Ilya Sutskever's startup in talks to fundraise at roughly $20B valuation | Hacker News Reader

Ilya Sutskever's startup in talks to fundraise at roughly $20B valuation

techcrunch.com

49 pointsironyman39 comments

This seems completely reasonable pre revenue and I’ve no doubt they make an ai app that 1000x’s everyone’s investment using the best ai technology and algorithms and maybe even some better data. hard to know tho for sure sometimes they lose money sometimes they won’t lose money but ai big and I think ai stay big so more ai

Put this guy in charge of a VC firm, stat.

Hold on a second. We don’t even know whether he drinks Lacroix or owns a patagonia puff vest.

Lacroix's for closers. Only.

I only talk to investors who were bottle-fed Hint straight out of their mother’s surrogate’s womb

This investment makes no sense because ai is supposed to take us into a post scarcity society?

It’s going to take Ilya there for sure.

What kind of AI movies did you grow up watching? Personally I'll never forget the robot foot crushing a human skull.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHKxoARmjLU

Could you explain more ? I was never able to understand this argument. I can understand AI might reduce the labor costs in the future. What about finite resources like minerals ?

Well imagine a robot that goes to work for you everything else being equal

My gpt detector is going off on this comment, but it's probably just plain old BS.

Your detector seems to have given up before the end.

> Little is known about Safe Superintelligence’s work. The company, which also counts ex-OpenAI researcher Daniel Levy and former Apple AI projects lead Daniel Gross among its founding team, has raised $1 billion so far. Existing investors include Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and DST Global.

Has any of those investors…. Seen some product or something other than some names?

I'd say this is a top of the market indicator if ever there was one. $20billion for the services of one man......

Ilya is basically selling his name. Safe has no products or revenue to justify any valuation.

Ah VC money. That'll stop those meddling Altman types.

What does the company do (besides raising money)?

Ilya Sutskever was one the main people at Open AI. The article says the company's name is "Safe Superintelligence" and also says its an AI startup.

The company will not tell us more until it has a product which is ready for the public.

It makes us safe by escrowing VC money that would otherwise go into OpenAI?

He's a honeypot for people with more money than sense. Not bad work if you can get it.

If he's thinking of setting up somewhere in a place he's lived before -- he may want to consider more neutral Canada vs Israel.

[Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence expands in Tel Aviv] https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rk3schwk1x

It takes a competitor to Openai off the market. Football teams in Europe would by up a good player not because they needed him, but just so that none of their rivals could buy him.

I suspect like most (or all>) "AI" startups, it's two key areas of expertise are raising huge piles of money, and setting huge piles of money on fire.

(The members of KLF need to start an AI fundraising round . "We have a proven track record of effectively using cash reserves in industry leading ways, being thought leaders in the "burn cash" space since 1994.")

OMG yes. Where are they when we need them? Someone light the KLF light.

The company is Diamond Age style education through AI.

The product is supposed to be a vague Young Lady’s Primer but using adult Apple design minimalist language.

One of the interesting things about The Diamond Age is that it's a story about the importance of personal connection even when interacting with an apparent AI.

In the story, three people get a copy of The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, the AI storybook and teacher. Nell, our protagonist, and two neo-Victorian girls, Fiona and Elizabeth.

Nell's Primer is voiced by Miranda, an actress. She becomes attached to Nell and ends up becoming a sort of surrogate mother to Nell, but only by voicing lines through the Primer. Nell experiences a number of adventures, but ends up as a strong, independent young woman... a "good" ending.

Fiona is from a middle-class neo-Victorian family. Her father ends up in a weird drug cult, but somehow ends up voicing Fiona's primer. When she grows up, Fiona joins her father in a surrealistic acting troupe... a "medium" ending.

Elizabeth is from a very wealthy neo-Victorian family. Her Primer is random actors. They don't form a connection. Elizabeth rebels and runs away to join a criminal gang (of sorts)... a "bad" ending.

It seems obvious that people will form "personal" connections with LLMs. I've already heard a few stories about people forming attachments to AI avatars. I think it's part of the human psyche, just like pareidolia. I keep thinking back to this theme of The Diamand Age and wondering if those AI-driven connections will also lead to stunted emotional growth and bad ends.

I'd rather "listen to reason"

How does one come up with a valuation number for a company like this? I mean, why not 10b or 30b?

I recently sold a single share for $1 which valuates my business at roughly $20B given that I have 20B shares to sell.

Let me know if you want to buy some of those shares. They are hot!

Does this actually work? I remember this is somehow not allowed in UK. But what about US?

It was just a joke pointing out that evaluations are whatever you want it to be.

Ilya can charm any VC with a single word. "AI"

Emotions removed, how large his equity stake would be if he had stayed at OpenAI?

The crash will be even bigger with these completely ludicrous valuations no matter the person involved.

Rather than focus on such valuations, you should instead expect the unexpected.

Remembering magicleap...

Might be worth it just so that the VCs don't have to get naked every time Sam demands it.

“The way I will repent for ruining school via chatbot cheating is by making an even cheatier chatbot.”

In case anyone is wondering what this company does.

Where is that quote from?

If I had to guess, Bender from Futurama.

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