4 ms·

buried the lede: > As part of the agreement, Disney will make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI, and receive warrants to purchase additional equity. I

buried the lede: > As part of the agreement, Disney will make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI, and receive warrants to purchase additional equity. I say this with no snark or disdain: Sam has mastered the art of the flywheel. Re licensed ai videos, if anyone wants to see the perspective the C-suites are being sold on, check out this episode of Belloni's The Town, in which they discuss the vision for AI + IP https://overcast.fm/+AA4DU9JreIE https://overcast.fm/+AA4DU9JreIE

ramesh31 10mo ago
>I say this with no snark or disdain: Sam has mastered the art of the flywheel. It's been his entire career. Guy has made billions of dollars from talking.
- irishcoffee 10mo ago
  Yeah, he’s a sociopath
  - nish__ 10mo ago
    He's taking from Disney and Microsoft though so I see no moral issues.
    - DANmode 10mo ago
      Who does Disney and Microsoft get their money from? Groups like this aren’t singular entities.
      - nish__ 10mo ago
        Americans mostly. Both abuse copyright law to profit off of works done by creators/inventors of the past. Neither contribute much to humanity these days.
    - irishcoffee 10mo ago
      What if he’s wrong? He doesn’t care. It could however, be pretty fucking shitty for the US/World economy. He don’t care.
      - nish__ 10mo ago
        What if who's wrong? Sam? If right means turning a profit, he's most certainly wrong. It would be a very stupid investment to give money to him but it turns out there no shortage of dumb money. Can't blame the guy for taking money people are literally throwing at him. If you know anything about the guy he has no interest in business or profit. He just wants to create AGI. Mostly out of curiosity it seems.
  - sidewndr46 10mo ago
    I can't really see how Altman is a sociopath? I think his current vision greatly exceeds the technical capabilities that OpenAI can ever build. OpenAI seems to have produced some genuinely interesting products on the other hand. But they aren't profitable at present and I don't see it happening. Altman talks to the talk of a CEO who is going to build a company that can change the world. It's what investors want to hear. He seems to make as many attempts as possible to actually execute on that. I think most of those plans are unlikely to be as successful as desired. But this isn't Theranos level fraud, where what they are trying to build is obviously impossible.
- 650REDHAIR 10mo ago
  Kept failing upwards after Loopt. Frustratingly impressive.
  - incanus77 10mo ago
    Never forget the double polo.
- zpeti 10mo ago
  Has he made billions? He's obviously done well but I'm not sure he has been able to capture any value from openai except for publicity, and what else does he have? A few $10m from loopt and ycombinator?
  - ramesh31 10mo ago
    >Has he made billions? He's obviously done well but I'm not sure he has been able to capture any value from openai except for publicity, and what else does he have? Forbes has him at $2.2bn, mostly from Reddit and Stripe https://www.forbes.com/profile/sam-altman/ https://www.forbes.com/profile/sam-altman/
- sidewndr46 10mo ago
  Isn't that the case for most ultra-rich CEOs? All of the CEOs of Microsoft apparently started off either building product or helping develop the business into something profitable. But at some point it doesn't really matter if you have the skills to be an individual contributor, a team leader, or even a vice president. The role of CEO mostly is to keep investors happy & secondarily to put the right people in the company together to make things happen.
venturecruelty 10mo ago
Did we forget about Enron? Or are we deliberately retconning it? Many such cases.
- sheeshe 10mo ago
  Lmao your user name. I like the phrase “vulture capital”
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
npollock 10mo ago
Disney said "Our IP is $1B for a 3yr license, or we sue" Altman said "We can pay with equity, but let's frame it as an investment" No cash exchanged
- robots0only 10mo ago
  This is probably very similar to what happened!
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
- redwood 10mo ago
  Disney loves the idea of giving investors an angle to bet on AI
- richard___ 10mo ago
  Disney is actually paying $1B so it makes no sense. OpenAI gets the IP plus $1B.
  - javawizard 10mo ago
    I'm actually curious, how do we know for a fact that this is the case?
    - DANmode 10mo ago
      Could you elaborate? Do you mean to say they’ll never take the payment?
      - deleted 10mo ago
        [deleted]
      - Thrymr 10mo ago
        What are the terms? It is not at all clear from the announcement. "part of this three-year licensing agreement", it _could_ mean the license cost is $1 billion, which Disney in turn invests in OpenAI in return for equity, and they're calling it "investment" (that's what's hypothesized above, but I don't think we know). Disney surely gets something for the license other than the privilege of buying $1 billion in OpenAI stock at their most recent valuation price.
mrandish 10mo ago
> I say this with no snark or disdain Given the context, I think snark and disdain are called for.

ramesh31 10mo ago

>I say this with no snark or disdain: Sam has mastered the art of the flywheel. It's been his entire career. Guy has made billions of dollars from talking.

irishcoffee 10mo ago
Yeah, he’s a sociopath
- nish__ 10mo ago
  He's taking from Disney and Microsoft though so I see no moral issues.
  - DANmode 10mo ago
    Who does Disney and Microsoft get their money from? Groups like this aren’t singular entities.
    - nish__ 10mo ago
      Americans mostly. Both abuse copyright law to profit off of works done by creators/inventors of the past. Neither contribute much to humanity these days.
  - irishcoffee 10mo ago
    What if he’s wrong? He doesn’t care. It could however, be pretty fucking shitty for the US/World economy. He don’t care.
    - nish__ 10mo ago
      What if who's wrong? Sam? If right means turning a profit, he's most certainly wrong. It would be a very stupid investment to give money to him but it turns out there no shortage of dumb money. Can't blame the guy for taking money people are literally throwing at him. If you know anything about the guy he has no interest in business or profit. He just wants to create AGI. Mostly out of curiosity it seems.
- sidewndr46 10mo ago
  I can't really see how Altman is a sociopath? I think his current vision greatly exceeds the technical capabilities that OpenAI can ever build. OpenAI seems to have produced some genuinely interesting products on the other hand. But they aren't profitable at present and I don't see it happening. Altman talks to the talk of a CEO who is going to build a company that can change the world. It's what investors want to hear. He seems to make as many attempts as possible to actually execute on that. I think most of those plans are unlikely to be as successful as desired. But this isn't Theranos level fraud, where what they are trying to build is obviously impossible.
650REDHAIR 10mo ago
Kept failing upwards after Loopt. Frustratingly impressive.
- incanus77 10mo ago
  Never forget the double polo.
zpeti 10mo ago
Has he made billions? He's obviously done well but I'm not sure he has been able to capture any value from openai except for publicity, and what else does he have? A few $10m from loopt and ycombinator?
- ramesh31 10mo ago
  >Has he made billions? He's obviously done well but I'm not sure he has been able to capture any value from openai except for publicity, and what else does he have? Forbes has him at $2.2bn, mostly from Reddit and Stripe https://www.forbes.com/profile/sam-altman/ https://www.forbes.com/profile/sam-altman/
sidewndr46 10mo ago
Isn't that the case for most ultra-rich CEOs? All of the CEOs of Microsoft apparently started off either building product or helping develop the business into something profitable. But at some point it doesn't really matter if you have the skills to be an individual contributor, a team leader, or even a vice president. The role of CEO mostly is to keep investors happy & secondarily to put the right people in the company together to make things happen.

venturecruelty 10mo ago

Did we forget about Enron? Or are we deliberately retconning it? Many such cases.

sheeshe 10mo ago
Lmao your user name. I like the phrase “vulture capital”
deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]

npollock 10mo ago

Disney said "Our IP is $1B for a 3yr license, or we sue" Altman said "We can pay with equity, but let's frame it as an investment" No cash exchanged

robots0only 10mo ago
This is probably very similar to what happened!
deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]
redwood 10mo ago
Disney loves the idea of giving investors an angle to bet on AI
richard___ 10mo ago
Disney is actually paying $1B so it makes no sense. OpenAI gets the IP plus $1B.
- javawizard 10mo ago
  I'm actually curious, how do we know for a fact that this is the case?
  - DANmode 10mo ago
    Could you elaborate? Do you mean to say they’ll never take the payment?
    - deleted 10mo ago
      [deleted]
    - Thrymr 10mo ago
      What are the terms? It is not at all clear from the announcement. "part of this three-year licensing agreement", it _could_ mean the license cost is $1 billion, which Disney in turn invests in OpenAI in return for equity, and they're calling it "investment" (that's what's hypothesized above, but I don't think we know). Disney surely gets something for the license other than the privilege of buying $1 billion in OpenAI stock at their most recent valuation price.

mrandish 10mo ago

> I say this with no snark or disdain Given the context, I think snark and disdain are called for.