OpenAI Email Archives (From Musk vs. Altman)

(lesswrong.com)

9 points | by pongogogo 8 hours ago ago

3 comments

  • careerhacker 4 hours ago

    The ass kissing paragraph that launched Andrej Karpathy's career. One day I hope to have a chance to email a billionaire and get hired as a director like this.

    >The most promising option I can think of, as I mentioned earlier, would be for OpenAI to attach to Tesla as its cash cow. I believe attachments to other large suspects (e.g. Apple? Amazon?) would fail due to an incompatible company DNA. Using a rocket analogy, Tesla already built the "first stage" of the rocket with the whole supply chain of Model 3 and its onboard computer and a persistent internet connection. The "second stage" would be a full self driving solution based on large-scale neural network training, which OpenAI expertise could significantly help accelerate. With a functioning full self-driving solution in ~2-3 years we could sell a lot of cars/trucks. If we do this really well, the transportation industry is large enough that we could increase Tesla's market cap to high O(~100K), and use that revenue to fund the AI work at the appropriate scale.

    >I cannot see anything else that has the potential to reach sustainable Google-scale capital within a decade.

    • pongogogo 4 hours ago

      I think that's harsh. He's right, and well ahead of his time.

  • pongogogo 5 hours ago

    There's a few choice quotes in here as Musk and Altman work to define the mission for OpenAI

    Sam Altman to Elon Musk - Jun 24, 2015

    The mission would be to create the first general AI and use it for individual empowerment—ie, the distributed version of the future that seems the safest. More generally, safety should be a first-class requirement.

    Sam Altman to Elon Musk - Jun 24, 2015

    The mission would be to create the first general AI and use it for individual empowerment—ie, the distributed version of the future that seems the safest. More generally, safety should be a first-class requirement.

    Elon Musk to Sam Altman - Dec 8, 2015

    It is super important to get the opening summary section right. This will be what everyone reads and what the press mostly quotes. The whole point of this release is to attract top talent. Not sure Greg totally gets that.

    Sam Altman to Elon Musk - Dec 8, 2015 how is this?

    __

    OpenAI is a non-profit artificial intelligence research company with the goal of advancing digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unencumbered by an obligation to generate financial returns.

    Because we don't have any financial obligations, we can focus on the maximal positive human impact and disseminating AI technology as broadly as possible. We believe AI should be an extension of individual human wills and, in the spirit of liberty, not be concentrated in the hands of the few.

    The outcome of this venture is uncertain and the pay is low compared to what others will offer, but we believe the goal and the structure are right. We hope this is what matters most to the best in the field.