4 ms·
Ask HN: Why do Sam and Greg need Microsoft?
Starting their own company seems much more attractive. Many would love to fund anything they create.
- minimaxir 3y agoGPU compute
- hypoxia87 3y agoI think it comes down to prioritizing speed of execution in the race for AGI, especially in the context of two constrained resources: 1. Compute (H100s are almost impossible to get ahold of, especially in the quantities they'd need to train a competitive model) 2. Data (OpenAI has a very rich set of user data from ChatGPT that is necessary for creating a model like GPT-4; a new venture would lack this data -- the cold start problem -- but Microsoft may* have similarly usable data from non-enterprise Bing Chat) * Someone please feel free to prove me wrong on this - I'm not aware of a MS policy saying they won't use Bing Chat prompts for training, but it could very well exist.
- NarcisMirandes 3y agoIt makes sense. It seems Microsoft is now in a good position
- ChildOfChaos 3y agoI assume the same reason that even OpenAI needs Microsoft - Compute and GPU access. If they started there own company, they would then need to do a deal with someone like Microsoft anyway, so why not just work at the source and then you get priority on that. Plus as a secondary, Microsoft's access to OpenAI's models, I believe they have certain rights, so it would mean they are not starting at zero again. Starting a new company, no matter what the talent they bring, with no compute resources and starting from zero puts them way behind in what is a flat out sprint / race at the big tech companies at this point, not advisable.
- NarcisMirandes 3y agoMicrosoft seems the big winner in all this mess. Be with Microsoft seems a win-win for all parts
- beardyw 3y agoI think MS took on Altmann to avoid him and others drifting away. It isn't what anyone would have wanted.
- NarcisMirandes 3y agoMicrosoft could be in great difficulty and Satya managed it well.
- NarcisMirandes 3y agoCan this way have access to some "intellectual property" through Microsoft? If they go independent, they will have to build many things again.
- aristofun 3y agoIt's the other way around. Why Microsoft needs them. The answer is obvious and resources to make it happen are immense.
- NarcisMirandes 3y agoGood point!
- NarcisMirandes 3y agoMicrosoft needs more Sam than Sam needs Microsoft. For sure. Microsoft can lose a fortune if OpenAI disappears or becomes irrelevant. Sam is the key point. With Sam, Microsoft is safer.
- brudgers 3y agoI think allows them to mostly pick up where they left off and protects them from whatever (if any) outside influences had a hand in creating the events of last week. On top of that they have people at Microsoft in their professional network. And lastly and perhaps most importantly, Microsoft is not a Silicon Valley company [1] and navigates the world by different winds. [1]: Neither is Amazon.