Okbyme
On Apr 23, 2018, at 1:49 AM, Shivon Zilis <shivon@neuralink.com> wrote:
Updated info per a conversation with Altman. You're tentatively set to speak with him on Tuesday.
Financing:
-He confirmed again that they are definitely not doing an ICO but rather equity that has a fixed maximum
return.
-Would be a rather unique subsidiary structure for the raise which he wants to walk you through.
-Wants to move within 4-6 week on first round (probably largely Reid money, potentially some corporates).
Tech:
-Says Dota 5v5 looking better than anticipated.
-The sharp rise in Dota bot performance is apparently causing people internally to worry that the timeline to
AGI is sooner than they'd thought before.
-Thinks they are on track to beat Montezuma's Revenge shortly.
Time allocation:
-I've reallocated most of the hours I used to spend with OpenAI to Neuralink and Tesla. This naturally
happened with you stepping off the board and related factors - but if you'd prefer I pull more hours back to
OpenAI oversight please let me know.
-Sam and Greg asked ifI'd be on their informal advisory board (just Gabe Newell so far), which seems fine
and better than the formal board given potential conflicts? If that doesn't feel right let me know what you'd
prefer.
On Mar 25, 2018, at 11:03 AM, Shivon Zilis <shivon@neuralink.com> wrote:
OpenAI
Fundraising:
-No longer doing the ICO I "instrument to purchase compute in advance" type structure. Altman is thinking through an
instrument where the 4-5 large corporates who are interested can invest with a return capped at 50x if OpenAI does get to
some semblance of money-making AGI. They apparently seem willing just for access reasons. He wants to discuss with you
in more detail.
Formal Board Resignation:
-You're still technically on the board so need to send a quick one liner to Sam Altman saying something like "With this email I
hereby resign as a director of OpenAI, effective Feb 20th 2018".
Future Board:
-Altman said he is cool with me joining then having to step off if I become conflicted, but is concerned that others would
consider it a burned bridge if I had to step off. I think best bet is not to join for now and be an ambiguous advisor but let me
know if you feel differently. They have Adam D'Angelo as the potential fifth to take your place, which seems great?
TeslaAI
Andrej has three candidates in pipeline, may have 1-2 come in to meet you on Tuesday. He will send you a briefing note
about them. Also, he's working on starter language for a potential release that will be ready to discuss Tuesday. It will follow
the "full-stack Al lab" angle we talked about but, if that doesn't feel right, please course correct. .. is tricky messaging.
Cerebras
Chip should be available in August for them to test, and they plan to let others have remote access in September. The
Cerebras guy also mentioned that a lot of their recent customer interest has been from companies upset about the Nvidia
change in terms of service (the one that forces companies away from consumer grade GPUs to enterprise Pascals/ Valtas).
Scott Gray and llya continue to spend a bunch of time with them
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the
addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure.