Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down • Hacker News Board

Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down

#151

Post by famouswaffles » Mon, Nov 20, 2023, 5:49 AM UTC

wannacboatmovie wrote: post #124

famouswaffles wrote: post #25

Murati being Interim CEO for a day to be replaced by another Interim CEO is exceedingly funny. Also if some of the wilder motives behind this shitshow are true then Microsoft will never see GPT-5.

Even funnier is someone (in a now flagged and dead'd post) accused me of being a misogynist for daring to even think of questioning her experience or capability as CEO. If you are CEO for a day do you get to wear a paper crown like at Burger King?

I don't know if you're misogynist but her qualifications are fine. She's not CEO anymore because she wanted Sam and Greg back not because she somehow failed her 1 day duties.

Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down

#152

Post by azurezyq » Mon, Nov 20, 2023, 5:50 AM UTC

bufferoverflow wrote: post #133

roddylindsay wrote: post #121

Contrarian prediction: OpenAI will be just fine. The board will bring in an adult CEO who can balance the nonprofit charter with Microsoft and the commercial business, and who doesn't have a million side projects taking his or her focus away. Some employees will leave but the vast majority will stay for the usual reasons (i.e. inertia), the business will keep growing because ChatGPT is already a worldwide brand at th…

If they don't get Altman back, Altman starts a new company AkshuallyOpenAI and most talent moves there. They quickly get the funding and the contracts with MS. OpenAI is left in the dust.

You know, we are dealing with people and people think differently so they won't move altogether. Moving to a new company under Alt is not an easy choice, at least the new company:

- Does not yet have a big model (need $$$ and months to train, if code is ready)

- Does not have proprietary code OpenAI has right now

- Does not have labeled data ($$$ and time) and chatgpt logs

- Does not have ChatGpt brand...

Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down

#153

Post by patapong » Mon, Nov 20, 2023, 5:50 AM UTC

altdataseller wrote: post #88

TechnicolorByte wrote: post #57

I still cannot process what’s happened to one of the most prominent and hyped companies of the past year in just one weekend. If it’s true that Altman won’t return to OpenAI (or alternatively: that the current board won’t step down) then where does that leave OpenAI? Microsoft can’t be happy, as evidenced by reporting that Nadella was acting as mediator to bring him back. Does OpenAI survive this? Will be super inter…

OpenAI has hundreds more employees, all of whom are incredibly smart. While they will definitely lose the leadership and talent of those two, it’s not as if a nuclear bomb dropped on their HQ and wiped out all their engineers! So questioning whether they will survive seems very silly and incredibly premature to me

I am guessing they are super reliant on Microsoft to keep running ChatGPT... If Microsoft decides to get out and finds a way they would be in deep trouble.

Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down

#154

Post by selcuka » Mon, Nov 20, 2023, 5:50 AM UTC

bufferoverflow wrote: post #133

roddylindsay wrote: post #121

Contrarian prediction: OpenAI will be just fine. The board will bring in an adult CEO who can balance the nonprofit charter with Microsoft and the commercial business, and who doesn't have a million side projects taking his or her focus away. Some employees will leave but the vast majority will stay for the usual reasons (i.e. inertia), the business will keep growing because ChatGPT is already a worldwide brand at th…

If they don't get Altman back, Altman starts a new company AkshuallyOpenAI and most talent moves there. They quickly get the funding and the contracts with MS. OpenAI is left in the dust.

> They quickly get the funding and the contracts with MS. OpenAI is left in the dust.

I haven't checked but I'm pretty sure OpenAI has many patents in the field and they won't be willing to share them with another company, especially with AkshuallyOpenAI.

Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down

#155

Post by 15457345234 » Mon, Nov 20, 2023, 5:50 AM UTC

zombiwoof wrote: post #138

jxf wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But a number of those other employees have said they'll leave if Altman isn't rehired.

Bullshit. They are not quitting

They're either not quitting or they've outed themselves as being part of a personality cult and they'll just hinder things if they're not ejected promptly.

Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down

#156

Post by karmasimida » Mon, Nov 20, 2023, 5:50 AM UTC

altdataseller wrote: post #88

TechnicolorByte wrote: post #57

I still cannot process what’s happened to one of the most prominent and hyped companies of the past year in just one weekend. If it’s true that Altman won’t return to OpenAI (or alternatively: that the current board won’t step down) then where does that leave OpenAI? Microsoft can’t be happy, as evidenced by reporting that Nadella was acting as mediator to bring him back. Does OpenAI survive this? Will be super inter…

OpenAI has hundreds more employees, all of whom are incredibly smart. While they will definitely lose the leadership and talent of those two, it’s not as if a nuclear bomb dropped on their HQ and wiped out all their engineers! So questioning whether they will survive seems very silly and incredibly premature to me

Survive as existing? They will.

But this is a disaster that can't be sugarcoated. Working in an AI company with a doomer as head is ridiculous. It will be like working in a tobacco company advocating for lung cancer awareness.

I don't think the new CEO can do anything to get back trust in record short amount of time. The sam loyalists will leave. The question remain, how is the new CEO going to hire new people, and will he be able to do so fast enough, and the ones who remain will accept the company that is a drastically different.

Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down

#157

Post by TechnicolorByte » Mon, Nov 20, 2023, 5:50 AM UTC

zombiwoof wrote: post #138

jxf wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But a number of those other employees have said they'll leave if Altman isn't rehired.

Bullshit. They are not quitting

Even if you don’t believe many employees would consider leaving for Altman, I find it probable that many would consider leaving for financial reasons. What will their PPUs be worth if OpenAI is seen as a funding risk?

Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down

#158

Post by soumyadeb » Mon, Nov 20, 2023, 5:50 AM UTC

tempsy wrote: post #144

roddylindsay wrote: post #121

Contrarian prediction: OpenAI will be just fine. The board will bring in an adult CEO who can balance the nonprofit charter with Microsoft and the commercial business, and who doesn't have a million side projects taking his or her focus away. Some employees will leave but the vast majority will stay for the usual reasons (i.e. inertia), the business will keep growing because ChatGPT is already a worldwide brand at th…

The issue is they’ve burned a million bridges with what they’ve done. No one in SV is going to be on their side in any of this. So hard to see how they succeed if nobody wants the perception of being on their team.

Is it true? Lot of folks have left the OpenAI board recently (Musk, Hoffman etc). For various reasons but its not that everyone in SV is happy in the direction OpenAI was going.

Plus giant competitors like Google, Facebook might step in to fill the void.

Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down

#159

Post by voidfunc » Mon, Nov 20, 2023, 5:51 AM UTC

bufferoverflow wrote: post #126

valine wrote: post #97

Not a word from Ilya. I can’t wrap my mind around his motivation. Did he really fire Sam over “AI safety” concerns? How is that remotely rational.

Because that's not the actual reason. It looks like a hostile takeover. The "king" of, arguably, the most important company in the world, got kicked out with very little effort. It's pretty extraordinary, and the power shift is extraordinary too.

Kicked out is a bit hyperbole. They don't have their champion anymore but the deal and their minority ownership stake are inked. They still get tech and profits. They might not have a path to owning OpenAI now but that was a problem a few years down the road. They can also invest in Altmans new thing and poach OpenAI talent to bolster their internal AI research which is probably going to get a massive funding boost.

The PR hit will be bad for a few days. Good time to buy MS stock on discount but this won't matter in a year or two.

Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down

#160

Post by jxi » Mon, Nov 20, 2023, 5:51 AM UTC

Trasmatta wrote: post #31

I feel like the board probably refused the demand that they issue a statement retracting the claims of wrongdoing by Altman.

That would have opened them up to a lawsuit (while employment is "at will", you can still get sued for negligence or baseless slandering). A statement retracting claims for such a high profile move would be a pretty solid piece of evidence in such a case.