Post

@ccanonne.github.io

For context, to ground the conversation and explain one of the issues. USD20M, which is a self-reported (likely low-balled) estimate of what OpenAI burned in *one week* in their scooping race, would fund 100 full-time postdoctoral positions for 2 years (including overhead). 100 postdocs. 2 years.

9/9/26, 10:17 pm12 reposts44 likes

Clément Canonne

@ccanonne.github.io

9 Sept

(I think @freegaussians.bsky.social made the same back-of-the-envelope calculation and point earlier)

Clément Canonne

@ccanonne.github.io

9 Sept

Here: bsky.app/profile/free...

Juspreet Singh Sandhu@freegaussians.bsky.social

For the record: $22 million is ~70 math.PR grants from NSF’s MPS division. Each for 2 collaborators, gives 1 month summer salary, supports 1 grad student for its length: 2 yrs. That’s 140 years: In 7, I can promise substantial progress on SL/Parisi, PHA papers (1-6), PF/SYK<->SYK & quantum p-spin.

Ross Duncan

@rossquantum.bsky.social

10 Sept

I am reminded of Eisenhower's famous speech: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." Mutatis mutandi.