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Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down

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

#551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand what point you're trying to make. Yes Microsoft uses OpenAI APIs. What is the point you're trying to make beyond that? It's still OpenAI software.

Microsoft doesn't "use" the APIs, they host them on their own servers and have a license to do so and re-license to Azure users. If something goes wrong with OpenAI (given that it sounds like many key employees are leaving), Azure will stay up and you can keep using the APIs from MS.

Or, to say it another way, they are cooperating with OpenAI - OpenAI uses Microsoft's cloud services, and Microsoft incorporates OpenAI's products in its own offerings. But the worries people have are not about OpenAI's products suddenly vanishing, it's about the turmoil at OpenAI affecting the future of those products.

Actually the exodus of talent from OpenAI may turn out to be beneficial for the development of AI by increasing competition - however it will certainly go against the stated goal of the board for firing Altman, which was basically keeping the development under control.

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

#552

I’m genuinely surprised that they stuck to their guns. The PR push behind Altman’s return was convincing enough that I had my doubts. Altman will be more than fine, he’ll get a bucket of money and the chance to prove he is the golden boy he’s been sold to the world. He will get to recruit a team that believes in his vision of accelerating AI for commercial use. This will lead to a more diverse market. I hope for the…

The whole situation should make it clear that SV media is beholden to VCs and will print anything they tell them to. Bloomberg, the verge and the information all went to bat for Altman in a big way on this.

Kara Swisher was basically working as Altman’s press secretary

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

#553
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I think is funny is how the whole "we're just doing this to make sure AI is safe" meme breaks down, if you have OpenAI, Anthropic, and Altman AI all competing, which seems likely now. Do you really need all 3? Is each one going to claim that they're the only ones who can develop AGI safely? Since Sam left, now OpenAI is unsafe? But I thought they were the safe ones, and he was being reckless. Or is Sam just goin…

Can someone explain to me what they mean by "safe" AGI? I've looked in many places and everyone is extremely vague. Certainly no one is suggesting these systems can become "alive", so what exactly are we trying to remain safe from? Job loss?

It being "alive" is sort of what AGI implies (depending on your definition of life).

Now consider the training has caused it to have undesirable behavior (misaligned with human values).

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

#554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it actually kill a person? When does it stop existing in boxes that require a continuous source of electricity and can’t survive water or fire?

> When does it stop existing in boxes that require a continuous source of electricity and can’t survive water or fire? When someone runs a model in a reasonably durable housing with a battery? (I'm not big on the AI as destroyer or saviour cult myself, but that particular question doesn't seem like all that big of a refutation of it.)

But my point is what is it actually doing to reach out and touch someone in the doomsday scenario?

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

#555
post #448

The contrast between the media's depiction of today's events with this outcome demonstrates how much Sam and his aligned interests can influence a narrative. The vast majority of reporting indicated that Sam held all the leverage, the board members were about to be fired, and a new board would be appointed which would be much better aligned with Sam. These accounts took special care to portray the current board as in…

If this were true they never would have had talks to bring him back. That's the opposite of steadfast commitment to principles. If Sam wronged them or the company in a significant way they never should have let him back in the building. The board's decisions may or may not turn out to be correct in hindsight. But it's very difficult to say that this was a good example of leadership or decision making.

https://twitter.com/ashleevance/status/1726469283734274338

> So, here's what happened at OpenAI tonight. Mira planned to hire Sam and Greg back. She turned Team Sam over past couple of days. Idea was to force board to fire everyone, which they figured the board would not do. Board went into total silence. Found their own CEO Emmett Shear

Written by the person who broke the story at Bloomberg.

So it appears a single person on the board wanted the talks to bring him back, and nobody else. I think that's 1 against 3, but the point is that the board wasn't totally united (which is not surprising).

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

#556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tip for builders: you can use the GPT APIs on Microsoft Azure. Managed reliably, nobody's quitting, no drama. Same APIs, just with better controls, global availability, and a very stable, reliable, and trustworthy provider. (disclosure: I work at Azure, but this is just my own observation).

I don't understand what point you're trying to make. Yes Microsoft uses OpenAI APIs. What is the point you're trying to make beyond that? It's still OpenAI software.

[deleted]

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

#557

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes you're either a doomer or e/acc. Pick an extreme. Everything must be polarized.

There's a character in HPMOR named after the new CEO. (That's the religious text of the anti-AI cult that founded OpenAI. It's in the form of a very long Harry Potter fanfic.)

Imagine how bad a reputation EA would have if the general public knew about HPMOR

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

#558

Someone help me understand OpenAI’s situation. If Sutskever remains at the company, OpenAi can continue to improve its ChatGPT models and produce model 5.0? What leverage does Microsoft does have over OpenAi? Can Microsoft shut off access to their hardware to support Altman? Why would Microsoft want this?

the biggest leverage is the billions in compute that Microsoft holds over OpenAI. Without this compute they can't run most of the experiments to get number five before others, who are very close, especially Anthropic.

Which is weird because Nvidia/TSMC must have some leverage over MS there and could ship out containers of their big cluster units.

Also AWS could be the sugar daddy.

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

#559

HN! If I had a recorded phone call, emails and chats I thought it would be the better for the public to know about, how would I go ahead and share such in the best and most anonymous way?

Stop thinking about posting things and talk to a lawyer. I'm 100% serious here. Depending on what you post you could end up either a) sued for libel/slander/illegally recording (CA is a two-party consent state), or b) you could end up called as a witness for any legal action in the fallout of this situation. Seriously, look out for yourself, my dude, there's billions of dollars at stake here, and in a fight between whales the shrimp's back gets broken.

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

#560

"I specifically say I’m in favor of slowing down, which is sort of like pausing except it’s slowing down. If we’re at a speed of 10 right now, a pause is reducing to 0. I think we should aim for a 1-2 instead." - Emmett Shear, Sep 16, 2023 https://twitter.com/eshear/status/1703178063306203397?t=8nHS...

Rest in peace OpenAI. Microsoft's investment might have just gone from one of the best of the decade to one of the worst in the course of a weekend.
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