Discussion
Nvidia's Huang pitches AI tokens on top of salary as agents reshape how humans work
greenpizza13: This is some bad reporting, IMO.Here’s the quote“ “I’m going to give them probably half of that on top of [their base pay] as tokens ... because every engineer that has access to tokens will be more productive.” “It’s less of him saying it’s a bonus or a perk and more him saying expect to spend that much more on top of base salary to get enormous productivity boosts.Now, I could see availability of these tools as an incentive to joining a place, which is no different than joining an engineering team because the use nice MacBooks.
CodingJeebus: Reminds me of the pre-prohibition era where distilleries often paid their workers by giving them liquor (payment in kind) to manage liquidity issues.This looks like a clever way to try to compete for talent without continuing to ratchet up pay, allowing Nvidia to continue to expand their debt without needing additional cash.
naravara: Any time I see a pitch for companies paying people in things that aren’t money I think of the Simpsons bit where Homer finds $20 under the couch and is disappointed that it’s not a peanut.There’s reasons why, because of what a company does, it’s able to offer you something for markedly cheaper than you’d get it on the market, so the arbitrage you can do by getting it at that discount may be worth it, like getting a free meal or drink when you work at a restaurant. But in most cases, money can be exchanged for goods and services and $1 of currency is always going to be more valuable than $1 worth of some commodity.
paxys: What's happening in tech today is a very clear sign of the AI bubble.Generally every new technology that increases produtivity is adopted organically. Employees don't protest, because they themselves see the benefits. And yes, those who fail to adapt eventually get left behind.AI may very well be the same kind of leap forward, not denying that, but rather than rewarding productivity increases from AI employees have started to reward AI use itself. Token use is being measured. Lines of code written using AI is being measured. Workers are being penalized even if their productivity is higher without AI.The industry is being driven by FOMO, and that never ends well.
piva00: Huang is absolutely losing the plot, salary is compensation for work done, for time spent away from other things in life, and to sustain your life outside of work.Tokens as "compensation" falls into the not-even-wrong bucket, tokens are business expenses as input for work.
OJFord: No, it's CNBC that's lost the plot, totally misrepresenting what he said. I commented longer: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47454487
joe_mamba: Man, If I had a penny for every time HN jumped the outrage gun over statements taken out of context, or interpreted in bad faith, or over straight up misinformation simply because it's on an unpopular person/topic that's an easy target for people to attack without doing proper due diligence beforehand, I'd be able to afford a DDR5 kit. I'm glad there's people willing to go against the grain to clarify things.
999900000999: I'd be really skeptical of taking this offer, okay if you give me a tokens and I use them to start up a side project do you now have ownership in that side project ?It's different in every company, but a lot of them really don't like side projects. I imagine if you build anything worthwhile some Nvidia lawyers might try to claim ownership.
piva00: Thank you for correcting the CNBC deception, it makes absolutely more sense as part of a budget for devs similarly to educational/conference budgets.
