alt Hacker NewsSam Altman appears to represent a significant liability for OpenAI’s success from this point forward. A big portion of the driver for Anthropic’s meteoric rise over the last six months appears to be folks recognizing “it’s that AI startup not run by Sam Altman.” Anthropic has amazing tech, but its biggest asset at the moment seems to be that “it’s not OpenAI.”
Not saying that’s right or wrong, but it’s clearly a factor holding OpenAI back at this point.
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I don't know, have you ever watched a video of Dario Amodei talking? I dislike them both immensely, but Dario both seems to take glee in scaring the shit out of people as a hobby with careless statements and his voice sounds like an impression of Elizabeth Holmes (the weird fake deep voice), and nothing he's said or done makes him seem more trustworthy.
What's incredible is that Anthropic are clearly not saints but Altman makes them look like the good guys, reinforcing their marketing.
When Anthropic had the dispute with the Department of War over very meek conditions (a truly moral AI company would not be engaged in war crimes in the first place), it was a test for Altman, all he had to do was to take the same position. But because he's a psychopath he failed that very basic test.
I don’t know that most people care at all or even know about this. ChatGPT still far and away has the largest consumer market and brand recognition.
What Anthropic has done exceedingly well is work their way into corporations.
I have personally seen massive uptake over the last 6 months of regular people in corporations using Claude cowork. They are all genuinely amazed by what it can do for them.
OpenAI wants to be more of a Google. It’s increasingly seeming like consumer may not be as good of a play here