Ask HN: Is OpenAI going to be the biggest company of all time?

Re:Ask HN: Is OpenAI going to be the biggest company of all ... by breck on Wednesday March 15, 2023 @01:56PM (#35172183)

I think the more precise question is can Sam Inc. become bigger than Elon Inc.

Both extraordinarily smart and hard working.

I really like Elon's anti-patent stance. SamA backpedaled a bit on the openness with OpenAI, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was a short term move and in the long run it will become more open again.

I think Elon is in the much better position because he sells physical objects.

I think OpenAI still has very existential risks to their business model. In the long run open source is an OOM cheaper way to create software than closed source, and as long as Apple keeps cranking out faster processors the open source community will be able to reproduce and exceed OpenAI's cloud offerings. I think SaaS may be more of a fad than people realize.

But Sam has diversified big with big bets on fusion and other things. I would expect he comes up with a business in the real world that has more of a moat than a business dependent on (c)opywrong law.

It's a fun competition to watch.

My money is definitely on Elon, but SamA is probably the next best entrepreneur in the game today.

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Re:Ask HN: Is OpenAI going to be the biggest company of all ... by Jensson on Wednesday March 15, 2023 @02:06PM (#35172342)

> but I wouldn't be surprised if that was a short term move and in the long run it will become more open again.

Naive people is why such strategies works.

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Re:Ask HN: Is OpenAI going to be the biggest company of all ... by breck on Wednesday March 15, 2023 @02:10PM (#35172406)

Sigh. You are probably right. :(

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Re:Ask HN: Is OpenAI going to be the biggest company of all ... by potamic on Wednesday March 15, 2023 @03:26PM (#35173467)

Here we go again. I don't know if it's the PR machine gaining steam, but there has been a flurry of posts propping up Sam Altman across social media lately. He's just another serial investor who struck timely fortune during a great boom. Why do we feel the need to put financiers on a pedestal? These people, by the very nature of their role, have interests that are largely unaligned with society and history generally shows them to be a net negative on the world in the end.

Besides, an orgranisation is always greater than any individual, and we should judge organisations, or any groups of people for that matter, as their whole and not singularly. Sometimes it feels us plebians always seek out a superhero in our lives. With Musk going full villain, there is a void that needs to be filled. Perhaps, in a world where all else is lost, this is the one thing that can keep the spirit going.

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Re:Ask HN: Is OpenAI going to be the biggest company of all ... by breck on Wednesday March 15, 2023 @05:00PM (#35174644)

> Why do we feel the need to put financiers on a pedestal?

I don't put him on a moral pedestal. Just at the game of startups, he's one of the best. I don't take my moral advice from Lebron but I respect the heck out of him.

> interests that are largely unaligned with society

I think the jury is still out on SamA.

> With Musk going full villain

I can't disagree strongly enough with this. Musk is a hero. I'm not sure people realize how much censorship was winning in the USA prior to Musk buying Twitter. Scary days.

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Re:Ask HN: Is OpenAI going to be the biggest company of all ... by latexr on Wednesday March 15, 2023 @08:59PM (#35176832)

> I think the jury is still out on SamA.

He’s the originator of the Worldcoin scam: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/richardnieva/worldcoin-...

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Re:Ask HN: Is OpenAI going to be the biggest company of all ... by kingkongjaffa on Thursday March 16, 2023 @04:30PM (#35188046)

>Musk is a hero.

Insane.

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