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Comment by melvinmelih | Hacker News Reader

I suspect very little people joined OpenAI for their noble non-profit mission after they introduced their for-profit subsidiary. OpenAI compensation was and still is top notch. Compare it to Signal, which is a true non-profit (and salaries are a lot lower).

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Nonprofit status relates to the absence of investor payouts, and doesn't fundamentally have much to do with pay levels. Some employees can be on occasion willing to accept lower pay when the motives are altruistic, but most employees at nonprofits are paid (have to be paid) market rate.

> > Nonprofit status relates to the absence of investor payouts

The people at the helm of the first organization which cracks AI won't have any need for money

Im trying to find some of those rich people who dont need money/bitcoin - so they can send me some!

They can leverage AI to get power, they can leverage AI to build the best hedge funds, the possibilities are endless.

And what have we got other than hft from all the billions poured in so far?

Further, I suspect any ai capable of outperforming the market would be too rational, to the point that you wouldn't be able to market it.

If the ai decided that bitcoin wasn't the future, and in 20 years time was proved right, how many people would have maintained that patience?

But why would you need to market it?

There comes a point where if an organization has something unique there is no point in selling it, they'd just use it for their own gain and watch the AI multiply their initial investment.

It has happened already, the best hedge funds are not open to investors but ran as a pension scheme for employees and founders.

Signal employees make $400k to $600k a year. How much is OpenAI paying?

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/824...

Nov 13 article: "OpenAI recruiters are trying to lure Google AI employees with $10 million pay packets"

https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-recruiters-luring-goo...

also, this shows $900k+ for L5 w/ 3-4 yoe: https://www.levels.fyi/companies/openai/salaries/software-en...

Your number seems to be coming from a very small sample size (single digit N?), and GP's link is only about "key" employees like CxOs, VPs and top-ranking engineers.

I wonder what a median rank-and-file employee at these companies make.

I see your point. The fact that the small sample is for 3-4 YOE 'only', may indicate they do pay very well.

Prior discussion of median TC at OpenAI: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36460082

What are the credentials for the entry-level paths to positions? A phd?

... looks like this has been the case for a while (since inception)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/technology/artificial-int...

Looks like double to triple of what the same level at MSFT fetches https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Microsoft,OpenAI&track=Softw...

Interesting, but deceptive. Those are, as noted, "Key Employees and Officers." I just assume most employees with the title "Software Developer" aren't making over five times what Moxie is making.

Few

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