To be honest, I would take a private space agency 7 days out of the week with that kind of capital. We have no fundamental proof that LLMs will scale to the intelligence levels that we imagine in our heads. The industry application for LLMs is even weaker than computer vision, and the public sentiment is almost completely against it. Sam's product is hype; eventually people are going to realize that Q* and Strawberry were marketing moves intended to extend OpenAI's news cycle relevancy and not serious steps towards superintelligence. We were promised tools, and they're shipping toys.
I could tell you in very plain terms how a competitor to Boeing and SpaceX would benefit the American economy. I have not even the faintest fucking clue what "AGI" even is, or how it's profitable if it resembles the LLMs that OpenAI is selling today.
I would agree with you that a space agency is also useful (maybe more useful some days of the week). Sam disagrees and thinks he can do better without a non-profit board now.
I'm glad we live in a world where he gets to try and we get to tax him and his employees to do other things we consider useful.
Its interesting how first impressions can be so deceiving. The world's largest private space agency (SpaceX) has completely changed the game in rural internet connectivity. Once upon a time, large chunks of the US had no reliable high speed internet. SpaceX has brought high-speed low-latency internet to every corner of the globe, even the middle of the ocean and Antarctica. This isn't going nowhere even if it seems that way.
SpaceX is not a private space agency though, it is a private space launch and satellite communications company, which has revolutionized access to space and access to communication, providing enormous social benefit.
People use SpaceX every day even if they never connected to a starlink -- the lower costs that governments pay for space launches means more money for other things, not to mention no longer paying Russia for launches or engines.
I think they're both overhyped by sci-fi optimism but I would agree (even being mostly an AI minimalist) the impact of LLMs (and their improvement velocity) is a lot meaningful to me right now. I mean satellites are cool and all.
This comment reeks of Steve Ballmer opinion of Apple and the Internet early days. If you work at any decent technology company, you realize AI applications every where and the pending mass layoffs. Or nimbler startups replicating their work more efficiently.
I could tell you in very plain terms how a competitor to Boeing and SpaceX would benefit the American economy. I have not even the faintest fucking clue what "AGI" even is, or how it's profitable if it resembles the LLMs that OpenAI is selling today.