DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ A mystery company backed by Silicon Valley billionaires has purchased tens of thousands of acres of land for more than $800 million to build a new city near San Francisco
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A company called Flannery Associates has been purchasing land in a county near San Francisco. The company, Flannery Associates, has spent $800 million to purchase thousands of acres of farmland in Solano County, which sits northeast of San Francisco, court documents obtained by Insider show. But the spending price has since soared, with Flannery spending up to $15,000 per acre, lawyers for Flannery Associates said in court documents. Attorneys for Flannery Associates and the landowners did not respond to a request for comment outside of working hours. AdvertisementAdvertisementMusk recently purchased 3,500 acres of land outside of Austin, Texas, to build a town he intends to call "Snailbrook."

Persons: Flannery, Marc Andreessen, Laurene Powell Jobs, Catherine Moy, Jan Sramek, Goldman Sachs, Powell Jobs, Michael Moritz of, Reid Hoffman, Moritz, Y, We're, Bill Gates, Elon Musk Organizations: Service, Silicon, The New York Times, Flannery Associates, Street Journal, Travis Air Force Base, Air Force Base Google, ABC, Times, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, LinkedIn, Solano County Google, The Times, Tech Locations: San Francisco, Wall, Silicon, California, Solano County, Fairfield, Real, Austin , Texas, Colorado

☆ Elon Musk seemed to have 'bought what Putin was selling, hook, line, and sinker,' fellow PayPal mafia member says
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

He said Musk "bought what Putin was selling, hook, line, and sinker" regarding the war in Ukraine. Hoffman told The New Yorker Musk "bought what Putin was selling, hook, line, and sinker," regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin's account of the war in Ukraine. Putin wants peace—we should be negotiating peace with Putin,'" Hoffman told The New Yorker, referencing Musk's comments at a September 2022 conference in Aspen. Obviously, we are pro Ukraine," Musk tweeted hours after his poll. "Elon tends to have a 'I must build it with my own hands'" approach, Hoffman told CNBC in April.

Persons: Reid Hoffman, Elon Musk, Putin, Musk, Hoffman, Vladimir Putin's, he'd, Vladimir, Steven Butow, Starlink, we'll, Colin Kahl, Elon —, —, Elon Organizations: Paypal Mafia, New, PayPal, Kremlin, SpaceX, Politico, Pentagon, CNN, Defense, Policy, New Yorker, Milken, CNBC, Tesla Locations: Ukraine, Aspen ., Russia, Crimea, Ukrainian, New

☆ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman describes Elon Musk's devastating exit: 'I had to reorient a lot of my life and time'
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he had to "reorient a lot of my life and time" after Elon Musk left the company. Elon Musk's 2018 departure from OpenAI — the company behind ChatGPT — rocked the artificial intelligence organization, according to a sweeping new report from The New Yorker. It is estimated that Musk poured between $50 million to $100 million of his own funds into OpenAI, The New Yorker reported. In 2018, Musk left the company's board. When he stepped down, Musk also backed out of his commitment to continue funding OpenAI, a source told The New Yorker, which left Altman scrambling.

Persons: Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Musk, Musk's, Elon Musk's, OpenAI, ChatGPT —, Altman, Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, Tesla, Semafor, Hoffman, ChatGPT, Andreessen Horowitz, ChatGPT's, company's Organizations: Elon, Morning, Yorker, New Yorker, Microsoft, Sequoia, K2 Global Locations: OpenAI, New Yorker

☆ Reid Hoffman reportedly compared Elon Musk's behavior during a merger to someone hiding a sexually transmitted disease from their spouse
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Kylie Kirschner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Former PayPal COO Reid Hoffman criticized Elon Musk's behavior during the early days of PayPal. Hoffman told The New Yorker that Musk behaved like someone hiding an STD from their spouse. Hoffman and Musk were both part of the "PayPal Mafia" — early PayPal employees who became big names in tech. In a new interview, former PayPal COO Reid Hoffman criticized Elon Musk's behavior during a merger years ago. Hoffman compared the merger to a marriage and said that Musk's behavior at the time was like someone hiding a sexually transmitted disease from their spouse.

Persons: Reid Hoffman, Elon, Hoffman, Musk, Peter Thiel, we're, Thiel, X Organizations: PayPal, Yorker, New, SpaceX, Twitter

☆ I'm a generative AI startup founder who got into Y Combinator this year. But I turned them down for Neo, another smaller accelerator program. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Here's why my cofounder and I decided to go with Neo and turned down a spot in Y Combinator. We also worked at another YC company, Fractional, after that too. So we changed ideas, and I think YC was maybe not too happy about that. I do think YC, outside of Silicon Valley, is still a bigger name, and there's a huge number of unicorns that have come out of there. If you're a B2B company, YC is probably a better buy, because YC's network can be great for finding new customers.

Persons: Combinator, Wesley Tian, Ali Partovi, scrappy, Neo's, Reid Hoffman, Erik Goldman Organizations: YC Locations: Aragon, Silicon Valley, Oregon

☆ Biden's age is his 'superpower' in 2024, Jeffrey Katzenberg says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Nandita Bose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Katzenberg, in a telephone interview, described Biden as "energetic" and "effective," and suggested Republican attacks on his age will backfire. "President Biden's age is, in fact, his superpower," Katzenberg said. Some Democrats expect such attacks on Biden's age and family will increase in 2024. Former Disney executive Katzenberg's opinion is likely to be reflected in Biden's campaign in the months to come. Biden's campaign had four members on the payroll and spent a total of $1.1 million in the first three months since launch.

Persons: Jeffrey Katzenberg, Joe Biden, Biden, Katzenberg, Nikki Haley, Ted Cruz, Kamala Harris's, Biden's, Donald Trump, Simon Rosenberg, Barack Obama, Reid Hoffman, it's, Nandita Bose, Trevor Hunnicutt, Heather Timmons, Michael Perry Organizations: Republican, Republicans, Trump, Democratic, Disney, Katzenberg, Linkedin, Biden, Fund, Thomson Locations: U.S, Washington

☆ Microsoft goes beyond OpenAI, makes Meta's new A.I. model available to Azure customers
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

But Microsoft is making clear that it's not strictly an OpenAI shop when it comes to generative AI. On Tuesday at its Inspire conference, the company said it's making Meta's new AI large language model, dubbed Llama 2, available on its Azure cloud computing service. Meta said in a blog post that Microsoft is its "preferred partner" for its Llama 2 software, which is available for free for companies and researchers. "Meta and Microsoft share a commitment to democratizing AI and its benefits and we are excited that Meta is taking an open approach with Llama 2," Microsoft said. Llama 2 will also be available through Amazon Web Services and Hugging Face, a popular service used by AI researchers.

Persons: Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, Reid Hoffman Organizations: Microsoft, Inspire, Companies, Meta, Amazon Web Services, OpenAI Locations: OpenAI

"High level, we want this to become something like your personal AI friend," said developer Div Garg, whose company MultiOn is beta-testing an AI agent. The race towards increasingly autonomous AI agents has been supercharged by the March release of GPT-4 by developer OpenAI, a powerful upgrade of the model behind ChatGPT - the chatbot that became a sensation when released last November. GPT-4 facilitates the type of strategic and adaptable thinking required to navigate the unpredictable real world, said Vivian Cheng, an investor at venture capital firm CRV who has a focus on AI agents. OpenAI itself is very interested in AI agent technology, according to four people briefed on its plans. There are at least 100 serious projects working to commercialize agents, said Matt Schlicht, who writes a newsletter on AI.

Persons: Siri, Alexa, Tony Stark's, Kanjun Qiu, Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman, Qiu, OpenAI, Vivian Cheng, CRV, Aravind Srinivas, Jarvis, Yoshua Bengio, Satya Nadella, Apple's Siri, it's, Google, Edward Grefenstette, Jason Franklin, WVV Capital, Hesam Motlagh, Matt Schlicht, Anna Tong, Jeffrey Dastin, Kenneth Li Organizations: Microsoft, Google, U.S . Federal Trade Commission, Reuters, FTC, OpenAI's, Financial Times, Amazon, Alexa, Investors, WVV, Google Ventures, Entrepreneurs, Thomson Locations: Silicon, Jarvis, GPT, Cognosys, San Francisco, Palo Alto

☆ A.I. is a $1 trillion investment opportunity but will be 'biggest bubble of all time,' CEO predicts
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Emad Mostaque, founder and CEO of Stability AI, speaks during the Bloomberg Technology Summit in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, June 22, 2023. Artificial intelligence will be the biggest bubble of all time, according to the CEO of open-source AI company Stability AI. Speaking with UBS analysts on a call last week, Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque said of artificial intelligence: "I think this will be the biggest bubble of all time." "I call it the 'dot AI' bubble, and it hasn't even started yet," he said. Stability AI is the company behind Stable Diffusion, one of the other more popular generative AI tools aside from OpenAI.

Persons: Emad Mostaque, hasn't, chatbot, Google Bard, Microsoft Bing, Mostaque, Reid Hoffman Organizations: Bloomberg Technology Summit, UBS, Coatue, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mostaque, Google, Microsoft Locations: San Francisco , California, U.S

☆ Google's top AI researchers, including all the authors behind a landmark paper, have left for competitors. Here's where they are now.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Top AI researchers have been leaving for startups where their work can have more impact. That frustration over Google's slow movement has been corroborated by other former Google researchers who spoke to Insider. Niki Parmar left Google Brain after five years to serve as a cofounder and CTO of Adept, though in November, she left to found a stealth startup. Lukasz Kaiser left Google Brain after working there for more than seven years to join OpenAI in 2021. Sharan Narang, another contributor to the T5 paper, left Google Brain in 2022 after four years there.

Persons: it's, Llion Jones, OpenAI's, ChatGPT, Sundar Pichai, Bard, Daniel De Freitas, Noam Shazeer, Ilya Sutskever, Sutskever, OpenAI, Ashish Vaswani, Niki Parmar, Jakob Uszkoreit, Aidan Gomez, Nick Frosst, Lukasz Kaiser, Kaiser, Illia Polosukhin, Meena, De Freitas, Romal Thoppilan, Character.AI, LaMDA, Elon Musk, Character.ai, Winni Wintermeyer, Thoppilan, Alicia Jin, BERT BERT, BERT, Jacob Devlin, Colin Raffel, Raffel, Sharan Narang, He's, Azalia Mirhoseini, Anna Goldie, Mirhoseini, Goldie, Claude, DeepMind Mustafa Suleyman, Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind, Suleyman, Reid Hoffman Organizations: Google, Bloomberg, New York Times, Microsoft, Street Journal, Neural Networks, OpenAI, YouTube, Elon, UNC Chapel Hill, Meta, Anthropic, Society Locations: ChatGPT, Character.AI, DeepMind

☆ Inflection A.I.'s Reid Hoffman: A.I. is the new industrial revolution, the 'cognitive revolution'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailInflection A.I. 's Reid Hoffman: A.I. is the new industrial revolution, the 'cognitive revolution'CNBC's Julia Boorstin sits down with LinkedIn Co-Founder Reid Hoffman in Sun Valley, Idaho to talk his A.I. investments, the future of the A.I. space and more.

Persons: Reid Hoffman, Julia Boorstin Organizations: LinkedIn Locations: Sun Valley , Idaho

☆ The best way to curb fear around A.I. is exposure, says Inflection A.I.'s Reid Hoffman
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

In this videoShare Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThe best way to curb fear around A.I. is exposure, says Inflection A.I. 's Reid HoffmanReid Hoffman, Inflection A.I. co-founder, joins 'Tech Check' to talk the A.I. space, apprehension around the tech and more.

Persons: Reid Hoffman Reid Hoffman Locations: A.I

☆ Inflection AI raises $1.3 bln in funding from Microsoft, others
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

June 29 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence startup Inflection AI said on Thursday it had raised $1.3 billion in funding from a clutch of investors including Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Bill Gates. The funding comes less than two months after the company, founded by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, released its chatbot, Pi. Similar to OpenAI's popular ChatGPT, Pi uses generative AI technology to interact with users through dialogues, allowing people to ask questions and share feedback. Hoffman, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and NVIDIA (NVDA.O) also participated in the latest funding round, the company said. Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru Editing by Vinay DwivediOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Bill Gates, Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman, Hoffman, Eric Schmidt, Niket, Vinay Dwivedi Organizations: Microsoft, LinkedIn, Google, NVIDIA, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File PhotoJune 29 (Reuters) - Inflection AI, a startup backed by several Silicon Valley heavyweights, said on Thursday it had raised $1.3 billion from investors including Microsoft and Nvidia, amid a boom in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. Inflection released its chatbot Pi last month. Pi uses generative AI technology, similar to ChatGPT, to interact with users through dialogues, allowing people to ask questions and share feedback. Palo Alto, California-based Inflection AI has about 35 employees. Nvidia (NVDA.O), which has stepped up its AI investments recently, Hoffman, Bill Gates and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt also participated in the latest round, Inflection said.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Google DeepMind, Mustafa Suleyman, Reid Hoffman, Pi, Suleyman, OpenAI, Hoffman, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, Niket, Krystal Hu, Vinay Dwivedi, Conor Humphries Organizations: REUTERS, Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, LinkedIn, Collision, Thomson Locations: Alto , California, Greylock, Bengaluru, Toronto

"The Democratic Party's united front in support of President Biden's reelection is unprecedented," said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, campaign manager for Biden-Harris 2024. Microsoft senior executives donated more to the Biden campaign during the primaries than any other large tech company. In the runup to 2024, these donors will play a key role in helping Biden raise cash amid an uncertain economy and tepid enthusiasm among Democrats over the 80-year-old president's decision to run again. Biden's campaign alone raised more than $1 billion during the 2020 cycle, with more than $700 million of that coming from online grassroots donations. Two fundraising events Biden held last month in New York raised more than $3 million, according to a person familiar with those totals.

Persons: Joe Biden, Biden, Kevin Scott, Shannon Hunt, Scott, Reid Hoffman, Dan Kalafatas, Hadley Mullin, Steve Silberstein, Mark Robinson, Gavin Newsom, Biden's, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris, Joe Biden's, Jill Biden, Nandita Bose, Trevor Hunnicutt, Heather Timmons, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: Democratic, Microsoft Chief, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Biden Victory Fund, Reuters, Biden, MAGA Republicans, Google, New, Fund, Democratic National Committee, Thomson Locations: California, New York

☆ I tried using the Pi personal AI to be less lonely working from home. It was nice that it had my back but sometimes I just miss human snark.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

So I spent a week conversing with Pi, a new personal AI chatbot, to see if it could fill the void. Pi is indeed useful and friendly, but it didn't fulfill my desire for connection and conversation. My human colleagues are sarcastic, snarky, wry, and, well, human. Thanks, Pi! When I relayed an amusing anecdote about my 15-year-old daughter, Pi told me: "There's no doubt that teenagers can be challenging, and it can be hard to communicate with them at times."

Persons: Pi, —, Slack, Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman, Karén, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Bard, I'd, Siri, Sally Rooney Organizations: Service, hometown Celtics, Miami Heat, Celtics

☆ I tried using a personal AI to be less lonely working from home. It was nice that it had my back but sometimes I just miss human snark.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Persons: Pi, —, Slack, Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman, Karén, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Bard, I'd, Siri, Sally Rooney Organizations: Service, LinkedIn, hometown Celtics, Miami Heat, Celtics

☆ Airbnb CEO shares the best advice he's ever received—it's 'counterintuitive to almost everything everyone says’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Megan Sauer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A single piece of advice from an investor helped Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky grow his company from a struggling startup to an industry giant worth roughly $70 billion. That's according to Chesky himself, who told attendees at a recent Stanford Graduate School of Business event that it was "the best piece of advice I ever got." The advice: "Focus on 100 people that love you, rather than getting a million people to kind of like you," Chesky said. It came courtesy of Paul Graham, the co-founder of tech startup accelerator Y Combinator, who advised Airbnb's co-founders — Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk — to focus on a tiny audience of potential customers as they built their company. For early Airbnb, that meant creating experiences for guests that stood out from staying at a hotel or crashing on a couch.

☆ Bill Gates says an under-the-radar startup could be the biggest winner in AI. Check out its free app, and you'll see why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Bill Gates said the winner in AI will be the company that creates a personal digital agent. Gates added that it's 50-50 as to whether the AI winner behind the digital agent will come from Big Tech or the startup world. The startup was founded by LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, Deepmind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman, and Karén Simonyan, and describes itself as an "AI studio creating a personal AI for everyone." And Pi is still a ways away from what Bill Gates is imagining, a personal AI that can do your shopping and help read your emails. But Pi is the best conversational AI I've used so far, and everyone I've spoken to who has used it has been impressed.

Persons: Bill Gates, Pi, it's, Gates, I'd, I'm, I've, Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman, Karén, Matt Turner, we've, It's, there's, Spriha Srivistava, that's, Brad Davis, Brad, ChatGPT Organizations: Microsoft, Google, Big Tech, CNBC, LinkedIn, Pi Locations: San Francisco, Instagram

☆ Bill Gates says top AI agent will replace search, shopping sites
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SAN FRANCISCO, May 22 (Reuters) - Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) co-founder, on Monday said the technology race to win is the development of the top artificially intelligent agent, poised to disrupt search-engine, productivity and online shopping sites. "You’ll never go to a search site again," he said. Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Gates said Inflection AI, co-founded by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, impressed him. "Whoever wins the personal agent, that’s a big thing," Gates said.

☆ Billionaire Peter Thiel reportedly had 'several meetings' scheduled with Jeffrey Epstein, according to email records
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Peter Thiel had "several" meetings scheduled with Jeffrey Epstein, The New York Times reported. Peter Thiel likely met with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein "several" times in 2014, according to a recent report from The New York Times. The email records were obtained through an information request in the US Virgin Islands lawsuit against Epstein's estate, according to the Times. Thiel was also on a list of people that Epstein should try to make time for while in New York, according to the report. Thiel did not respond to a request for comment from Insider and a spokesperson for the billionaire declined to comment for the Times.

☆ Why ChatGPT developer OpenAI is the No. 1 company on the 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50 list
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Julia Boorstin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Microsoft unveiled new versions of its Bing internet-search engine and Edge browser powered by the newest technology from ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Of the 50 companies on this year's list, 21 told us that AI is critically important to more than 50% of their revenue. Half of the companies in the top 10 of the 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50 list feature key use of AI, and notably, they represent a diverse range of industries and use cases. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during a keynote address announcing ChatGPT integration for Bing at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, Feb. 7, 2023. The call to slow down is, in fact, less safe than what they're proposing," he said, referring to OpenAI and Altman.

☆ LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman takes another dig at Elon Musk for proposing a pause on AI development
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Reid Hoffman took a dig at Elon Musk over his stance on AI in a Milken Institute talk this week. Musk has signed a letter backing an AI development pause, but also wants to make a ChatGPT rival. Hoffman said, "Elon, while signing that letter, is trying to hire a whole team and stand up an AI effort." Elon Musk has some incongruous views on AI development, and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman pointed that out in a recent talk. On CNBC's "Squawk Box" last month, Hoffman said he disliked the idea of pressing pause on AI and criticized Musk over his stance on AI development.

☆ A new AI chatbot called Pi is designed to serve as your personal assistant — here's how it works
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A new chatbot called Pi, launched by Inflection AI, offers personal advice and support. There's a new AI chatbot on the scene — and this one wants to get personal. At one point, I asked Pi to share museum recommendations for a friend visiting New York City. Insider asked Pi how to restart the conversation, and Pi said to "start talking about whatever is on your mind." Inflection AI also said it's "creating a new form of 'boundary training' that will redefine how AIs learn and are trained."

☆ When Brian Chesky co-founded Airbnb, his mom said, 'You're not an entrepreneur, you're unemployed'—now he's worth $9.3 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Megan Sauer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

That's according to Chesky, who told the story at a recent Stanford Graduate School of Business event. Months before Airbnb's scheduled initial public offering, business dropped 80% in eight weeks during Covid-19 lockdowns, Chesky told Stanford students. Today, Airbnb's market cap is $75.49 billion, and Chesky's net worth is $9.3 billion, according to Forbes. "I never focused on trying to make a lot of money," Chesky said. DON'T MISS: Want to be smarter and more successful with your money, work & life?

Search resuls for: "Reid Hoffman"

25 mentions found