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Musk should have just made another company and then he’d have another 500 billion but he had that mistake and now it’s over. Then again we’ll see how well open
by DoesntMatter22 5mo ago
Musk should have just made another company and then he’d have another 500 billion but he had that mistake and now it’s over. Then again we’ll see how well open ai does over the long term
- granzymes 5mo agoEvidence at trial showed that Musk attempted to pursue AGI at Tesla starting in 2017 before he left the board of OpenAI. He was unsuccessful in that endeavor and later restarted his efforts in xAI after the success of ChatGPT.
- big_toast 5mo agoMusk leaves the board in 2018 I think. And something happens in DX-754 where they've pivoted to AI in SpaceX around then too. I had a lot of trouble telling what "AI" meant in late 2017 at Tesla. --- Sept 1, 2017 DX-669: Funding paused confirmation. Elon is still on the board for a while. DX-707 specifies the board as of Sept 26, 2017, and even suggests adding Shivon, Jared, Sam Teller. Jan 31, 2018 DX-748: Elon is still discussing things with Greg. Elon: "The only paths I can think of are a major expansion of OpenAI and a major expansion of Tesla AI. Perhaps both simultaneously" Feb 3, 2018 DX-754: Sam Teller says Elon "just suggested we use SpaceX email for AI stuff so switching over to that" Feb 4, 2018 DX-755: Sam Teller and Shivon Zilis discuss disabling Openai Feb 20, 2018 DX-770: Elon officially leaves board (first document I see specifying)
- andrei_says_ 5mo agoI sometimes wonder, what does one need a second 500 billion that the first 500 billion is not enough for?
- knicholes 5mo agoGetting to Mars, it would seem.
- hdndjsbbs 5mo agoDoes anyone seriously still believe this? I thought as a society we had realized Musk is simply BSing whatever he feels like until it becomes untenable.
- JumpCrisscross 5mo ago> Does anyone seriously still believe this? I do. It’s not his singular focus. But he continues to personally invest himself in pushing the boundaries of human spacefaring capability. That goal seems more meaningful to him that it does to e.g. Bezos, who seems to have a rocket company to look cool.
- nixon_why69 5mo agoHe slashed tons of basic science funding under DOGE. At one point he was probably sincere but he's been consumed by culture war slop.
- JumpCrisscross 5mo agoSee: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48186106 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48186106
- nixon_why69 5mo agoYeah, but slashing basic science funding isn't a "yes, and", it's more of a "no, but". It goes directly against trying to get to mars.
- awesome_dude 5mo agoI know there's a risk when Musk's name comes up that everyone takes "all against" or "all for" approach - very polarising figure. But I see a lot of that announcement, and the others someone else pointed to as his "aspirational, but ultimately never going to happen" goals - whether he believes the claims are achievable, or not, he says these things to energise people to working/paying for him to try It costs him little to nothing to say, and other people's time, effort, and capital to try (and succeed/fail) Tesla is falling to pieces now, and SpaceX is getting loaded up with completely unrelated projects (xAI) in order to try and make it look saleable (I guess) - it's very difficult to see the Mars announcement as anything but hype.
- robocat 5mo agoWhy did he need a second 250 billion after the first 250 billion? Makes me think of a inverted Zeno's paradox. Why do you need an extra dollar? I can answer for myself: New Zealand plans to tax the shit out of anyone that has more[A]. You need a fukton more than median wealth to be able to protect yourself against your own government. The type of person that enjoys chasing money doesn't stop. [A] via capital gains taxes and wealth taxes. Also one needs an excessive amount more to handle progressive taxation and means testing.
- jamiek88 5mo ago> Why did he need a second 250 billion after the first 250 billion? Because billionaires are mentally unwell.
- rolph 5mo ago"Why did he need a second 250 billion after the first 250 billion" because thats another 250 billion less for a competitor to use against you.
- robocat 5mo agoThat is zero-sum thinking. I'm not sure how one can learn to see the world in a more positive light...
- jfyi 5mo agoI'd argue that if we don't abstract away resource usage behind currency, we are pretty firmly in negative-sum territory and zero-sum is a pretty rose colored glasses way of looking at things that is currently obscuring us from pending horrors. These people aren't satisfied with themselves having more, everyone else must have less too. Not that I am interested in changing your mind on this. I would, though, encourage you to actually say it's "positive-sum" if that's what you believe instead of hinting and then being vague about it for some reason.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- lovich 5mo ago[flagged]
- testplzignore 5mo agoMaybe he trying to collect every waifu from every gacha game. That would get expensive in a hurry.
- lotsofpulp 5mo agoBecause money is just a proxy for power, and the goal is not to have cash, it is to have power. Perhaps via being able to make decisions at various businesses, or being able to travel to a different planet, or being able to influence other people, etc. Could also partly be a curiosity to see what one is capable of, or maybe wanting to be known for helming an organization that accomplishes xyz.
- DoesntMatter22 5mo agoTo build more cool stuff. Would be great if he did neurolink for cancer
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- aeternum 5mo agoInterestingly, during the trial he promised to donate any potential financial winnings to OpenAI's charity. A move that surprisingly didn't get much press.
- the_gastropod 5mo agoElon Musk promises a lot of things that never come to fruition.
- dmschulman 5mo agoHave we colonized Mars yet? Asking for a friend.
- Nevermark 5mo agoI don't understand this thinking at all. I share all the disillusionment and cynicism about Musk, shared here by others. But he has also done amazing things. When someone declares they are going to create a Martian colony, something literally "out of this world", and against all odds makes unbelievable progress for years, including re-usable rockets that return and land vertically, more efficient powerful engines, and fast operational turnarounds, while making orbital travel mundane, hanging a criticism of schedules on the weak hook of "yet" is myopic.
- threethirtytwo 5mo agoPeople don’t look at the complexity of a human character. They take the easiest extreme and run with it. I was on another HN thread where practically everyone was calling Elon a psychopath. If you think objectively Elon is not a psychopath.
- Angostura 5mo agoYou’re right. Sociopath is probably a better fit.
- latexr 5mo agoEvery <unit of currency> not in your pocket is in someone else’s. Greedy narcissists can’t stand that, they need to have it all. They don’t need the extra 500 billion to spend it, they need it so the number goes up. They need to be number one. At everything. Remember when Musk lied about being one of the top players for some difficult video game, then it turned out he was paying someone else to play for him? It’s just an ego thing, which I agree is baffling.
- scottyah 5mo ago[flagged]
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- napkin 5mo agoFool here. What’s the small bit of research I need to do?
- scottyah 5mo agoMoney is created, it's not a fixed sum (as we can tell from inflation) and it's just meant to equate to value added/produced by people. Here's a good starting point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHe0bXAIuk0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHe0bXAIuk0
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- _carbyau_ 5mo agoYeah, but lets practice some empathy. Starting point: money can't buy happiness. So what to do to be happy? Extreme wealth removes most practical goals like buying things or going places and doing things. Not that you can't do them, but it's not a meaningful goal to work towards. They have to create their own meaning, whatever that is. A billionaire trying to create purpose for themselves can be boring, or weird. Which one gets media coverage? Gates Foundation, Zukerberg's fitness craze, MacKenzie Scott's philanthropy, Bezos and Musk's [whateverness] are all just variations on a theme. And like all people, some will be better at it than others. Note though, that they will do what it takes to stay wealthy because what would they be without that?
- vixen99 5mo agoAs a straight answer (for 'one') I'm sure we could think a dozen projects that would ameliorate suffering for countless people before breakfast without trying. However I appreciate that's not your point.
- sjsdaiuasgdia 5mo agoWhich is why we should start using 'greed' as the primary way we talk about this sort of person. "Greediest man in the world Elon Musk..." "Captains of Greed" instead of "Captains of Industry" "Larry Ellison, notable for his legendary greed,"
- this_user 5mo agoThis is not about money for him, this was always about control. When they wouldn't give him complete control over the project, he pulled out and probably expected OAI to fold without his support. But they survived, and he eventually realised that he had made a huge mistake by giving up all of his influence over SOTA AI research.