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What the other commenters are forgetting is that this is the same Sam Altman who planned and executed the extraction of Reddit from Condé Nast. This acquisitio
by xgolwks 1y ago
What the other commenters are forgetting is that this is the same Sam Altman who planned and executed the extraction of Reddit from Condé Nast.
This acquisition (and the Windsurf acquisition) are all-stock deals, which have the added benefit of reducing the control the nonprofit entity has over the for profit OpenAI entity.
How do you extract the for profit entity out of the hands of a nonprofit?
- Step 1: you have close friends or partners at a company - with no product, users, or revenue - valued at 6.5billion.
- Step 2: you acquire that entity, valuing it unreasonably high so that the nonprofit’s stake is diluted.
- And now control of OpenAI (the PBC) is in the hands of for profit entities.
- brap 1y agoSam also ran a crypto scam called WorldCoin. Their secret sauce was tricking poor people in Africa.
- moralestapia 1y ago>ran Nope [1]. 1: https://world.org/ https://world.org/
- Gothmog69 1y agoHow did they trick them by giving them free money?
- s_ting765 1y agoFree crypto. There's a difference.
- HenryBemis 1y agoThey are paying 'one worldcoin' (I've read sold about $50) to places that give zero value to their privacy (too difficult to care for privacy when starving to death and the monthly salary is $10). They are targeting poor countries (South America, Africa). Once they have collected 'enough' faces to use on their AI, they could possibly pull the plug or keep it as a social experiment. I was thinking, there is no way Russia or China will allow them to operate in their countries, and (combined) they got 1.5bn people. I can also see them trying that to Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other autocratic ..stan places, where the local dictator would only allow this if they got to use the data for their own nefarious purposes.
- tim333 1y agoI signed up in London. It's coming to the US shortly. You give up very little privacy - you don't even have to give your name. Most people calling it a scam don't know much about it.
- GolfPopper 1y agoYou just give up a little freedom for a little security?
- tim333 1y agoI'm not aware of giving up any freedom. Or getting security. I got about $300 in cash equivalent in their cryptocoins and a tech toy - it's basically a combo app and crypto wallet.
- bigyabai 1y agoTINSTAAFL
- FeepingCreature 1y agoThey don't know how but they know it has to be a scam because it's crypto. That's all the thought that's gone into it.
- latexr 1y agoIt’s not a scam because it’s a cryptocurrency, it’s a scam because it works like one. This has been covered at length by multiple investigative journalists. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/richardnieva/worldcoin-crypto-eyeball-scanning-orb-problems https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/richardnieva/worldcoin-... https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1048981/worldcoin-cryptocurrency-biometrics-web3/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1048981/worldcoi...
- echelon 1y agoGrowing up in a strong Southern Christian / Baptist / Pentecostal household [1], WorldCoin feels like the most "Mark of the Beast" plot I've ever seen. 1990's televangelists like John Hagee and Pat Robertson would be screaming to high heaven about Sam Altman being the antichrist if they were still around. Transacting with your eyeball? Directly out of the Book of Revelations! [1] I took a strong interest in biochemistry in college and I'm no longer religious.
- AStonesThrow 1y ago[flagged]
- travem 1y ago> It's also a hoot to just see LDS missionaries waiving their iPhones around with the Genesis Apple clearly visible. To be fair, the LDS doctrine around the fruit from the Garden of Eden and the fall is quite different from the Catholic understanding, it’s seen as a necessary, even a good thing, in the overall plan.
- AStonesThrow 1y ago> quite different from the Catholic understanding Oh? And what do you believe is the Catholic understanding? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_culpa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_culpa https://www.usccb.org/prayer-worship/liturgical-year/easter/easter-proclamation-exsultet https://www.usccb.org/prayer-worship/liturgical-year/easter/... O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer! To be honest, I would say that these signs placed by Apple Computer were done not out of malice, but by way of warning. To say, "Here Be Dragons!" To counsel those who may be ignorant, there are pitfalls ahead, and be careful, because you could lose your soul to these things, even though they are designed as morally neutral. Computers are a tool, after all. The fruit depicted could just as easily be from the Tree of Life. It's all about how we use those tools.
- 1y ago
- GolfPopper 1y agoRuns, I think. WorldCoin is still around, just re-branded as 'World Network'. I didn't spot the usual leadership bios on a quick search.
- neves 1y agoOne of the most informative posts here. I thought that since Altman's coup the no profit status wouldn't be a problem.
- tgma 1y agoIt's interesting I posted exactly this hypothesis an hour or so ago and immediately got flagged despite not being manifestly offensive or anything. Very suspicious. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44054452 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44054452
- spruce_tips 1y agointeresting, but not surprising
- bloqs 1y agoYeah, that is extremely suspect...
- neves 1y agoLike posting something minimally critical of AWS in its subreddit
- KPGv2 1y agoWho actually did the purchasing, the non-profit or the for-profit? They have similar names (OpenAI Inc vs OpenAI LLC), and the article isn't clear. Did the non-profit buy io using shares of the for-profit that it owns? Or did the for-profit buy io using its own shares?
- catigula 1y agoThat is interesting given that reddit has gone from a cultural powerhouse to something most people talk about shamefully, if at all.
- thunkingdeep 1y agoThe only people I’ve ever known who actually thought Reddit ever really mattered was people in the HN sphere. Anecdata, but still. In terms of value per minute spent, it’s the same tier of slop as TikTok or Instagram, and I think most ordinary people hold that same view.
- askafriend 1y agoYes, TikTok and Instagram...some of the most valuable media, entertainment and communication businesses in history.
- runjake 1y agoI can't tell. Are you countering OP's point or pointing out that slop is a lucrative business?
- askafriend 1y agoLook the reality is yes Instagram and TikTok have extremely problematic incentives built into their products. But they're also remarkably useful, entertaining, and fun products too. Both are true. Do you think multi-billion-user products can exist without "slop"? What do you think the average person wants to consume? The equivalent of salad? Have you met the average person? I think people have fundamental misconceptions of the average person's desire.
- vipshek 1y agoI find this perspective bizarre. Though I'm not happy about it all being centralized, the closest thing we have these days to the very niche phpBB forums of the 2000s is various subreddits focused on very specific topics. Scrolling through the front page is slop, sure, but whenever I'm looking for perspectives on a niche topic, searching for "<topic> reddit" is the first thing I do. And I know many people without any connection to the software industry who feel the same way.
- tiffanyh 1y ago> Sam Altman who planned and executed the extraction of Reddit from Condé Nast Relevant thread where Sam acknowledges the plan. https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the_best_long_con_you_ever_pulled/cszwpgq/?context=99 https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the...
- NicuCalcea 1y ago> Other than that, child's play for me. Such an insufferable response.
- ctkhn 1y agoConner Omalley character stuff
- davidmurphy 1y agowhoa!!
- echelon 1y agoPosted by former CEO Yishan Wong, no less.
- 52-6F-62 1y agoWhat the fuck
- dgfitz 1y agoJust remember, AI is real, next token predictors are a thing of the past. SA doesn’t care about control, this is for the good of all mankind. _vomit face_
- yen223 1y agoAm I the only one who read samaltman's comment as obvious sarcasm?
- 1y ago
- DrBurrito 1y agoMy understanding is that there are two types of stock, and the non profit controls the voting stock majority. This cannot be diluted. All other stock gives a (capped) fraction of the profits. This cannot be diluted by these operations, but the cap also can be a bad deal.
- tgma 1y agoThis is news to me. Do you have any reference for this? FWIW they did a restructuring that got rid of the capped-profit regime very recently.
- DrBurrito 1y agoAh right, the restructuring seems to change some things: From here: https://openai.com/index/evolving-our-structure/ https://openai.com/index/evolving-our-structure/ The nonprofit will continue to control the PBC, and will become a big shareholder in the PBC, in an amount supported by independent financial advisors, giving the nonprofit resources to support programs so AI can benefit many different communities, consistent with the mission. And as the PBC grows, the nonprofit’s resources will grow, so it can do even more. We’re excited to soon get recommendations from our nonprofit commission on how we can help make sure AI benefits everyone—not just a few. Their ideas will focus on how our nonprofit work can support a more democratic AI future, and have real impact in areas like health, education, public services, and scientific discovery. The previous structure is here: https://openai.com/our-structure/ https://openai.com/our-structure/
- tgma 1y agoI don't interpret that paragraph as non-dilutive. It's to say that the parent is just a regular shareholder currently holding the majority and then weasels away with "more resources as valuation growth" which is true in absolute mark-to-market sense, not relative ownership, but I don't think they have free cash to pony up and exercise any first right of refusal even if they have something like that on a pro-forma basis, so unless the non-profit board is adamant on voting against all capital raises and stock-based acquisitions and employee stock (they won't), their ownership share will be diluted.
- M3L0NM4N 1y agoI want to know why a burner account posted this comment. There could be many reasons, some more entertaining than others. Of course the answer could be boring, but do you care to elaborate?
- WorkerBee28474 1y ago> This acquisition (and the Windsurf acquisition) are all-stock deals I'll add that conventional finance wisdom says that you should only buy companies using stock when you believe your stock is overvalued. That way you get more bang for your buck than cash or undervalued stock.
- rodgerd 1y agoMan, I remember the absolute hysteria here over the non-profit trying to reign Altman in. You'd have thought they were murdering babies. I agree with your analysis, but it's hilarious that it's now top-voted, when the sentiment was so negative when the board saw the same thing coming ages ago.
- mrbungie 1y agoAll that YC/VC experience paid off, they're the masters of gutting things from the inside out in the name of growth.