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OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

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Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#721

I have a theory. Ilya has always seemed like he was idealistic and I’m guessing that he was the reason for OpenAI’s very strange structure. Ilya is the man when it comes to AI so people put up with his foolishness. Adam D'Angelo is, like Ilya, an amazing computer science talent who may have shared Ilya’s idealistic notions (in particular OpenAI is non-profit, unless forced to be capped profit and is categorically not…

> Let this be a lesson, don’t have a wacky ownership structure and wacky board when you have the (perhaps) the most valuable product in the world.

If your goal is to make money. I'd like to believe that for some of the people pushing the field forward, there are other motivations.

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#722

- Cant be a personal scandal, press release would be worded much more differently - Board is mostly independent and those independent dont have equity - They talk about not being candid - this is legalese for “lying” The only major thing that could warrant something like this is Sam going behind the boards back to make a decision (or make progress on a decision) that is misaligned with the Charter. Thats the only fir…

Doesn’t make any sense. He is ideologically driven - why would he risk a once in a lifetime opportunity for a mere sale? Desperate times calls for desperate measures. This is a swift way for OpenAI to shield the business from something which is a PR disaster, probably something which would make Sam persona non grata in any business context.

Billions of dollars is a "mere sale?"

Lol

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#723

Ilya booted him https://twitter.com/karaswisher/status/1725702501435941294

This should be higher voted. Seems like an internal power struggle between the more academic types and the commercial minded sides of OpenAI. I bet Sam goes and founds a company to take on OpenAI…and wins.

Yes, and wins with an inferior product. Hooray /s

If the company's 'Chief Scientist' is this unhappy about the direction the CEO is taking the company, maybe there's something to it.

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#724

I have a theory. Ilya has always seemed like he was idealistic and I’m guessing that he was the reason for OpenAI’s very strange structure. Ilya is the man when it comes to AI so people put up with his foolishness. Adam D'Angelo is, like Ilya, an amazing computer science talent who may have shared Ilya’s idealistic notions (in particular OpenAI is non-profit, unless forced to be capped profit and is categorically not…

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Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#725
My prediction : Sam agrees to some business deal the rest of the board found unethical. Something of magnitude "chatgpt used by the NSA".

Other predictions I've read here sound unconvincing to me. Already developed AGI, spending too much on compute - this is not something CEO alone could hide and I would trust other board members to understand those matter better.

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#726

I have a theory. Ilya has always seemed like he was idealistic and I’m guessing that he was the reason for OpenAI’s very strange structure. Ilya is the man when it comes to AI so people put up with his foolishness. Adam D'Angelo is, like Ilya, an amazing computer science talent who may have shared Ilya’s idealistic notions (in particular OpenAI is non-profit, unless forced to be capped profit and is categorically not…

[deleted]

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#727

I have a theory. Ilya has always seemed like he was idealistic and I’m guessing that he was the reason for OpenAI’s very strange structure. Ilya is the man when it comes to AI so people put up with his foolishness. Adam D'Angelo is, like Ilya, an amazing computer science talent who may have shared Ilya’s idealistic notions (in particular OpenAI is non-profit, unless forced to be capped profit and is categorically not…

"Wacky" is an interesting way to describe "non-profit" or, in this case, "not purely profit motivated."

It's not "wacky" to have goals other than the accumulation of capital. In fact, given the purpose of OpenAI, I think it's meritorious.

I'd personally prefer we just not work on AGI at all, but I'd rather a non-profit dedicated to safe AI do it than a for-profit company dedicated to returns for shareholders.

> Let this be a lesson, don’t have a wacky ownership structure and wacky board when you have the (perhaps) the most valuable product in the world.

I think the lesson is just the opposite: If you want to work according to your ideals, and not simply for money, you should absolutely do whatever 'wacky' thing protects that.

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#728

Greg just quit too: https://twitter.com/gdb/status/1725667410387378559

Do these people type all lowercase on purpose? Is it a power move/status thing? I'd have to go out of my way to type like that, on mobile or at a workstation.

I've always seen it as a way of peacocking. A way for people to make themselves stand out from others. But I think it also stems from a mindset of "I'm aware that professional communication involves proper capitalization, but I'm not going to bother because I don't feel the need to communicate professionally to the person I'm typing to"

I'm fine with it as long as everyone is typing in lowercase. But if the culture of a company or community is to type a certain way, there's some level of disrespect (or rebellion) by doing the opposite.

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#729

I have a theory. Ilya has always seemed like he was idealistic and I’m guessing that he was the reason for OpenAI’s very strange structure. Ilya is the man when it comes to AI so people put up with his foolishness. Adam D'Angelo is, like Ilya, an amazing computer science talent who may have shared Ilya’s idealistic notions (in particular OpenAI is non-profit, unless forced to be capped profit and is categorically not…

Agree with this. Internal power structure between academic types and tech-forward commercialization types.

It might be this is good at the end of the day. OpenAI is just not structured to win.

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