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Comment by Kiro | Hacker News Reader

> mostly because of money/shares

How do you know?

I don't obviously. But since those people were ready to jump ship to Microsoft, I am pretty sure they care more about their own careers than 'creating AGI that benefits humanity as a whole in the first place'

Presumably they're jumping ship with Sam, and I'd assume that they'd assume that Sam would uphold the same perceived integrity at MS

Sam's integrity would be at home at Microsoft, for sure.

keyword "perceived"

Didn't most sign the letter before they knew they had any offer to join Microsoft in any capacity?

Also maybe I'm just too risk averse but if I were concerned about money I wouldn't be putting my name on such a list. Although at some point past 50% it would feel pretty safe because what are they going to do, fire everyone?

> Didn't most sign the letter before they knew they had any offer to join Microsoft in any capacity?

I very much doubt it.

"We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAI and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary..." so no, they knew.

Occam's razor.

Maybe the simplest explanation isn't the right one for 100% of the people that followed Sam (or were ready to), but it's the right one for 90% of them, which is what matters for practical purposes.

Follow the money.

Of course. I mean come on you may love the guy but your primary reason for following him will still be money. Why would you want your years of work to go down to 0$?

These people are at the top of the AI industry, they’d make bank in a ton of jobs if they left tomorrow. They weren’t getting equity at Microsoft yet they still chose that opportunity as an alternative.

Clearly they care about working on the most interesting AI around instead of continuing to work under a CEO and board whose whole plan is to cripple AI development. Both the interim CEO Shear and likely coup leader Toner made it clear they are anti-AI and want to slow progress. Toner specifically said she’d be okay with the company collapsing as that was in line with the charter.

Occams Razor is people working on the most interesting stuff in the tech industry want to keep working on it rather than follow some radical EA doomer plan to kill it off well before we get near AGI.

> They weren’t getting equity at Microsoft

This is wrong.

> These people are at the top of the AI industry, they’d make bank in a ton of jobs if they left tomorrow.

I know a signatory of the letter and I can assure you that they were nowhere near the top of the AI industry six months ago.

But being at OpenAI, they now probably have the reputation of belonging to the top.

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