this post was submitted on 03 May 2026
63 points (81.8% liked)

Technology

84302 readers
6076 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
63
Valve CEO Gabe Newell was an enthusiastic supporter of OpenAI in 2018, donating $20 million and even acting as the sole member of an "informal advisory board" (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 8 hours ago by sanitation@lemmy.radio to c/technology@lemmy.world
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
top 18 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] chrash0@lemmy.world 65 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

i don’t think people in this forum would disagree with this move in 2018, as much as sentiments have changed. if you remove the political context and market moves from the equation, it is truly fascinating how these models work. GPT 2 was a crazy leap forward for language modeling, and the idea that a language model would be threatening middle class jobs wasn’t even on the table at that point. the idea that a pile of floating point numbers could write a React app is incredible, if politically fraught.

also, it wasn’t clear back then what OpenAI would become. they were a non-profit, and as clear as our hindsight is today this was before ChatGPT or any customer facing products were coming out of OpenAI.

i can’t be the only nerd in the room that has been fascinated by AI since i was a child only to face a reality where it’s not what i imagined it would be.

[–] onoki@reddthat.com 17 points 3 hours ago

Back then OpenAI also heavily used/developed/showcased the AI technology for DOTA 2 (Valve's game) bots, at level which was spectacular at the time. It makes only sense that the front face of a company shows interest in the (non-profit at the time) product of their partner organisation.

[–] Stern@lemmy.world 50 points 5 hours ago

Gaming company CEO falls for preorder hype, regrets it.

[–] Newsteinleo@infosec.pub 59 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

In 2018 we didn't know what monster it would become

[–] markz@suppo.fi 10 points 3 hours ago

Back then this shit was cool.

[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

[–] Dogiedog64@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

God if ONLY it were so cool. Instead we just have sexting chatbots that get old people with dementia to kill themselves.

[–] DScratch@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Don’t forget about all the non-consentual nudes and CSAM

[–] Dogiedog64@lemmy.world 1 points 41 minutes ago

How could I EVER forget...

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 25 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Is this surprising to people? Someone high up in technology was in infromal advisory board around technology? I should say especially after ponying up cash.

[–] Skipcast@lemmy.world 94 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

A lot has changed since 2018 fwiw

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 65 points 6 hours ago

OpenAI used to be a public benefit company. Or it called itself one anyway

https://qz.com/openai-abandons-the-pretense

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_Sam_Altman_from_OpenAI

[–] 666dollarfootlong@lemmy.world 20 points 7 hours ago

And a lot was different back then

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

At this amount why is it donation and not investment? Is it a tax thing?

[–] Dultas@lemmy.world 7 points 2 hours ago

It was a non profit at the time

[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Sometimes based, sometimes a moron.

[–] Staff@piefed.world 1 points 51 minutes ago

He's human after all.

[–] maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone 17 points 7 hours ago

And forevermore a billionaire.