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OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing

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Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing

#51

Post by gkoberger »

htrp wrote: post #10

Apparently Sam and Greg are at the OpenAI offices to negotiate their return.

For what it's worth, I doubt any negotiations will be taking place in the OpenAI office. They've been negotiating since yesterday.

The board doesn't work from the office (they're not employees), and there's absolutely no way they'd negotiate on Sam's home turf.

It's been noted that Satya is leading the negotiations on Sam's behalf, and he's certainly not in SF.

Rather, this is a show of solidarity from the OpenAI team. I bet the plan is to be together when Sam is reinstated.

Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing

#52

Post by seltzergenius »

bogwog wrote: post #32

I don't follow OpenAI or SV news all that much. Is this guy really that critical to the company? I thought Ilya Sutskever was the genius? Is this a non-compete thing, where they're scared Altman will take company secrets to a competitor, or is this dude actually a major factor in the company's success (and not just a lucky bystander)?

[flagged]

Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing

#53

Post by dang »

seltzergenius wrote: post #52
bogwog wrote: post #32

I don't follow OpenAI or SV news all that much. Is this guy really that critical to the company? I thought Ilya Sutskever was the genius? Is this a non-compete thing, where they're scared Altman will take company secrets to a competitor, or is this dude actually a major factor in the company's success (and not just a lucky bystander)?

[flagged]

"Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community." It's reliably a marker of bad comments and worse threads.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing

#54

Post by andreyk »

bogwog wrote: post #32

I don't follow OpenAI or SV news all that much. Is this guy really that critical to the company? I thought Ilya Sutskever was the genius? Is this a non-compete thing, where they're scared Altman will take company secrets to a competitor, or is this dude actually a major factor in the company's success (and not just a lucky bystander)?

Altman has been the CEO of OpenAI since early 2019, so he has been there for the whole journey from GPT-2 to GPT-4/ChatGPT and the company's shift to mostly focusing on LLMs over RL/robotics/other stuff. I can't say I know much about the degree of his involvement, but my gut feeling is that he has been heavily involved in steering the company's direction and efforts.

Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing

#55

Post by neonate »

smnrchrds wrote: post #49

What are the odds that, if Sam Altman returns to OpenAI, it would remain a non-profit? From everything that the news has covered since his departure, it seems that the board is committed to the non-profit mission, but Sam runs OpenAI like a for-profit startup company. I imagine if he returns, the board will be replaced with people who share Sam's vision and OpenAI will drop the façade of public responsibility and non…

FTA: "Altman is thinking about returning but has told investors that if he does return, he wants a new board and governance structure"

Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing

#56

Post by linkgoron »

CPLX wrote: post #36
toomuchtodo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you can't train and operate models at scale with ideology. Costs money and compute. Without funding and compute, OpenAI is a bunch of smart folks with laptops talking AI safety in an office until the cashflow dries up. People who want to get paid or are loyal to Sam will follow Sam. Microsoft is clearly behind Sam. "Whoever holds the gold makes the rules." EDIT: gkoberger said it far better, and captures the…

OpenAI has the most valuable new technology product in a generation and it’s already monetized. It’s also a charity and could give a fuck about growth beyond the extent needed to meet their goals. The idea that Microsoft is somehow the one irreplaceable part of this formula is completely fucking bizzare.

OpenAI is not a "thing", the workers are a thing. OpenAI is nothing if the engineers/scientists leave the company to work somewhere else if Altman leaves. According to reports, the head of research and other senior staff have said that they will resign if Altman is not restored as CEO.

Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing

#57

Post by CPLX »

bogwog wrote: post #32

I don't follow OpenAI or SV news all that much. Is this guy really that critical to the company? I thought Ilya Sutskever was the genius? Is this a non-compete thing, where they're scared Altman will take company secrets to a competitor, or is this dude actually a major factor in the company's success (and not just a lucky bystander)?

There’s no real evidence that the board is considering bringing him back. Team Altman is firmly in place as part of the global elite (that’s not an insinuation he literally attends Bohemian Grove) and has lots of connections and influence.

That’s pretty clearly where the stories are being sourced from. The narrative that the board was begging to get him back emerged all at once in an organized fashion.

Doesn’t prove it’s not true, maybe they are. Stranger things have happened. But definitely not something to take on faith without a clearer statement from those on the other side of the conflict.

Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing

#58

Post by gkoberger »

smnrchrds wrote: post #49

What are the odds that, if Sam Altman returns to OpenAI, it would remain a non-profit? From everything that the news has covered since his departure, it seems that the board is committed to the non-profit mission, but Sam runs OpenAI like a for-profit startup company. I imagine if he returns, the board will be replaced with people who share Sam's vision and OpenAI will drop the façade of public responsibility and non…

If I had to bet, I'd say it remains a non-profit but with significant structural changes (such as removing caps on returns and more experienced people joining the board).

Sam has always spoken favorably of the non-profit portion of the company, and he's very aware that the importance of what OpenAI is doing exceeds what a corporation can handle.

Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing

#60

Post by notabee »

CPLX wrote: post #36
toomuchtodo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you can't train and operate models at scale with ideology. Costs money and compute. Without funding and compute, OpenAI is a bunch of smart folks with laptops talking AI safety in an office until the cashflow dries up. People who want to get paid or are loyal to Sam will follow Sam. Microsoft is clearly behind Sam. "Whoever holds the gold makes the rules." EDIT: gkoberger said it far better, and captures the…

OpenAI has the most valuable new technology product in a generation and it’s already monetized. It’s also a charity and could give a fuck about growth beyond the extent needed to meet their goals. The idea that Microsoft is somehow the one irreplaceable part of this formula is completely fucking bizzare.

Well, now we know that once any putative superintelligence learns how to wave money around, we're doomed. All the preparatory "alignment" isn't going to save us from our own greed.
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