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OpenAI aims to make its own AI processors – in talks with Abu Dhabi investors

14 points by pg_1234 3y ago

smoldesu 3y ago
> The fund aims to make Abu Dhabi a central hub for AI development, leveraging the country's financial resources and political backing. Raise your hand if you've heard this one before, and then keep your hand raised if you've ever seen it work.
- oldpersonintx 3y ago
  [dead]
- artninja1988 3y ago
  Why not? They have cheap electricity and maybe even the political will to introduce some generous text and data mining exemptions, like Japan and Israel for example. Having legal certainty around Copyright seems like a big deal to me
  - smoldesu 3y ago
    Generally I'm not one to look down upon location-based startups, but the UAE has funded hundreds of such moonshots. They're an importer-state, which isn't a bad thing in a globalized economy but definitely presents it's problems when you want to foster innovation. Today it's cheap to buy OpenAI lunch, but Sam doesn't mince words when he's asking for trillions of dollars. This is a money-pit project that is being solved by throwing money at the problem. Sam Altman is appealing to desperate audiences. There's definitely the willpower to make this happen, but seriously I doubt Abu Dhabi is any better positioned to outsmart Nvidia and TSMC than the rest of the market is. It would shock me if this played out any different from the other attempts to depose the current leaders.
msoad 3y ago
Machine Learning (now called AI) is a rapidly changing landscape but chip making is the exact opposite where projects take almost a decade to finish. How OpenAI or anyone wanting to make a change deals with this? By the time chips are ready maybe GPT4 can be optimized to run on my iPhone...
- dangero 3y ago
  The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.
rchaud 3y ago
> MGX, an AI-focused fund launched by the UAE, is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the national security adviser. Is there going to be a Senate bill to ban Altman-linked businesses? Moscow has enormous influence in the Gulf states, especially as Russian money has flowed into their banks since sanctions began.
tw04 3y ago
So... OpenAI is SUPER concerned about AI's impact on/dangers to humanity. But is also looking to partner with a country known for human rights violations. They definitely aren't maniacally focused on profit...
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
rvz 3y ago
Well they could instead buy Cerebras Systems and have them build the chips and compute OpenAI needs as I said before...[0] Or do both. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35490837 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35490837
jairuhme 3y ago
OpenAI/Sam Altman seem to be trying to do a speed run to becoming unlikeable. Starts off with good intentions of making 'Open' source models available for the benefit of everyone only to change course once they see a market available for the product. There was the debacle of firing him and then re-hiring him a week later, and now he is looking for funding from people known to violate human rights. It is honestly impressive
jauntywundrkind 3y ago
It seemed like Sam Altman was trying to do this himself. That may be some or all of why he got fired from OpenAI in the first place. Doing the chip making thing under OpenAI's auspices reads a bit differently than Sam Altman trying to do both separately. It felt to me like trying to start your own thing while also working for OpenAI would be fraught with impossible to juggle conflicts of interest.

14 points by pg_1234 3y ago

> The fund aims to make Abu Dhabi a central hub for AI development, leveraging the country's financial resources and political backing. Raise your hand if you've heard this one before, and then keep your hand raised if you've ever seen it work.

oldpersonintx 3y ago
[dead]
artninja1988 3y ago
Why not? They have cheap electricity and maybe even the political will to introduce some generous text and data mining exemptions, like Japan and Israel for example. Having legal certainty around Copyright seems like a big deal to me
- smoldesu 3y ago
  Generally I'm not one to look down upon location-based startups, but the UAE has funded hundreds of such moonshots. They're an importer-state, which isn't a bad thing in a globalized economy but definitely presents it's problems when you want to foster innovation. Today it's cheap to buy OpenAI lunch, but Sam doesn't mince words when he's asking for trillions of dollars. This is a money-pit project that is being solved by throwing money at the problem. Sam Altman is appealing to desperate audiences. There's definitely the willpower to make this happen, but seriously I doubt Abu Dhabi is any better positioned to outsmart Nvidia and TSMC than the rest of the market is. It would shock me if this played out any different from the other attempts to depose the current leaders.

msoad 3y ago

Machine Learning (now called AI) is a rapidly changing landscape but chip making is the exact opposite where projects take almost a decade to finish. How OpenAI or anyone wanting to make a change deals with this? By the time chips are ready maybe GPT4 can be optimized to run on my iPhone...

dangero 3y ago
The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.

rchaud 3y ago

> MGX, an AI-focused fund launched by the UAE, is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the national security adviser. Is there going to be a Senate bill to ban Altman-linked businesses? Moscow has enormous influence in the Gulf states, especially as Russian money has flowed into their banks since sanctions began.

tw04 3y ago

So... OpenAI is SUPER concerned about AI's impact on/dangers to humanity. But is also looking to partner with a country known for human rights violations. They definitely aren't maniacally focused on profit...

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

rvz 3y ago

Well they could instead buy Cerebras Systems and have them build the chips and compute OpenAI needs as I said before...[0] Or do both. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35490837 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35490837

jairuhme 3y ago

OpenAI/Sam Altman seem to be trying to do a speed run to becoming unlikeable. Starts off with good intentions of making 'Open' source models available for the benefit of everyone only to change course once they see a market available for the product. There was the debacle of firing him and then re-hiring him a week later, and now he is looking for funding from people known to violate human rights. It is honestly impressive

jauntywundrkind 3y ago

It seemed like Sam Altman was trying to do this himself. That may be some or all of why he got fired from OpenAI in the first place. Doing the chip making thing under OpenAI's auspices reads a bit differently than Sam Altman trying to do both separately. It felt to me like trying to start your own thing while also working for OpenAI would be fraught with impossible to juggle conflicts of interest.