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AI Startup School with Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, Sam Altman, Andrej Karpathy
- bananapub 2y agoI think the absolute least one could expect from notionally respectable businesses is to not invite people currently staging coups against the US to their shitty promo days.
- disqard 2y agoMaybe it's a case of: "When people show you who they are, believe them" married to: "Corporations are people" i.e., they are a business, and if you ascribe (even notional) respectability to them, you're being naive.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- abe94 2y agoSam altman and elon at the same conference? I'd wanna come just to see that
- steveBK123 2y agoslappers only I hope
- EnergyAmy 2y ago[flagged]
- fcatalan 2y ago[flagged]
- searke 2y agoWhat about people who aren't interested in autocratic racists who throw out the nazi salute?
- nshunter 2y agoIn this economy?
- steveBK123 2y agoThe level to which VC has debased itself to bend the knee to the orange man is without limit, and we are only days into this administration..
- ramon156 2y agoThis would've been a cool event if they didn't invite elon. He adds no value to this event
- BeetleB 2y agoNor does Satya. He has no expertise on the topic.
- gkoberger 2y agoI'll disagree on this one. The goal here is to pair capital with talent (either via employment or funding), and almost nobody has deployed more capital into AI than Satya.
- cr125rider 2y agoExactly. Fiddling about with AI is one thing, productizing and fully operationalizing AI is a totally different problem and that’s Satya’s whole M.O.
- yellow_lead 2y ago[flagged]
- ImPostingOnHN 2y ago[flagged]
- nshunter 2y ago[flagged]
- dmortin 2y agoHow does he have time for that beside CEO-ing several companies and hacking the government?
- cr125rider 2y agoAnd playing games (poorly) he paid others to boost for him. The guy is such a sham at everything.
- ModernMech 2y agoBeing CEO is as part time gig apparently. Turns out the workers do most of the work, who knew?
- whalesalad 2y agoif you're 18/19 and know how to install kali linux, you might be able to attend this event and leave with a job at the helm of the treasury department
- Amir6 2y agoCare to elaborate?
- whalesalad 2y agoelon has a bunch of young newbs working for him at the treasury department. script kiddies. one of them already resigned because of all his racist tweets[1]. another tweeted something recently asking "are there any LLMs made specifically for parsing things like documents/forms/PDfs/json/html/excel/etc and converting them from one format to another" [2] oh and can't forget about big balls - https://www.newsweek.com/who-big-balls-teen-doge-engineer-edward-coristine-2027698 https://www.newsweek.com/who-big-balls-teen-doge-engineer-ed... - [1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/07/doge_staffer_twitter/ https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/07/doge_staffer_twitter/ - [2] https://x.com/Quaker_Opes/status/1886596488505053618 https://x.com/Quaker_Opes/status/1886596488505053618
- gkoberger 2y agoUgh. No. This ain't it. One thing I always loved at YC was that it always felt like the aspirational version of what the tech industry could be. As big tech became the "bad guys", YC has continued to forge the inspirational path... quietly helping the builders and the makers. Inviting Elon Musk, who is a Nazi sympathizer currently trying to take down the American government, really sucks.
- tmpz22 2y ago> YC was that it always felt like the aspirational version of what the tech industry could be Which YC companies or actions indicated they were a indicator of public good or public progress? Which YC leaders indicated they were actors for good as opposed to merely good actors? Altman? Tan? Ultimately the demographic of HN needs to realize whose interests we’re serving by posting here. If it’s free you are the product.
- gkoberger 2y agoI didn't necessarily say public good or public progress. There's two ways capitalism can go: it's either the ability for anyone to build and create something from nothing, or a small group of people amassing a large portion of the power and wealth. Unfortunately, we see mostly the latter. But YC has always felt like the former to me... if capitalism is going to exist, it's wonderful that anyone can participate. And yes, YC has made billions with this strategy and it's not a charity. But that's what makes it special – they've found a way to make money by enabling and supporting hard working people. That being said, YC does give back. They invests in and help non-profits (https://www.ycombinator.com/nonprofits/ https://www.ycombinator.com/nonprofits/). I did contract work for their first non-profit, Watsi, and YC was incredibly active in helping them (with no hope of any profit in return). And finally, to answer your question about actors for good: pg and jessica are brilliant people who genuinely care. As are most, if not all, of the YC partners.
- phillipcarter 2y agoDrop Elon and it's an interesting event.
- EnergyAmy 2y ago[flagged]
- mongol 2y agoWhat is Musk going to rage about this time?
- steveBK123 2y ago[flagged]
- minimaxir 2y agoHN policy is to not treat YC posts any differently, which I will give them credit for given these particular circumstances.
- steveBK123 2y ago[flagged]
- pvg 2y agoThe 'they' in question are almost certainly users who are flagging this.
- steveBK123 2y ago[flagged]
- pvg 2y agoIf your response to being wrong about something is 'oh, so the answer is more brownshirts', you might want to re-examine the totalizing nature of your Brownshirt Theory of Everything.
- steveBK123 2y agoMy theory is that if someone is such a fan to be inviting Musk to events or vigorously defending him online, in the year 2025.. it's had to ignore his social views... they may in fact be doing it because of his social views.
- pvg 2y agoThe people inviting are not the same people as the people flagging? Like, how does it make sense that all of them are Musk fans? At this rate you might suggest that the people who are commenting here expressing their disapproval are only doing it in order to get the post flagged. Much more straightforward explanation - people who disapprove of this (along with people who have HN Muskery Fatigue) flagged it.
- RestartKernel 2y agoWith Elon being such a politically contentious figure, I'm surprised the organisers are expecting his name to be anything but trouble by June. Then again, if his actions up till now haven't gotten him shunned yet, maybe nothing will.
- hahamrfunnyguy 2y agoMusk has shown he has a real lack of business acumen about most things. He ran Twitter into the ground and is doing the same with Tesla. I have no interest in what he has to say. That of course is leaving aside everything else going on. Y Combinator is really showing an incredible lack of judgement in even thinking this was a good idea. SV bubble I guess?
- dTal 2y agoThis tacit endorsement by YCombinator of the likes of Elon Musk and Sam Altman must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Like Sam Altman's abrupt Face-Heel turn from staunch and eloquent Trump critic into gushing bootlicker [0], it is a shocking wakeup call that Silicon Valley monied interests either lack principles entirely, or else adhere to principles fundamentally at odds with liberal democracy [1]. I found myself hesitating to post this, here on news.ycombinator.com. This forum has always discouraged "politics". But in the final analysis, you cannot separate politics from everything else. The suffering and death that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are currently in the process of expediting[2] is no less real for being "political". And if criticizing YCombinator for endorsing - or at least turning a blind eye to - this death and suffering, is considered "off topic", then this will be my last comment on this platform. [0] https://abcnews.go.com/US/openais-sam-altman-warned-america-trump-now-partnering/story?id=118145337 https://abcnews.go.com/US/openais-sam-altman-warned-america-... [1] This video is currently trending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no [2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/07/donald-trump-elon-musk-usaid-poverty-america https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/07/donald...
- palmotea 2y ago> Like Sam Altman's abrupt Face-Heel turn from staunch and eloquent Trump critic into gushing bootlicker [0], Didn't the OpenAI drama (and the other stories about Altman that came out of that) already make it clear he is not a trustworthy person? > it is a shocking wakeup call that Silicon Valley monied interests either lack principles entirely, or else adhere to principles fundamentally at odds with liberal democracy [1]. I'd take it farther: it's testament to a fundamental terribleness of computer geeks. I remember when people would say we'd make better leaders (and we'd say things like that to ourselves). It turns out our kind is way worse.
- archagon 2y agoIn fairness, most of these Trump lickers are not "computer geeks." They're venture capitalists and businessmen working in tech who pretend to be geeks.
- toomuchtodo 2y agoI suppose it is “venture capital” and not “venture ethics.”
- Ekaros 2y agoOnly idiots expects morals from venture capitalists or those that work in companies funded by venture capital.
- toomuchtodo 2y ago"Character matters." https://x.com/dflieb/status/1851656958371057890 https://x.com/dflieb/status/1851656958371057890 | https://archive.today/1QW1a https://archive.today/1QW1a
- rabid_turtle 2y ago[flagged]
- ImPostingOnHN 2y ago[flagged]
- lostmsu 2y agoNazis or virtue-signalers?
- ImPostingOnHN 2y agothank you for asking between signaling virtue and being a nazi, the former is better
- lostmsu 2y agoevidence? edit: parent edited the comment, was simply "nazis" "better" is an understatement here. I would wage >90% are virtue-signalers, myself included.
- ImPostingOnHN 2y agoyes, everyone signals virtue, nazis included ideally the virtues are good, like opposing naziism, and not bad, like naziism
- hnyoujoke 2y ago[flagged]
- archagon 2y agoMeanwhile: “DOGE chief Musk asks X users if staffer who quit over racist tweets should be rehired” (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/07/elon-musk-doge-racist-treasury-x-staff.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/07/elon-musk-doge-racist-treasu...) This is the guy who said things like: “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.” “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.” “Normalize Indian hate.” “I just want a eugenic immigration policy, is that too much to ask.” Why is YC normalizing what looks a whole lot like neo-nazism with a smug grin?
- steveBK123 2y agoMusk has gone completely mask off, and many in VC land have followed. It's one thing to think the "woke" went too far or argue over some fringe issues.. its another to think any of the above statements are acceptable, make nazi salutes on stage (and then troll tweet about it), etc.
- lostmsu 2y agoHm, do you want to deny anyone with this opinion any opportunity for employment?
- archagon 2y agoMaybe they should go do some of those jobs that immigrants are "stealing from Americans."
- steveBK123 2y agoThey can go work for some private sector racist, not the US government.
- hnyoujoke 2y agoI got a leaked preprint of his talk. He's going to demo how you can use large language models and bot farms to manufacture consent on a media and communication platform you control.
- whalesalad 2y ago
- lawn 2y agoHow very fitting that this story is flagged too.
- ImPostingOnHN 2y agoI didn't flag it because I don't think it's a bad HN submission, even though I think it's a bad idea. Maybe I'm too tolerant of intolerance, though. I could see someone flagging an HN post announcing an event with a nazi headliner.
- johnea 2y agohttps://events.ycombinator.com/ai-sus https://events.ycombinator.com/ai-sus Certainly sus...
- archagon 2y agoDid YC apply pressure on HN to unflag this thread? Mods, can you comment?
- dang 2y agoNo, I did that without talking to or hearing from anyone about it.
- consumer451 2y agoPG: Musk has destroyed his personal brand, everyone here thinks he's a Batman villain. YC: Gimme some of that branding. This is not a response to this moderation decision, just YC in general. What is happening with all my heroes? At least PG is aware of reality.
- archagon 2y agoI hope there's a protest in front of this embarrassment of an event.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- consumer451 2y agoI mean, I kinda get the YC point of view. How do you not invite the most powerful person in the country's history? Everyone appears to be afraid, and mostly rightly so. I guess that's just how it works now.
- archagon 2y agoWhy not indeed? Why not also invite Curtis Yarvin and Steve Bannon? Have some nice talks about how AI can implement oligarchic fascism and further the cause of white supremacy? (Sorry, I mean "eliminate the woke mind virus.")
- 2y ago
- stemlord 2y agoJust when you thought SV couldn't get any more sleazy
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- insane_dreamer 2y agoLive footage of Italian attendees at Elon's AI Startup School https://youtube.com/shorts/zAvaGi7WS9M?si=8td7VYH2Dvh2ZWf7 https://youtube.com/shorts/zAvaGi7WS9M?si=8td7VYH2Dvh2ZWf7
- carstenhag 2y agoVery sad times for YC/HackerNews.