OpenAI researchers imagine the counterfactual world where o1/RLVR was never discovered
willdepue · x · 2026-09-22
antimatter15, OpenAI's willdepue, and Nat Friedman riff on a counterfactual: had o1/RLVR never been discovered, voice interactions would have matured earlier, Jevons paradox would have arrived sooner, chat would be funnier and more "wordcel," and AI might already be an ad-driven consumer business. willdepue adds that many ideas were left on the table in GPT-4 as the field moved too fast. An interesting insider counterfactual discussion.
Related event: OpenAI Staff Question Chat Format, Imagine a World Without RLVR(4 posts)→
More from AGI Musings
- SemiAnalysis says open source is dying, yet 20+ open models shipped in the past month — _lewtun · 2026-09-22
- Tech has lost both Republicans and Democrats on AI and data centers — typewriters · 2026-09-22
- Strategy 101: incumbents tie complements, entrants break them — enter Muse — Afinetheorem · 2026-09-22
- Why Shopify says yes to Muse and Amazon says no: complements economics — Afinetheorem · 2026-09-22
- Kevin Roose laments millions buried heads in sand over AI skepticism, slow to update on evidence — jathansadowski · 2026-09-22
- NYT editorial invokes nuclear analogy: society can restrain dangerous innovations like AI — zetalyrae · 2026-09-22