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Global Illumination appears to have been working on a browser-based multiplayer Minecraft clone (https://www.biomes.gg/ https://www.biomes.gg/), not anything ex

Global Illumination appears to have been working on a browser-based multiplayer Minecraft clone (https://www.biomes.gg/ https://www.biomes.gg/), not anything explicitly related to AI content generation. Odd acquisition choice unless OpenAI is going to do an unexpected pivot.

uoaei 3y ago
People have been training ML to play Minecraft via text commands for a while. Having access to the guts of a clone makes perfect sense given their past and present projects.
- gaudystead 3y ago
  Just speculating here but... More than just _playing_ a game, I could see OpenAI wanting to go after the 3D assets market by letting players generate levels, items, and perhaps even NPCs, simply by describing them. It might be easier to generate voxel-based assets first though, which would make Minecraft-esque games a logical first target (perhaps just behind 2D games, but I suspect the market isn't as big there).
  - ddmma 3y ago
    I agree, let’s presume that we will expect some more functionality like Text to 3D generated content. CAD is big market
- ShamelessC 3y ago
  Maybe...if they didn't already have direct access to the original via Microsoft.
  - uoaei 3y ago
    That's a good point. Looks like there's more to the story in the announcement.
    - rvnx 3y ago
      "Conspiracy" theory: Couldn't it be the opposite ? Let's imagine, that Microsoft, one of the main investor of OpenAI, wants to get rid of a solid open-source Minecraft clone before it gets popular ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPHEtewFm3M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPHEtewFm3M Not saying it's true, but that's totally reasonable to spend xxM USD if you have to defend your multi-billion game license.
      - edgyquant 3y ago
        I would totally buy this. This way Microsoft doesn’t look bad in an era where big tech is coming under scrutiny for acquisitions.
        mrguyorama 3y ago
        The market is littered with clones of minecraft and has been since before it was even done being made. None of them have even been remotely a threat to Minecraft. Turns out you need way more than just a bunch of blocks.
- 93po 3y ago
  I'd be really curious how this training works. Is it done on a real-time minecraft application, or did they build a custom game engine that mimics minecraft but without any movement delay and without any graphics so the speed of training could be thousands of times faster?
burcs 3y ago
There was that Sims post the other day from a16z as well. Seems like a plausible next area for them to take on. Was it them or someone else who trained their bots on Dota a few years back?
- minimaxir 3y ago
  It was them. https://openai.com/research/openai-five https://openai.com/research/openai-five They've since abandoned all their reinforcement learning projects. (aside from RLHF for training ChatGPT)
  - uoaei 3y ago
    Did they make a public announcement to that effect? Or do you have insider knowledge?
    - minimaxir 3y ago
      A co-founder announced they disbanded their robotics team a couple years ago: https://venturebeat.com/business/openai-disbands-its-robotics-research-team/ https://venturebeat.com/business/openai-disbands-its-robotic... That was the same time they depreciated OpenAI Gym: https://github.com/openai/gym https://github.com/openai/gym
  - burcs 3y ago
    Thanks for the link! That's a shame, I was really impressed with their research in that space.
paxys 3y ago
Their statement is pretty clear about what they see as the value add: > OpenAI has acquired the team at Global Illumination, a company founded by Thomas Dimson, Taylor Gordon, and Joey Flynn. The entire team has joined OpenAI to work on our core products including ChatGPT. Global Illumination is a company that has been leveraging AI to build creative tools, infrastructure, and digital experiences. The team previously designed and built products early on at Instagram and Facebook and have also made significant contributions at YouTube, Google, Pixar, Riot Games, and other notable companies. We’re very excited for the impact they’ll have here at OpenAI. Seems like a very standard acquihire. There's no indication that any of Global Illumination's projects will continue, or that OpenAI will get into the gaming business.
- moralestapia 3y ago
  ??? Sorry, I don't see any of that written there, not "pretty clear" to me.
  - cercatrova 3y ago
    Scroll down.
    - moralestapia 3y ago
      Scroll down to where? It's a 4 line comment.
      - cercatrova 3y ago
        Scroll down on the post, not the comments, and you'll see where the parent pulled their quote from, which you said you "don't see any of that written there," well, it's written there.
        moralestapia 3y ago
        Nonsense. What's the point of the quote, then?
rvnx 3y ago
If it is the people but not the company that were interesting, OpenAI could make an offer to each of the persons working there. So obviously yes it's an odd decision to buy an open-source MMORPG, but there are tons of possibilities. Plenty of times, you can see large companies buying non-sense, or companies at outrageous price (we just don't know the price in the case here). Sometimes even to fire the people behind, and throw away the product. It can be for many reasons: - Either they really have a solid business use which justifies the acquisition or - Perhaps they have a common investor/VC, and that investor is influent enough in OpenAI to "convince" the board to buy the company. or - Some investors give a kickback on the acquisition (I don't think so) or - Microsoft wanted to early kill a competitor to Minecraft. etc. Probably it'll be difficult to know.
peterhunt 3y ago
I worked with these guys a long time ago at FB. Their founder and CEO created The Algorithm at Instagram. Rest of the team is super strong too. Makes a lot of sense for OpenAI to acquire a team at the intersection of AI and consumer products.
- londons_explore 3y ago
  I think they have to decide if they want to be an API provider or a product-maker. Businesses don't tend to do well when they directly compete with their clients. At the very least spin one off into a subsidiary whose affiliation isn't widely known.
  - falcor84 3y ago
    >Businesses don't tend to do well when they directly compete with their clients. True in general, but then we have Amazon.
    - londons_explore 3y ago
      People like Walmart still refuse to let any customer data near AWS.
      - catchnear4321 3y ago
        you wrote people. did you mean corporations? don’t let those darn things trick you into thinking they are people. legally it gets murky, but they aren’t people. it is all just a ploy for emotional connection for the sake of taking advantage of you. like cats.
  - _pdp_ 3y ago
    100% Yep. I like OpenAI but I think their peril will be due to lack of vision more than anything else. Other players are catching up. IMHO they should stick to providing AI infrastructure. That being said, considering Microsoft's investment, the most likely outcome is that OpenAI will move into the consumer business while being the research arm for Azure.
samstave 3y ago
Open AI voxel-based AI dynamic navigable 3d environs.
mugivarra69 3y ago
seems like they gunning for deepmind rl based ideas.
serjester 3y ago
They are devoting enormous resources to studying LLM safety - my assumption is they’re trying to push the limits of what’s possible with autonomous agents before someone else does. If you can build a bot to beat an open world game as complex as Minecraft, you’re pretty close to automating an enormous amount of jobs and potentially doing some destructive stuff. This seems like an aquihire to kickstart that initiative. Full disclosure this is a complete assumption, could just as well be on the whims of Sama. I’m skeptical of the other answers here - OpenAI is perfectly capable of hiring some of the best PM’s in the world without having to buy a company.
- flangola7 3y ago
  Part of Minecraft is gathering resources, building weapons, and out-manoeuvering and killing enemies. Forget jobs, those implications keep me up.
bozhark 3y ago
Roblox for AI
sheepscreek 3y ago
Read somewhere recently about OpenAI bleeding senior talent. Could be in response to that.
- Solvency 3y ago
  Where did you read this, and what was the reasoning?

uoaei 3y ago

People have been training ML to play Minecraft via text commands for a while. Having access to the guts of a clone makes perfect sense given their past and present projects.

gaudystead 3y ago
Just speculating here but... More than just _playing_ a game, I could see OpenAI wanting to go after the 3D assets market by letting players generate levels, items, and perhaps even NPCs, simply by describing them. It might be easier to generate voxel-based assets first though, which would make Minecraft-esque games a logical first target (perhaps just behind 2D games, but I suspect the market isn't as big there).
- ddmma 3y ago
  I agree, let’s presume that we will expect some more functionality like Text to 3D generated content. CAD is big market
ShamelessC 3y ago
Maybe...if they didn't already have direct access to the original via Microsoft.
- uoaei 3y ago
  That's a good point. Looks like there's more to the story in the announcement.
  - rvnx 3y ago
    "Conspiracy" theory: Couldn't it be the opposite ? Let's imagine, that Microsoft, one of the main investor of OpenAI, wants to get rid of a solid open-source Minecraft clone before it gets popular ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPHEtewFm3M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPHEtewFm3M Not saying it's true, but that's totally reasonable to spend xxM USD if you have to defend your multi-billion game license.
    - edgyquant 3y ago
      I would totally buy this. This way Microsoft doesn’t look bad in an era where big tech is coming under scrutiny for acquisitions.
      - mrguyorama 3y ago
        The market is littered with clones of minecraft and has been since before it was even done being made. None of them have even been remotely a threat to Minecraft. Turns out you need way more than just a bunch of blocks.
93po 3y ago
I'd be really curious how this training works. Is it done on a real-time minecraft application, or did they build a custom game engine that mimics minecraft but without any movement delay and without any graphics so the speed of training could be thousands of times faster?

burcs 3y ago

There was that Sims post the other day from a16z as well. Seems like a plausible next area for them to take on. Was it them or someone else who trained their bots on Dota a few years back?

minimaxir 3y ago
It was them. https://openai.com/research/openai-five https://openai.com/research/openai-five They've since abandoned all their reinforcement learning projects. (aside from RLHF for training ChatGPT)
- uoaei 3y ago
  Did they make a public announcement to that effect? Or do you have insider knowledge?
  - minimaxir 3y ago
    A co-founder announced they disbanded their robotics team a couple years ago: https://venturebeat.com/business/openai-disbands-its-robotics-research-team/ https://venturebeat.com/business/openai-disbands-its-robotic... That was the same time they depreciated OpenAI Gym: https://github.com/openai/gym https://github.com/openai/gym
- burcs 3y ago
  Thanks for the link! That's a shame, I was really impressed with their research in that space.

paxys 3y ago

Their statement is pretty clear about what they see as the value add: > OpenAI has acquired the team at Global Illumination, a company founded by Thomas Dimson, Taylor Gordon, and Joey Flynn. The entire team has joined OpenAI to work on our core products including ChatGPT. Global Illumination is a company that has been leveraging AI to build creative tools, infrastructure, and digital experiences. The team previously designed and built products early on at Instagram and Facebook and have also made significant contributions at YouTube, Google, Pixar, Riot Games, and other notable companies. We’re very excited for the impact they’ll have here at OpenAI. Seems like a very standard acquihire. There's no indication that any of Global Illumination's projects will continue, or that OpenAI will get into the gaming business.

moralestapia 3y ago
??? Sorry, I don't see any of that written there, not "pretty clear" to me.
- cercatrova 3y ago
  Scroll down.
  - moralestapia 3y ago
    Scroll down to where? It's a 4 line comment.
    - cercatrova 3y ago
      Scroll down on the post, not the comments, and you'll see where the parent pulled their quote from, which you said you "don't see any of that written there," well, it's written there.
      - moralestapia 3y ago
        Nonsense. What's the point of the quote, then?

rvnx 3y ago

If it is the people but not the company that were interesting, OpenAI could make an offer to each of the persons working there. So obviously yes it's an odd decision to buy an open-source MMORPG, but there are tons of possibilities. Plenty of times, you can see large companies buying non-sense, or companies at outrageous price (we just don't know the price in the case here). Sometimes even to fire the people behind, and throw away the product. It can be for many reasons: - Either they really have a solid business use which justifies the acquisition or - Perhaps they have a common investor/VC, and that investor is influent enough in OpenAI to "convince" the board to buy the company. or - Some investors give a kickback on the acquisition (I don't think so) or - Microsoft wanted to early kill a competitor to Minecraft. etc. Probably it'll be difficult to know.

peterhunt 3y ago

I worked with these guys a long time ago at FB. Their founder and CEO created The Algorithm at Instagram. Rest of the team is super strong too. Makes a lot of sense for OpenAI to acquire a team at the intersection of AI and consumer products.

londons_explore 3y ago
I think they have to decide if they want to be an API provider or a product-maker. Businesses don't tend to do well when they directly compete with their clients. At the very least spin one off into a subsidiary whose affiliation isn't widely known.
- falcor84 3y ago
  >Businesses don't tend to do well when they directly compete with their clients. True in general, but then we have Amazon.
  - londons_explore 3y ago
    People like Walmart still refuse to let any customer data near AWS.
    - catchnear4321 3y ago
      you wrote people. did you mean corporations? don’t let those darn things trick you into thinking they are people. legally it gets murky, but they aren’t people. it is all just a ploy for emotional connection for the sake of taking advantage of you. like cats.
- _pdp_ 3y ago
  100% Yep. I like OpenAI but I think their peril will be due to lack of vision more than anything else. Other players are catching up. IMHO they should stick to providing AI infrastructure. That being said, considering Microsoft's investment, the most likely outcome is that OpenAI will move into the consumer business while being the research arm for Azure.

samstave 3y ago

Open AI voxel-based AI dynamic navigable 3d environs.

mugivarra69 3y ago

seems like they gunning for deepmind rl based ideas.

serjester 3y ago

They are devoting enormous resources to studying LLM safety - my assumption is they’re trying to push the limits of what’s possible with autonomous agents before someone else does. If you can build a bot to beat an open world game as complex as Minecraft, you’re pretty close to automating an enormous amount of jobs and potentially doing some destructive stuff. This seems like an aquihire to kickstart that initiative. Full disclosure this is a complete assumption, could just as well be on the whims of Sama. I’m skeptical of the other answers here - OpenAI is perfectly capable of hiring some of the best PM’s in the world without having to buy a company.

flangola7 3y ago
Part of Minecraft is gathering resources, building weapons, and out-manoeuvering and killing enemies. Forget jobs, those implications keep me up.

bozhark 3y ago

Roblox for AI

sheepscreek 3y ago

Read somewhere recently about OpenAI bleeding senior talent. Could be in response to that.

Solvency 3y ago
Where did you read this, and what was the reasoning?