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rhetocj23
I personally called it within my circle that when Friar was hired she was going to commit a tremendous blunder. It may have been innocent, but the trend is now reversing in regards to its mantlehold of mindshare of consumers.

Someone I know who has been an absolute staunch advocate of chatgpt,and has been for the best part of the past 1.5 years suddenly changed their tune earlier this week. That is my signal that things are turning south.

There will be a reprieve for some time, with increasing revenue. But eventually that will jam to a halt and all the doubts will intensify.

Neywiny
There was also some woman (maybe a high up exec, I don't know their full roster) in one of those live audience interviews saying they were looking towards a government backstop on the loans. They know they have no way of ponying up 1.4T. That's an insane amount of money. Honestly if more investing and startups were "we have x front-runners, if he dies he dies" I think we'd be in s better spot. Maybe don't invest in capturing-helium-in-a-colander.ai just because it ends in "AI"
neuvarius
For sake of HN can we get a rundown that isn’t Gary Marcus flinging shit on people? I’d like something a bit more objective.
nostrebored
No particular love for Sam Altman, but the article reads as “I was right about X, so my interpretation of Y is correct.”

I don’t see any particular contradiction. Moving fabs onshore is absolutely in the interest of both parties.

option
This isn't a comment about Sam Altman, but given Gary's track record, why would anyone listen to him?
superconduct123
I don't understand, what prompted OpenAI recently to need this 1.4T investment?
JumpCrisscross
“Altman, sensing that he had massively blundered…”

Altman is in bed with Trump. He isn’t all in. But Tuesday evidencing an electoral shift makes Friar’s comments exceptionally ill timed.

siliconc0w
That agro response to a perfectly reasonable question, "if you don't want your shares, we'll find you a buyer" instantly reminded me of that Bernie Madoff movie.
Animats
Loan guarantees? Where did that come from?

The AI bubble must really be about to pop.

sidcool
I'm no Sam fan. But Gary Marcus is quite publicly a Sam critic. So I'd not dismiss it, but would also take it with a pinch of salt.
octoberfranklin
s/pants/hair/

Somebody please tell me how to short this. I'm going all in.

BluSyn
I'm confused about language, as "loans" to me do not equal "bailout". The equating of the two seems odd, as many government incentives use loans that pay back with high interest, so governments MAKE money on those kinds of deals.

Also clear that the 1.4T figure includes some accounting for spend that does not come directly from OpenAI (grid/power/data infra for example). Obviously some government involvement is needed, but more at EPA/State/Local level to fast track construction permits, more-so than financial help from Treasury.

I'm confused why this generates such sensational headlines.

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palmotea
> Gary Marcus was blocked on X by Kara Swisher in November 2022 for saying that the board did not trust Sam Altman. Marcus remains blocked by Ms. Swisher to this day.

There was an Ezra Klein podcast awhile back where Swisher (a journalist) made it sound like she'd been buddy-buddy with Elon Musk for some time. What is/was her relationship to Altman?

blobbers
The crazy thing about Sam Altman is that he's basically a deal maker; does it remind you of anyone currently in power? No substance, no skill, just wheeling dealing, constantly saving his own neck from things that really should have ended his career.

Read: https://www.paulgraham.com/fundraising.html

" Sam Altman has it. You could parachute him into an island full of cannibals and come back in 5 years and he'd be the king. "

Meanwhile America is having no Kings protests.