| ▲ | simonw 5 hours ago |
| > Under a partnership, the Simons Foundation, Anthropic and OpenAI will commit $15 million in combined funding and resources. The foundation will manage and award the funding, including through an open call for proposals, to support workshops and initiatives that help researchers evaluate recent AI-assisted results, learn and use new tools, share perspectives and shape collective standards for AI use. The foundation was started in 1994, Wikipedia says "one of the largest charitable organizations in the United States with assets of over $5 billion in 2022" - Jim Simons founded the Renaissance Technologies hedge fund. |
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| ▲ | dannyw 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Simons Foundation also significantly funds arXiv, and also a large number of specific grants across maths and sciences. I don't think there's much agenda here. |
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| ▲ | 239ajsz 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | It is right in TFA: The foundation was an early backer of machine learning for science, including funding the development of the Lean proof assistant, which has revolutionized how mathematicians work and made AI-assisted proofs possible. Additionally, the foundation has convened workshops, lectures and collaborations that have brought mathematicians together to explore and discuss AI’s role in the field. | |
| ▲ | qwe1897 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | arXiv, where BigAI trains from. | | |
| ▲ | dannyw 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | First, they've been funding arXiv since 2011. Second, the whole point of arXiv is open access. It didn't use to be this way. Research being disseminated as widely as possible is a good thing. | |
| ▲ | robotresearcher 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Also where people train from. |
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| ▲ | sinuhe69 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| So, basically they created the recent situation in math where a great deals of top mathematicians criticized their methods, even called to boycott their dumped results. And the answer of the AI labs is buying these poor academic souls with 15$ millions? Most of them even as AI tokens? Why do I see a macabre irony here?! |
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| ▲ | danielmarkbruce 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I see you saying a lot of intelligent things - do you really not know much about the Simons Foundation? |
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| ▲ | simonw 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | I did not. I certainly didn't know they were one of the USA's largest charitable foundations! | | |
| ▲ | danielmarkbruce 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Read "the man who solved the market". It's a remarkable story. He was a remarkable dude, extremely smart, has given a lot of money to promote math and science. | |
| ▲ | 12ahGat 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Where "charitable" means: AI acceleration and removal of humans. |
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| ▲ | 12ahGat 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Jim Simons needed machine learning for his quantitative hedge funds. He founded this institute for computational everything: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/flatiron/ He has invested in AI for a long time: https://www.wealthmanagement.com/high-net-worth/family-offic... The people here who depict him or whoever runs his funds now as a pure philanthropists are wrong. These tiny investments into academia pay off many times. |
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| ▲ | wslh 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| They also gifted $ 5m [1] to the FRO (Lean Focused Research Organization) [2]. [1] https://www.simonsfoundation.org/news/from-trust-to-verifica... [2] https://lean-lang.org/fro/ |
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| ▲ | 1293816928 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| So charitable that it launches this initiative with ClosedAI and Misanthropic. There are probably accelerationist and transhumanist nutcases at this foundation. Quanta magazine is the propaganda arm. |
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| ▲ | alp1-qw3 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Can you ever look behind the surface of ... anything at all? Only naive and childlike statements in favor of AI proponents. It is literally like saying: "Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson are esteemed members of the magnanimous and generous Royal Family." |
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| ▲ | simonw 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | This IS me going beyond the surface. The obvious question here is "who is this foundation and are they working with the AI labs". I answered both. The headline in this piece made it look like maybe a foundation was trying to help mathematician's push back against the unwanted assault on their profession by the AI labs. The section I quoted shows that's not the case. Also not sure how you interpreted "foundation started by the Renaissance Technology hedge fund billionaire" as a mindless boost. | | |
| ▲ | danielmarkbruce 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Respectfully, you didn't answer either. Jim Simons was a brilliant mathematician, has done a lot for math and people involved in math. If you assume they are "pro math and pro math people", the why is simple too. | | |
| ▲ | simonw 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | I assumed Hacker News commenters would find the extra contextual information useful in the same way that I did. I didn't assume they would come to the same conclusions, and I've not come to conclusions myself. I'm going to defend my comment. I said: > The obvious question here is "who is this foundation and are they working with the AI labs". I answered both. You said: > Respectfully, you didn't answer either. My first comment started by quoting: > Under a partnership, the Simons Foundation, Anthropic and OpenAI will commit $15 million in combined funding and resources That answer the question: are they working with the AI labs? And then I said: > The foundation was started in 1994, Wikipedia says "one of the largest charitable organizations in the United States with assets of over $5 billion in 2022" - Jim Simons founded the Renaissance Technologies hedge fund. I think that's a pretty solid starting answer to "who are they", and it tips people off that Wikipedia can answer in more detail. It also leaves opportunity for people like yourself to speak to Jim Simons' reputation and fill in more gaps. | | |
| ▲ | danielmarkbruce 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Fair enough. It just makes him and the foundation sound so soulless. We need more folks like him, not less. | | |
| ▲ | simonw an hour ago | parent [-] | | He does appear to have been a proper nerd in the best way. |
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