly upended immutable law established by physical experiment. Discovery of human ability to capture natures energy in its machines is also not so new; trebuchets and arrows leveraged gravity. Only 14% of the adult public has more than a bachelors. Religion proved it is not that hard to convince the majority in titillating nonsense. Individually none of the specific discoveries that go into SpaceX or Google were invented there. Iterating on well known ideas with well known technology is what humans do. It’s fascinating and interesting. The figurative gibberish about a minority is to serve nation state propaganda about how amazing it is here. But inside the gulag we all defer to the minority needed to sell the illusion.
  - catchnear4321 4y ago
    Have you used it? Or are you just imagining what it is like? If you haven’t used it, remember that word.
sillysaurusx 4y ago
The salaries for these positions are breathtaking. Over a million a year, from what I hear second-hand. Easily worth it for OpenAI. Sam is living up to everything pg always said he was.
- hooloovoo_zoo 4y ago
  How do you measure if it’s worth it?
  - sillysaurusx 4y ago
    It erodes Google's position as the premier research institute. If an ambitious grad wanted to make their mark, they'd either apply to one of Google's institutions (DeepMind, Brain) or be generated by TPUs (if they were literally a grad[ient]). Nowadays, not so much. Researchers are realizing that Google is the place to go if you don't want your research to be incorporated into products, except indirectly (Youtube recommendations, google ad placement, etc). Meanwhile OpenAI is reshaping the world. It's in OpenAI's interest to strike while the iron is hot, as they say. This hype will die down eventually, but displacing 30 million-dollar researchers from Google will have long-term effects that are hard to measure. Plus, PhDs are the resource that can't be replaced. If someone magically vanished OpenAI's PhDs tomorrow, it would be very hard for them to recover. Whereas if someone vanished every remaining Twitter engineer, Musk could probably pull off a recovery by hiring replacements.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - SR2Z 4y ago
      That's a bold assumption. I'd assume that very few people would sign up for a job under a dude who basically just lit $30B on fire and told his employees to sleep in the office - especially if they had other options. It's easier to replace engineers than it is to replace researches, but it's definitely not easy.
    - osmaelo 4y ago
RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y ago
I wonder how much influence the Google layoffs had on the decision making. Back before the layoffs, Google was seen as a very stable and safe job, and any consideration of changing jobs would have to be balanced against that. Now Google has lost the perception, so it may cause people who otherwise would have stayed at Google to go to other companies.
impalallama 4y ago
Not too surprising given the obscene cash injection they just gotten. It be a huge fumble if they didn't try to scoop up all the talent they could ever need.
ralph84 4y ago
It’s a lot easier to envision OpenAI having 100X upside from its current valuation than Google.
- kirillbobyrev 4y ago
  That would be 3 trillion, which is really hard to envision.

53 points by izzygonzalez 4y ago

It seems like, at least initially, FB and Google had far superior tech and talent compared to OpenAI. But they were slow to move, and with the recent media hype and the giant support from Microsoft, the best people seem to be jumping ship quickly over there now. I wonder how this will play out.

krackers 4y ago
I wonder if the recent Google firings also influenced the decision
throwawaycxy 4y ago
I think chatgpt is over hyped like hyperloop. Feels good it must be good is what media belives
- pertsix 4y ago
  People said the same thing about cloud computing and machine learning. When the cost per compute approached commodity status for both, those opinions quickly changed.
  - sowuttho 4y ago
    People will say whatever the status quo says or they’ll be booted off the island. All that’s been proven is we can apply patterns of discovery well defined by info theorists a century ago to electron state in a machine. We’ve hardly upended immutable law established by physical experiment. Discovery of human ability to capture natures energy in its machines is also not so new; trebuchets and arrows leveraged gravity. Only 14% of the adult public has more than a bachelors. Religion proved it is not that hard to convince the majority in titillating nonsense. Individually none of the specific discoveries that go into SpaceX or Google were invented there. Iterating on well known ideas with well known technology is what humans do. It’s fascinating and interesting. The figurative gibberish about a minority is to serve nation state propaganda about how amazing it is here. But inside the gulag we all defer to the minority needed to sell the illusion.
- catchnear4321 4y ago
  Have you used it? Or are you just imagining what it is like? If you haven’t used it, remember that word.

sillysaurusx 4y ago

The salaries for these positions are breathtaking. Over a million a year, from what I hear second-hand. Easily worth it for OpenAI. Sam is living up to everything pg always said he was.

hooloovoo_zoo 4y ago
How do you measure if it’s worth it?
- sillysaurusx 4y ago
  It erodes Google's position as the premier research institute. If an ambitious grad wanted to make their mark, they'd either apply to one of Google's institutions (DeepMind, Brain) or be generated by TPUs (if they were literally a grad[ient]). Nowadays, not so much. Researchers are realizing that Google is the place to go if you don't want your research to be incorporated into products, except indirectly (Youtube recommendations, google ad placement, etc). Meanwhile OpenAI is reshaping the world. It's in OpenAI's interest to strike while the iron is hot, as they say. This hype will die down eventually, but displacing 30 million-dollar researchers from Google will have long-term effects that are hard to measure. Plus, PhDs are the resource that can't be replaced. If someone magically vanished OpenAI's PhDs tomorrow, it would be very hard for them to recover. Whereas if someone vanished every remaining Twitter engineer, Musk could probably pull off a recovery by hiring replacements.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - SR2Z 4y ago
    That's a bold assumption. I'd assume that very few people would sign up for a job under a dude who basically just lit $30B on fire and told his employees to sleep in the office - especially if they had other options. It's easier to replace engineers than it is to replace researches, but it's definitely not easy.
  - osmaelo 4y ago

RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y ago

I wonder how much influence the Google layoffs had on the decision making. Back before the layoffs, Google was seen as a very stable and safe job, and any consideration of changing jobs would have to be balanced against that. Now Google has lost the perception, so it may cause people who otherwise would have stayed at Google to go to other companies.

impalallama 4y ago

Not too surprising given the obscene cash injection they just gotten. It be a huge fumble if they didn't try to scoop up all the talent they could ever need.

ralph84 4y ago

It’s a lot easier to envision OpenAI having 100X upside from its current valuation than Google.

kirillbobyrev 4y ago
That would be 3 trillion, which is really hard to envision.