OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman • Hacker News Board

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#271

Post by coffeebeqn » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 9:31 PM UTC

superfrank wrote: post #145

I can't wait for the revel that GPT-4 is just a chat application connecting you to a the worlds biggest center in India. Joking aside, this feels massive. Both that it happened so suddenly and that the announcement doesn't mince words. The fact that the CTO is now CEO makes me think it's probably not a lie about their tech. It wouldn't make sense to say "we've been lying about our capabilities" and then appoint the c…

Ilya is also on the board and he knows the tech better than Sam

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#272

Post by nicklevin » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 9:31 PM UTC

Pure speculation and just trying to connect dots... I wonder if they realized they are losing a lot of money on ChatGPT Plus subscriptions. Sam tweeted about pausing sign-ups just a few days ago: https://twitter.com/sama/status/1724626002595471740

Lots more signups recently + OpenAI losing $X for each user = Accelerating losses the board wasn't aware of ?

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#273

Post by dnissley » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 9:32 PM UTC

I won't say I'm super surprised that a guy with (apparently) no equity didn't last long as CEO of a company.

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#274

Post by mmaunder » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 9:32 PM UTC

Transitions like this are almost never this candid. It forces Sam to respond with his version. It’s unfortunate that they fired the first salvo.

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#275

Post by crunkykd » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 9:32 PM UTC

pure speculation: ChatGPT training dataset contains massive amounts of copyrighted material, and he told the board it didn't. now there's a big looming liability.

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#276

Post by navigate8310 » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 9:33 PM UTC

codebolt wrote: post #33

I have a strong gut feeling they're about to mess things up.

I fear the same.

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#277

Post by turkus » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 9:34 PM UTC

I think it could simply be a matter of vision. Sam just recently sounded more cautious and calculated than ever, possibly scaling down the expectations from the current state of his company's AI [1]. That might not have played well with the board, based potentially on his previous messaging to them.

[1] https://twitter.com/Andercot/status/1725300091450519927

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#278

Post by omgJustTest » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 9:34 PM UTC

Altman was at APEC yesterday saying "humanity is on the edge of destroying itself" or similar.

A few things that could lead to the company throwing shade: 1. Real prospects of OpenAI progress have been undersold, and that Altman and cofounders sought to buy time by slow-rolling the board 2. Real profitability is under/overestimated 3. The board was not happy with the "doom and gloom" narrative to world leaders 4. World leaders asked for business opportunities and the board was not fully aware of bridges or certain exploration of opportunities. 5. None of the above and something mundane.