Related ongoing thread:
OpenAI negotiations to reinstate Altman hit snag over board role - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38337568 - Nov 2023 (18 comments)
OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing
81–90 of 154 posts
Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing
#82I 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 is the commercial streak of OpenAI. Investors are nervous because that's the part that actually makes money. If it was left up to Ilya, it's unlikely that OpenAI is going to reach it's full earning potential in favor of things that are more research oriented.
This really does feel like Ilya is Woz, an idealist, doing the hard work and soon to be cast aside for Altman as their Jobs. Because idealism doesn’t make people billionaires.
Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing
#83I 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)?
He is one of the most well connected people in tech and probably responsible for all of their partnerships and fundraising success. His departure in this fashion would make it really hard for them to raise as much money as they will need and potentially put them on a blacklist of a lot of YC companies. To top it off he'd probably raise a few billion and poach half of the team.
> His departure in this fashion would make it really hard for them to raise as much money as they will need and potentially put them on a blacklist of a lot of YC companies.
How does this matter anymore? OpenAI is the most known company from the last year. You don’t need specific person anymore to market about your company. If it is up to single person whether company is worth investment, then everyone just hopes that eventually OpenAI will turn to full-profit mode.
It is pretty clear, that if board wants to run company for greater good, for-profit-only CEO must leave.
Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the left corner, Microsoft and the guy that founded Loopt. In the right corner the company that created and still completely controls GPT-4. Why are you so sure about who wins this face off?
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…
> 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.
Without its exclusive relationship to Microsoft, there are other people with access to money and compute that would like a leg up in the enterprise AI space that Microsoft would be taking a major, even if (optimistically) temporary, step back from its leading position in by terminating its relationship with OpenAI.
Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s up with comparing altman to steve jobs? He’s well behind him on the scale of leadership, inspiration, vision, and not to mention he had little to no contribution to ai, other than a crypto style aggressive marketing campaign, sprinkled with fud fomo and gaslighting.
Agreed. The cult of personality seems to have a strong grip on the US zeitgeist. Technology is the new religion and Musk/Altman are the new messiahs, with Jobs and Gates as the patron saints.
It’s mostly just this site and the SV delusion it’s connected with. I’d bet if you ask random Americans, they would have no idea who Altman even is.
Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
They have the GPUs and there's a GPU shortage already. What do you think is going to happen when they lose that access in $10bn compute? Given the shortage and other vendors being mostly locked up already, there's not much OpenAI can do. And that's not considering that the board is facing immense pressure internally starting from the very temporary CEO that they put in place two days ago to various members of senior…
Microsoft is going to walk away from the most strategic deal they’ve made in a decade to save the Loopt guy’s ego?
I feel like everyone should be forced to watch a few Game of Thrones episodes before commenting. Organizations act in their own self interest. Leaders are convinced they’re irreplaceable all the way to the gallows steps.
If Sam can sabotage OpenAI or if the remaining people can’t capably run the organization then sure people will walk away. But if they keep things from falling apart nobody is going to give a fuck.
Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s up with comparing altman to steve jobs? He’s well behind him on the scale of leadership, inspiration, vision, and not to mention he had little to no contribution to ai, other than a crypto style aggressive marketing campaign, sprinkled with fud fomo and gaslighting.
Yeah the abrupt vibe shift on HN with regards to altman is pretty odd. Suddenly he's a Jobs-esque product visionary?
I remember when people loathed him on here. Worldcoin etc?
He seems slimy as hell and I’m giving Ilya the benefit of the doubt.
Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
He is one of the most well connected people in tech and probably responsible for all of their partnerships and fundraising success. His departure in this fashion would make it really hard for them to raise as much money as they will need and potentially put them on a blacklist of a lot of YC companies. To top it off he'd probably raise a few billion and poach half of the team.
> His departure in this fashion would make it really hard for them to raise as much money as they will need and potentially put them on a blacklist of a lot of YC companies. How does this matter anymore? OpenAI is the most known company from the last year. You don’t need specific person anymore to market about your company. If it is up to single person whether company is worth investment, then everyone just hopes tha…
I'm not sure how this would work with their funding / ownership structure but a delaware c corp with such a high valuation and so much money raised would have to take a huge down round if it lost half the team and pissed off their largest partners (microsoft). It would usually be a bloodbath that would wipe out common shareholders and early investors, which would then lead to most early employees leaving.
Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing
#89Apparently Sam and Greg are at the OpenAI offices to negotiate their return.
Source?
Re: OpenAI investors try to get Sam Altman back as CEO after sudden firing
#90I 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)?
Yes, that critical. Sam and Greg hired Ilya among many other world class researchers to build AI. Their business execution was so successful that replacing them with another leadership team triggered panic to investors.