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OpenAI Grove
- hollerith 1y agoWhat would be nice is a "grove" I can flee to where I'd be immune to the effects of OpenAI and the other AI labs. Alas, such grove is impossible.
- talkgsm 1y ago[dead]
- minimaxir 1y agoSam clearly misses Y Combinator.
- Insanity 1y agoYeah, my thoughts where along the same line. Seems like they want to be another Ycombinator but more focused on AI. (Although TBF, I guess AI would also get the most traction at Ycombinator these days, given the hype wave).
- moralestapia 1y agoIndeed. Exactly what I read between the lines on this.
- bananapub 1y agoDid we ever find out why it is he doesn’t work there anymore?
- system2 1y agoClearly, dealing with OpenAI doesn't leave any room for fun stuff like YC. Just a hunch.
- reducesuffering 1y agoWas forced to choose between OpenAI and YC by Paul Graham and Jessica. Sama chose OpenAI. https://x.com/paulg/status/1796107666265108940 https://x.com/paulg/status/1796107666265108940
- moc_was_wronged 1y ago[dead]
- dyauspitr 1y agoI randomly saw him being announced as a big deal here on this forum years ago and I remember thinking what has this guy done to deserve this.
- lif 1y agohmm.. wonder what the most accurate Venn diagram for this is?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- Zagreus2142 1y agoCan someone give the counter argument to my initial cynical read of this? That read being: OpenAI has more money than it can invest productively within it's own company and is trying to cast a net to find new product ideas via an incubator? I can't imagine Softbank or Microsoft is happy about their money being funneled into something like this and it implies they have run out of ideas internally. But I think I'm probably being too reflexively cynical
- tern 1y agoIt's possible that a single senior employee just wanted to do this and it doesn't cost that much and their manager was like "sure"
- albingroen 1y agoI really do want this to be the case
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- ozgung 1y agoI don't think it's about money, they don't invest anything. They gather data about "technical talent" working on AI related ideas. They will connect with 15 of these people to see if they can build it together.
- LordDragonfang 1y agoIt seems almost like... an internship program for would-be AI founders? My guess is this is as much about talent acquisition as it is about talent retention. Give the bored, overpaid top talent outside problems to mentor for/collaborate on that will still have strong ties to OpenAI, so they don't have the urge to just quit and start such companies on their own.
- ks2048 1y ago> OpenAI has more money than it can invest productively I don't think there is any money given, except travel costs for first and last week.
- koakuma-chan 1y agoDo you have to be in the US or can they help to get in?
- jtfrench 1y agoThe country selection menu seems to include countries from around the world. It sounds like only the first and last weeks are actually on-site, the rest in async/remote.
- Cheer2171 1y ago> "pre-idea individuals"
- impossiblefork 1y agoI think pre-idea people should just go do a PhD. I think I had ideas when I started. Naïve ideas, but still ideas, but I think having no idea yet is fine.
- MPSimmons 1y agoI caught that too. What's a "pre-idea" individual? Someone who... wants the vague _idea_ of a company?
- spiderice 1y agoNo, before that
- fkyoureadthedoc 1y agoIt's the AI guy version of the blockchain guy who had no idea what it was for or what to do with it, but was very hyped on it
- jsheard 1y agoMove over "idea guys", it's the era of the "guy who hypothetically might have an idea at some point".
- bilbo0s 1y agoI don't know man? To me, it sounded like, "let's find all the idea guys who can't afford a tech founder. Then we'll see which ones have the best ideas, and move forward with those. As a bonus, we'll know exactly where we'd be able to acquihire a product manager for it!"
- babyshake 1y ago
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- woah 1y agoIncredible opportunity for SF Muni to get subsidized with even more full bus wrap ads for AI coding apps that nobody uses
- linhns 1y agoIs it just me seeing this as a talent discovery program?
- bilbo0s 1y agoIt's clearly a talent grab. Where talent = creativity. Most will submit the app with a dime a dozen ideas. (Or, at internet scale, a dime a few hundred thousand I guess?) No need to even consider those guys. But it will be a pyramid. There will likely be 20-30 submissions that are at once, truly novel, and "why didn't I think of that!"-type ideas. Finally, a handful of the submissions will be groundbreaking. Et voilá. Right there you've identified the guys and gals thinking outside the LLM box about LLMs. Or even AI in general.
- AnEro 1y agoLooks like they want to build up and support middle men to do the apps more than them, and act more like a platform or operating system position. Which makes sense giant corporations reporting 95% failed AI projects and the core success cases are specialist companies tuning the platform to a specific problem are successful. Then there are a ton of snake oil AI apps that are over promising under delivering hurting the image of AI's usefulness This is probably purely a pivot in market strategy to profitability to increase token usage, increase consumer/public's trust more than farming ideas for internal projects.
- Terretta 1y ago> act more like a platform As of 19 hours into the post, this is the only comment that explains what's actually behind this sort of program. Precursor thinking from Altman (mentions YC): https://stratechery.com/2025/an-interview-with-openai-ceo-sam-altman-about-building-a-consumer-tech-company/ https://stratechery.com/2025/an-interview-with-openai-ceo-sa... This is how it begins. You make sure you're under the hood of everything. Everyone is "building on" you. You see all the action. While this can be how it ends: https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/19/twitter-officially-bans-third-party-clients-after-cutting-off-prominent-devs/ https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/19/twitter-officially-bans-th... But not always. For an example that ended differently, Amazon opened to third party sellers, on the side, earlier than people might remember, 1999: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazoncom-in-a-bazaar-move/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazoncom-in-a-bazaar-move/ And how that went: https://theconversation.com/amazon-is-no-longer-a-retail-site-for-customers-but-a-service-platform-for-its-sellers-245068 https://theconversation.com/amazon-is-no-longer-a-retail-sit... This is how you put Multivac to work, and profit.
- cantor_S_drug 1y agoThis is like creating filters for Instagram but for AI. I am all for it. Let million flowers bloom.
- scoopdewoop 1y ago[flagged]
- mionhe 1y agoIf capitalists can't solve problems, who do you suggest can?
- diggan 1y agoThink of all the people who solved problems before/outside of typical capitalism. I guess more of those people wouldn't hurt to have right now to counter-balance the shift to hyper-capitalism that is ongoing.
- jryle70 1y agoSuch as? Did any of those achievements lift billions of people out of poverty?
- scoopdewoop 1y agoLabor, FOSS... can you not imagine anything besides wealthy people creating artificial scarcity to force others to work for them? Edit: if you don't think this is true, look at the history of truly any country and see what happens when subsistence farmers and indigenous communities refuse to work for capitalists
- jryle70 1y agoLabor, FOSS, can you be more specific? All FOSS projects operate within capitalism. Do you think Linux would be as successful as it is without the UNIX root, created by Bell Labs, a capitalism darling, or substantial contribution from companies like Intel?
- no_wizard 1y agoThe internet and many adjacent technologies were all created and iterated on inside the DoD and other wings of government research. The world really benefits from well funded institutions doing research and development. Medicine has also largely advanced due in part to this. What’s lost is the recapture. I don’t think governments are typically the best candidate to bring a new technology to marketable applications, but I do think they should be able to force terms of licensure and royalties. Keeping both those costs predictable and flat across industry would drive even more innovation to market. What happens instead is private entities take public research and capture it almost entirely in as few hands as possible. In short, the loss of civic pride and shared responsibility to society has created the nickel and dime you to death capitalism we are seeing in the rise today. Externalization of all costs possible and capture as much profit as possible. No thought to second order effects or how the system that is being dodged to contribute back to gave way for the ability for people to so grossly take advantage of it in the first place
- fi-le 1y agoDid anyone get confirmation that the form got sent? There is no feedback from pressing "submit" for me.
- thornewolf 1y agoSame issue
- jtfrench 1y agoSame
- wokki 1y agosame
- nickphx 1y agoWhy not ask the big bag of words to generate "ideas"?
- bilbo0s 1y agoJust, Devil's Advocate.. but what, exactly, makes you believe this internship program is not an idea generated by the big bag of words?
- vasilzhigilei 1y agoIt looks like application submission isn't functioning.
- yde_java 1y agoThe FAQ items don't expand for me, on Android Vivaldi.
- dvfjsdhgfv 1y agoI first misread it as "OpenAI Grave" where someone would put the list of all discontinued models.
- jgalt212 1y ago"pre-idea individuals" Next up, we're funding prenatal individuals.
- hansmayer 1y agoRight, this corporate linkedin-lingo is getting worse by the day.
- moc_was_wronged 1y ago[dead]
- fy20 1y agoYou joke, but the environment children are raised in is a big indicator of their future 'success'. I'm sure with a 100 question questionnaire and some statistics, companies like KPMG could fairly reliably determine if parents will have 'suitable offspring' for their workforce.
- Lionga 1y agoSell your first born to Scam Altman now!
- andsoitis 1y agoOpenAI appears to lack clear product vision. This feels like a program to see what sticks.
- arcticfox 1y ago"Pre-idea stage" support is wild to me
- stavros 1y agoWe don't invest in ideas, we invest in founders. That's why OpenAI partnered with Y Combinator to bring you investments at the pre-founder stage. We'll invest in your baby even before it's born! Simply accept our $10,000 now, and we'll own 30% of what your child makes in its lifetime. The womb is a hostile environment where the fetus needs to fight for survival, and a baby that actually manages to be born has the kind of can-do attitude and fierce determination and grit we're looking for in a founder.
- fragmede 1y agoCan I bet on which sperm will reach the egg? err, "invest".
- reaperducer 1y agoThis feels like a program to see what sticks. Isn't that how we got (and eventually lost) most Google products?
- andsoitis 1y agoThere’s a difference between having product ideas rooted in compelling hypotheses on the one hand, and random ideas you throw against a wall and see what sticks. I suspect, but could be wrong, that in OpenAI’s case it is because they believed they will reach AGI imminently and then “all problems are solved”, in other words the ultimate product. However, since that isn’t going to happen, they now have to think of more concrete products that are hard to copy and that people are willing to pay for.
- TZubiri 1y ago"it offers pre-idea individuals" wtf If ideas are a dime a dozen, what even is a pre-idea startup
- ALittleLight 1y agoTalented individual(s) who want to do a startup.
- atleastoptimal 1y agoAlmost every parent comment on this is negative. Why is there such an anti-OpenAI bias on a forum run by YCombinator, basically the pseudo-parent of OpenAI? It seems that there is a constant motive to view any decision made by any big AI company on this forum at best with extreme cynicism and at worse virulent hatred. It seems unwise for a forum focused on technology and building the future to be so opposed to the companies doing the most to advance the most rapidly evolving technological domain at the moment.
- Hadriel 1y agoWhy do you assume that a forum run by X needs to or should support X? And why is it unwise - from what metrics do you measure wisdom?
- bitpush 1y ago> Why is there such an anti-OpenAI bias on a forum run by YCombinator, basically the pseudo-parent of OpenAI? Isnt that a good thing? The comments here are not sponsored, nor endorsed by YC.
- atleastoptimal 1y agoI'd expect to see a balance though, at least on the notion that people would be attracted to posting on a YC forum over other forums due to them supporting or having an interest in YC.
- MegaButts 1y agoWhy do you assume there would be a balance? Maybe YC's reputation has just been going downhill for years. Also, OpenAI isn't part of YC. Sam Altman was fired from YC and it's pretty obvious what he learned from that was to cheat harder, not change his behavior.
- tptacek 1y agoSam Altman wasn't fired from YC.
- Imnimo 1y agoIf you are pre-idea today, does OpenAI believe your startup will still be relevant in the face of the AGI progress they forecast to make in the time it takes you to ship?
- IncreasePosts 1y agoI ask questions like that in my head all the time. My metric is once their AI is smart enough to make their website not throw up an error half the time, I'll have to more deeply consider any AGI claims
- Hadriel 1y ago15 ppl in first cohort? Aka dont bother applying.
- 999900000999 1y agoWhat exactly do I need to do to qualify. I'm working on a prototype right now, guess I'll toss my hat in the ring. Fortune favors the bold.
- albert_e 1y ago> pre-idea individuals First time I am hearing this term. It is a euphemism like pre-owned cars (instead of used cars). What does this mean? People who do not yet have any idea? Weird.
- arthurofbabylon 1y agoSadly, yes, a lot of people want to be entrepreneurs for prestige/wealth. In their imagination they skip ahead to a fantastical ending: being rich and respected. I find this disturbing. How can someone be useful to others without an idea of what that even means? How can one provide a novel offering without even caring about it? It's an expression of missing craft and bad taste. These aspirations are reactive, not generated by something beautiful (like kindness, or optimism). Fortunately it is not hopeless; aspiring entrepreneurs can find deeper motivation if they look for it. (I like to give the following advice: it is easier to first be useful to others and become rich than it is to be rich and then become useful to others. This almost certainly requires sufficient empathy and care to have a hypothesis and be "post-idea".)
- mikert89 1y agoEntrepreneurship is the act of creation, a noble activity
- MarcelOlsz 1y agoThe irony of the term entrepreneur is anyone who calls themselves an entrepreneur isn't, and the ones that are, don't.
- seydor 1y agomore of risk taking
- ryukoposting 1y agoHey, "missing craft and bad taste?" Perhaps this hiring technique actually makes sense for OpenAI. From my firsthand observations of the startup world, there are already plenty of pre-idea rich guys having expensive "conferences" where they talk about nothing and feel very good about themselves because of it. That OpenAI feels the need to write a blog about their shiny new cohort of useless trust fund boys is peculiar, but plenty of companies do this sort of thing.
- keeda 1y ago> pre-idea individuals Holy crap, I thought that term existed purely in the realm of satire skits: https://www.tiktok.com/@techroastshow/video/7341240131015445803 https://www.tiktok.com/@techroastshow/video/7341240131015445...
- NickNaraghi 1y agoEveryone at YC should be upset that sama continues to cannibalize the YC value proposition. First funding, then mindshare, and now this.
- cadamsdotcom 1y agoWhatever. AWS gives startups money.
- bambax 1y agoTried a mock application. Got this at the end: > Thank you for your application. We will contact a select group of applicants in the coming weeks. If you are not contacted, we’d love to have you apply for the next cohort. They can't even be bothered to ask ChatGPT to send a "no" email. Incredible.
- willahmad 1y agoI think what they are trying to do is a type of forward deployed engineer, but with no employment. More they train such engineers more profitable for them to spread the word. In 1st cohort, they're probably going to accept extrovert people with active social presence.
- lofaszvanitt 1y agoThere are serious problems if they are lacking ideas while employing some of the supposedly best talent in the industry. Once your idea is out of the bag there is no way for you to control what happens with it.
- terpimost 1y agoNot working form is a shame :)
- mehulashah 1y agoThis smacks so much of a Silicon Valley episode. “Pre-idea individuals” … Sounds like they want people with no opinions. Next we will say stuff like “No thought personas”
- VeejayRampay 1y ago160 comments on this, OpenAI is definitely not the hype anymore