Microsoft is setup to create shareholder value. That's it. Both of them will eventually find it moot to advance tech so a few folks get richer.
What does the word "moot" mean in this context?
Sam is a serial startup (co)founder who has spent additional time at YC -- in the startup world, that kind of talk is so common as to be a stereotype. It's a good way to get people who do care about that kind of stuff to accept equity in a firm that is statistically likely to fail (or, in OpenAI's case, explicitly warns investors that they should not expect profit and treat investments as donations) as compensation when they could earn greater secure compensation from more established firms. It's a great sales pitch, even when there is no truth behind it.
This guy doesn't care about money y'all...
He needs money to do big things and execute. He gets high on making big stuff happen.
So many Altman haters every way I turn. He turned down ownership in a now 90 billion dollar company... The guy is busted up from success and now that's all he digs. Money is for idiots.
Folks need to read the room. Once you hit a couple hundred mil net worth only a fool cares about stacking on more bills. That's just a side affect of tap dancing to work... Jobs was worth what? 2 billion?
Who think satya cares about money... Get real. He wants the most he can get so his foundation when he retires can make big changes and do Bill Gates stuff.
This place is just as bad as reddit sometimes. No offense to anyone in particular. Some of these youngsters need to comment less and read a few more ceo bio's... Or just go watch YouTube interviews from the finance guy... Whatshisname leveraged buyout wizard whitehair with a JD who sits on billions but realized he preferred to be a journalist sometimes before he kicks it.
You think the guy is gonna be a regular c suite exec?
They are going to be a special group with special rules. This is so they can build off the existing code base. Only msft has that openai ip.
If they go to Google or start their own thing it's rewrite or work off someone else's painting. Not to mention building out compute infrastructure.
Big loss of time. Go to msft, get special status, maybe even an exit clause with IP included. Easy win. Was always gonna be msft if not openai negotiated return. I just didn't realize that till satya threw them the offer that worked.
These guys didn't sign up to be cogs. Satya respects them.
He needs money to do big things and execute. He gets high on making big stuff happen."
So what you're saying is he cares about power.
Chief Executive Officer.
They execute. Objectives. Changing stuff. It's addictive. Ask me how I know.
(edit: big shot Wendy's night shift manager. When you roll up at 2am our ice-cream machine was never being cleaned, that'll be 89 cents please. Enjoy your ice-cream sir/ma'am.
You never go back. I changed the world for the better)
The exchange of services and goods in a market is positive-sum.
Gpt4 is included in bing man... Bing creative mode and balanced mode both.
This is widely known. The investment included access to openai technology for integration in msft services.
Its not a traditional arrangement. This is also widely known. Its a complicated investment with a profitability sunset triggering return of equity to the nonprofit. Also included is technology transfer as long as the sunset doesn't trigger.
This is why Ilya felt comfortable to do it. He did many interviews where he explained this.
Basically what you see these days is PR teams together with legal teams acting like individual that hired them. There are exceptions, but they are outliers in say Trump style, not these billionaires. Same, heck even more for politics.
It can be easily transferred into personal or professional relationships. For me at least, this analysis works 100% of the time when for example rest of friends or family struggle hard to understand actions of some individuals. Just point them to their previous actions and see the consistency emerging. This is how you can easily work with various people if you are smart but lack social skills, just observe actions and ignore blah.
People simply don't change, they may reflect change in their environment but thats it. Unless we talk about 2 decades+ since last encounter, but even then it may be just more polished PR.
It's a cliche, but it's true: actions speak louder than words.
You are the things you do, not the things you say you want to be.
go read musks public statements leading up to Twitter purchase.
it's pretty clear they were fired because of profit motives. that's all I hear.
"I am not into money or power man, I just want to be a good person and save the world man"
I just can't believe such simplistic, transparent, bullshit works so consistently as to become standard PR.
The original 2019 deal was described as:
> Microsoft and OpenAI will jointly build new Azure AI supercomputing technologies
> OpenAI will port its services to run on Microsoft Azure, which it will use to create new AI technologies and deliver on the promise of artificial general intelligence
> Microsoft will become OpenAI’s preferred partner for commercializing new AI technologies
The $10 billion deal was probably not making a ton of money for MSFT as it was 75% percent of profits, which are easy to get rid of, until they get 49% of the company.
Can you explain why MSFT would spend $10 B for either of these things if they just got OpenAI’s IP?
As long as you ignore externalities, yes.
I am. In fact the goals of any for-profit company is the profit. If a CEO doesn't align with that goal in mind, they get replaced. That's non-negotiable. A for-profit company without profit is a dead company.
There's nothing wrong with your post! I just need to prune the heaviest subthreads—sorry!
If I have a solar panel factory, and I sell you a panel, so you can make green electricity - isn't that good for you, me AND the planet?
Its obvious that they have to redo less of the stack if the go to msft. At the very least, they already wrote everything to scale with azure.
With respect to IP... My comment was mostly suggesting they could enjoy privaledge to leave msft at some point in the future with IP with them.
How much of the source do they get to avoid rewriting on day 1 at msft? No idea. Could be all of it... But again... At least they already scaled into azure compute architecture and don't have to reinvent the wheel. That's not a small thing.
Not really debating it further. Seems really obvious to me that broadly speaking, for all kinds of reasons, probably access to source inckuded, they will be able to get up to speed substantially faster at msft vs anywhere else.
It's too speculative to be worse discussing in depth. We don't have enough details, but my broader assertion is more or less defensible imo. Others might disagree. Not worth a debate imo.
(edit: 'perpetual license to openai ip short of agi'
Not sure of the details. This is was I see being written.
https://stratechery.com/2023/openais-misalignment-and-micros...'
Its speculative. Others might disagree. I spoke to this in a comment above.
Your skepticsm seems reasonable to me, but I think my broader point is defensible, though I just don't really care to go further with it. Now I'm reading 85 percent of them have revolted lol.
Maybe we meet again in the other post.
(edit: 'perpetual license to openai ip short of agi'
Not sure of the details. This is was I see being written.
https://stratechery.com/2023/openais-misalignment-and-micros...'
In semantic terms I agree.
The negative connotation is the baggage I bring. I recind my implied critism. Pursuit of power is not necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps I need to think on this.
The broader point is that considering short term personal financial gain is beneath an exec at Satya's level.
He has a responsibility to do more than just maximize value though. Corporate values are a real thing and msft has pretty clearly integrated them in various ways for a long time.
They pledged to carbon capture all carbon going back to their founding... For example. What does that have to do with profit? Nada... Outside of making folkes feel less climate guilt when they buy a share. Now that... Very clever for profit.
> Even if you consider all externalities, trade is positive-sum.
even if the business pollutes the environment or contributes to climate change in an outlier way?
You're arguing a straw man. Which means your reading comprehension is bad or you're intentionally mudding the waters. Either way, I think we're good here.
and i'm not arguing anything. i'm asking a question. in which case, ironically, your reading comprehension missed that.