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OpenAI negotiations to reinstate Altman hit snag over board role

bloomberg.com

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Re: OpenAI negotiations to reinstate Altman hit snag over board role

#301

Post by basiccalendar74 »

chubot wrote: post #242
jasonhansel wrote: post #173

This is why, when you claim to be running a non-profit to "benefit humankind," you shouldn't put all your resources into a for-profit subsidiary. Eventually, the for-profit arm, and its investors, will find its nonprofit parent a hindrance, and an insular board of directors won't stand a chance against corporate titans.

Yeah, but also remember that Altman and Musk started the non-profit to begin with (back when both their reputations were much different). They were explicitly concerned about Google's dominance in AI. It was always competitive, and always about power. Wikipedia gives these names: In December 2015, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Infosys,…

this makes a lot of sense. I wonder if board's goal in firing Sam was to make everyone (govt., general public,) understand for-profit motives of Sam and most employees at this point.

Either Sam forms a new company with mass exodus of employees, or outside pressure changes structure of OpenAI towards a clear for-profit vision. In both cases, there will be no confusion going forward whether OpenAI/Sam have become a profit-chasing startup.

Chasing profits is not bad in itself, but doing it under the guise of a non-profit organization is.

Re: OpenAI negotiations to reinstate Altman hit snag over board role

#302

Post by cthalupa »

tsunamifury wrote: post #283
pkaye wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't Mozilla run the same way with for-profit under a non-profit?

How’d that work out for them?

They still exist and put out a product used by quite a few people, so quite well?

You can't judge a non-profit by the same success metrics as a for-profit.

Re: OpenAI negotiations to reinstate Altman hit snag over board role

#303

Post by PostOnce »

ben_w wrote: post #260
PostOnce wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would a 2.75 trillion dollar software company that has been around since the inception of the modern computer be able to keep up? Probably. If the people running it and the shareholders were committed to keeping up and spending money to do so.

That wasn’t sufficient for Bing, Cortana, or Windows Mobile/Windows Phone.

I personally believe these are marketing failures rather than technical failures.

I also personally loathe Microsoft, but even I will concede that they probably have the technical wherewithal to follow known trajectories, the cat is out of the bag with AI now.

Re: OpenAI negotiations to reinstate Altman hit snag over board role

#304

Post by Aeolun »

At the risk of being off topic (well, definitely):

> in a post on X, formerly Twitter

It keep surprising me that someone can so completely torpedo their brand that news organisations feel compelled to keep referring to the old name so people have some idea of what they’re talking about.

Re: OpenAI negotiations to reinstate Altman hit snag over board role

#305

Post by padolsey »

resource0x wrote: post #164
kromem wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the beginning of the end of humanity. But maybe the beginning of the end of OpenAI. A week ago I was saying that it's likely the leading AI company in 5 years time hasn't been founded yet. After the news Friday and looking more at how Ilya sees the future of neural networks, I actually thought there's a decent chance OpenAI might correct course to continue to lead. If it becomes too productized under a strengthen…

> A week ago I was saying that it's likely the leading AI company in 5 years time hasn't been founded yet. I bet that in 5 years, we won't be talking about AI at all. Whatever can be squeezed from current technologies, will be squeezed much sooner. Real AI will eventually be based on totally different principles. Maybe by utilizing the natural intelligence of living organisms (e.g. bacteria).

What makes you so sure? It feels like a GPT-5/6, with enough inner feedback loops and system-calling capability will be scarily capable.

Re: OpenAI negotiations to reinstate Altman hit snag over board role

#306

Post by aitrw »

aunty_helen wrote: post #212
rvnx wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that mean that the move of the board was actually good for openness of AI ?

The board were literally doing their job. Anyone claiming incompetence is just mistaken about the stated goal of openai: safe available agi for all. Throw in a huge investment, a 90 billion dollar valuation and a rockstar ceo. It’s pretty clear the court of public opinion is wrong about this case.

>safe available agi for all.

And they can pick two. Gpus don't grow on trees so without billions in funding they can't provide it to everyone.

Available means that I should have access to the weights.

Safe means they want to control what people can use it for.

The board prioritised safe over everything else. I fundamentally disagree with that and welcome the counter coup.

Re: OpenAI negotiations to reinstate Altman hit snag over board role

#307

Post by [deleted] »

moralestapia wrote: post #193
malfist wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty haven't left. Depending on which article you read it's between 3 and 5. Which is nothing for a company the size of OpenAI

Yeah man, whatever you say! :^) https://twitter.com/rowancheung/status/1726060441103958481

[deleted]

Re: OpenAI negotiations to reinstate Altman hit snag over board role

#308

Post by trhway »

pdntspa wrote: post #246

I really hope Altman doesn't return to his role. It is nice to see some people showing some spine and standing up to business interestes. "Open"AI is and was a lie for the longest time.

the choice at this moment is simple - either Altman goes away with some employees and starts new venture while the Ilya's side gets the rest of the employees plus the whole OpenAI IP, resources, etc., or Ilya goes away with some employees and starts new venture while Altman gets the rest of the employees plus the whole OpenAI IP, resources, etc. Right now Ilya's side has the Open AI - it would be strange if they just give it away to Altman.

Re: OpenAI negotiations to reinstate Altman hit snag over board role

#309

Post by [deleted] »

jasonhansel wrote: post #173

This is why, when you claim to be running a non-profit to "benefit humankind," you shouldn't put all your resources into a for-profit subsidiary. Eventually, the for-profit arm, and its investors, will find its nonprofit parent a hindrance, and an insular board of directors won't stand a chance against corporate titans.

[deleted]

Re: OpenAI negotiations to reinstate Altman hit snag over board role

#310

Post by junofan »

rvnx wrote: post #288
junofan wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their actions were reckless and irresponsible. They are currently picking their successors. The incompetence is staggering regardless of motive.

We're still waiting for the explanations from Altman about the alleged involvement in spending time on conflicting companies while he is CEO at OpenAI. According to FT this could be the cause for the firing: “Sam has a company called Oklo, and [was trying to launch] a device company and a chip company (for AI). The rank and file at OpenAI don’t dispute those are important. The dispute is that OpenAI doesn’t own a pie…

I don’t see how that factors in. What matters is OpenAI’s enterprise customers reading about a boardroom coup in the WSJ. Completely avoidable destruction of value.
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