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Problems the AI industry is not addressing adequately

(www.thealgorithmicbridge.com)
197 points baylearn | 5 comments | 05 Jul 25 10:33 UTC | HN request time: 0.873s | source
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A_D_E_P_T ◴[05 Jul 25 11:10 UTC] No.44471878[source]▶
> "This is purely an observation: You only jump ship in the middle of a conquest if either all ships are arriving at the same time (unlikely) or neither is arriving at all. This means that no AI lab is close to AGI."

The central claim here is illogical.

The way I see it, if you believe that AGI is imminent, and if your personal efforts are not entirely crucial to bringing AGI about (just about all engineers are in this category), and if you believe that AGI will obviate most forms of computer-related work, your best move is to do whatever is most profitable in the near-term.

If you make $500k/year, and Meta is offering you $10M/year, then you ought to take the new job. Hoard money, true believer. Then, when AGI hits, you'll be in a better personal position.

Essentially, the author's core assumption is that working for a lower salary at a company that may develop AGI is preferable to working for a much higher salary at a company that may develop AGI. I don't see how that makes any sense.

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1. bombcar ◴[05 Jul 25 12:19 UTC] No.44472282[source]▶
>your best move is to do whatever is most profitable in the near-term

Unless you’re a significant shareholder, that’s almost always the best move, anyway. Companies have no loyalty to you and you need to watch out for yourself and why you’re living.

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2. archeantus ◴[05 Jul 25 15:44 UTC] No.44473523[source]▶
I read that most of the crazy comp Zuck is offering is in stock. So in a way, going to the place where they have lots of stock reflects their belief about where AGI is going to happen first.
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3. bombcar ◴[05 Jul 25 16:57 UTC] No.44473985[source]▶
Comp is comp, no matter how it comes (though the details can vary in important ways).

I know people who've taking quite good comp from startups to do things that would require fundamental laws of physics to be invalidated; they took the money and devised experiments that would show the law to be wrong.

4. fragmede ◴[05 Jul 25 19:01 UTC] No.44474765[source]▶
Facebook is already public, so they can sell the day it vests and get it in cold hard cash in their bank account. If Facebook weren't public it would be a more interesting point as they couldn't liquidate immediately, but they can, so I wouldn't read anything into that.
5. LtWorf ◴[05 Jul 25 19:18 UTC] No.44474872[source]▶
But maybe the salary is also higher?