3 ms·

> I suspect they do care about communicating with customers, but it's total chaos and carnage internally. This is my best guess as well, they are rocketing dow

> I suspect they do care about communicating with customers, but it's total chaos and carnage internally. This is my best guess as well, they are rocketing down the interstate at 200mph and just trying to keep the wheels on the car. When you're absolutely killing it I guess making X% more by being better at messaging just isn't worth it since to do that you'd have to take someone off something potentially more critical. Still makes me a little sad though.

vdfs 3y ago
> When you're absolutely killing it Aren't they unprofitable? and have fierce competition from everyone?
- dcow 3y ago
  Whether or not you’re profitable has very little to do with how valuable others think you are. And usually having competitors is something that validates your market.
  - hef19898 3y ago
    The same can be said about food delivery start ups.
  - Tactician_mark 3y ago
    > And usually having competitors is something that validates your market. Don't users validate your market? ChatGPT has plenty of users, so I would think competitors only hurt their value.
    - michaelt 3y ago
      Well, it depends. Clearly, you can be a company like Microsoft where nobody is challenging your dominance in PC operating systems, and you can make huge sums of money. So competitors certainly aren't vital. Or if you've cleverly sewn up a market with patents or trade secrets or a giant first-mover advantage or network effects, and nobody's got any chance of challenging your dominance in your specific market niche - again that could be highly profitable. On the other hand, if you're selling ten-dollar bills for five dollars, you might have millions of satisfied paying customers, but no competitors because nobody else thinks your unit economics make sense. Or if you run a DVD rental store, you might be profitable and have many return customers, but you might not attract competitors because they don't think DVD rental is a growth business. So some people consider a lack of competition an ominous sign.
  - iudqnolq 3y ago
    > And usually having competitors is something that validates your market a whole bunch of AI startups were founded around the same time. surely each can't validate the market for the others and be validated by the others in turn
    - TeMPOraL 3y ago
      The surviving ones can. The same way that multiple species of trees, growing on the same patch of the ground, desperately competing for sunlight, together validate that the soil underneath is fertile.
- tomjen3 3y ago
  Even if they are unprofitable they can get VC money very easily. Plus they make 20 dollars a month from a lot of people.
jprete 3y ago
When dealing with a tech where people have credible reasons to believe it can be enormously harmful on every possible time scale, maybe it would behoove them to not rocket down the interstate at 200mph?
- dcow 3y ago
  Thats not what the analogy means. 200mph refers to funding.
  - edgyquant 3y ago
    No it refers to them moving too fast to send out basic emails for feature updates, per this comment chain.
  - bergen 3y ago
    Then use that funding to hire one PR guy who is 1/4 the expenses of an AI developer?
- tomjen3 3y ago
  There is always going to be people who against any new technology and who makes up reasons to be against it. The best defence is to move so quickly that you are an established part of the business framework by the time these forces can gather, or to go so slowly that nobody takes you as a threat. No startup can go slowly.
  - isx726552 3y ago
    In other words, make your money and ride off into the sunset before anyone can catch on to how much damage you’re doing to society. Otherwise known as the AirBnB playbook.
    - tomjen3 3y ago
      No, successfully navigate past this version of Covid vacine deniers, 5g conspiracists etc. In ten years we will enjoy a higher productivity due to AI and a richer society as a result. We have already seen it with protein folding which AI is amazing at[0]. The only reasonable fear of AI is for some jobs and that China gets their first. [0]: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02083-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02083-2

vdfs 3y ago

> When you're absolutely killing it Aren't they unprofitable? and have fierce competition from everyone?

dcow 3y ago
Whether or not you’re profitable has very little to do with how valuable others think you are. And usually having competitors is something that validates your market.
- hef19898 3y ago
  The same can be said about food delivery start ups.
- Tactician_mark 3y ago
  > And usually having competitors is something that validates your market. Don't users validate your market? ChatGPT has plenty of users, so I would think competitors only hurt their value.
  - michaelt 3y ago
    Well, it depends. Clearly, you can be a company like Microsoft where nobody is challenging your dominance in PC operating systems, and you can make huge sums of money. So competitors certainly aren't vital. Or if you've cleverly sewn up a market with patents or trade secrets or a giant first-mover advantage or network effects, and nobody's got any chance of challenging your dominance in your specific market niche - again that could be highly profitable. On the other hand, if you're selling ten-dollar bills for five dollars, you might have millions of satisfied paying customers, but no competitors because nobody else thinks your unit economics make sense. Or if you run a DVD rental store, you might be profitable and have many return customers, but you might not attract competitors because they don't think DVD rental is a growth business. So some people consider a lack of competition an ominous sign.
- iudqnolq 3y ago
  > And usually having competitors is something that validates your market a whole bunch of AI startups were founded around the same time. surely each can't validate the market for the others and be validated by the others in turn
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    The surviving ones can. The same way that multiple species of trees, growing on the same patch of the ground, desperately competing for sunlight, together validate that the soil underneath is fertile.
tomjen3 3y ago
Even if they are unprofitable they can get VC money very easily. Plus they make 20 dollars a month from a lot of people.

jprete 3y ago

When dealing with a tech where people have credible reasons to believe it can be enormously harmful on every possible time scale, maybe it would behoove them to not rocket down the interstate at 200mph?

dcow 3y ago
Thats not what the analogy means. 200mph refers to funding.
- edgyquant 3y ago
  No it refers to them moving too fast to send out basic emails for feature updates, per this comment chain.
- bergen 3y ago
  Then use that funding to hire one PR guy who is 1/4 the expenses of an AI developer?
tomjen3 3y ago
There is always going to be people who against any new technology and who makes up reasons to be against it. The best defence is to move so quickly that you are an established part of the business framework by the time these forces can gather, or to go so slowly that nobody takes you as a threat. No startup can go slowly.
- isx726552 3y ago
  In other words, make your money and ride off into the sunset before anyone can catch on to how much damage you’re doing to society. Otherwise known as the AirBnB playbook.
  - tomjen3 3y ago
    No, successfully navigate past this version of Covid vacine deniers, 5g conspiracists etc. In ten years we will enjoy a higher productivity due to AI and a richer society as a result. We have already seen it with protein folding which AI is amazing at[0]. The only reasonable fear of AI is for some jobs and that China gets their first. [0]: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02083-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02083-2