Emmett announced a plan for the next 30 days https://x.com/eshear/status/1726526112019382275?s=46&t=VuyFi...
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
#862Is there a good article, or does anyone have the slightest inkling, about what the real conflict here is? There's a lot of articles about the symptoms, but what's the core issue here? The board claims Altman lied. Is that it? About what? Did he consistently misinform the board about a ton of different things? Or about one really important issue? Or is this just an excuse disguising the actual issues? I notice a lot o…
I'm not sure what more information people need. The original announcement was pretty clear: https://openai.com/blog/openai-announces-leadership-transiti....
Specifically:
> Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.
> it remains the fundamental governance responsibility of the board to advance OpenAI’s mission and preserve the principles of its Charter.
So the board did not have confidence that Sam was acting in good faith. Watch any of Ilya's many interviews, he speaks openly and candidly about his position. It is clear to me that Ilya is completely committed to the principles of the charter and sees a very real risk of sufficiently advanced AI causing disproportionate harm.
People keep trying to understand OpenAI as a hypergrowth SV startup, which it is explicitly not.
Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down
#863Earlier 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).
The Azure-hosted versions are consistently behind the OpenAI versions. For example, the GPT4 128K-token model is unavailable, and the GPT-4V model is also unavailable.
This. Very frustrating. Why is Azure behind and when is the gpt-4-turbo version coming?
Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down
#864Earlier quoted context omitted.
Totally agree. It seems like OpenAI is ahead of the curve, but even some free open source projects have become really good. I am no expert, so take this with a grain of salt. It seems OpenAI has a lead, but only of a few months or so and others are racing behind. I guess it really sucks if you built something that relies on the OpenAI api, but even then one could replace the api layer.
I mean, OpenAI aren't just going to close up shop. I would very much doubt they're just going to turn off their APIs. I would just keep building and if you have to swap LLMs at some point then do so.
That’s my fear is that they will phase out Plus subscriptions and shut down APIs because the folks that will be left want nothing to do with product.
Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down
#865Earlier quoted context omitted.
The trick is that execs do have unusually good insight into how their tech works, because they can ask their reports to explain it. Btw, I think it's funny how much credit Hinton gets for AI. His contribution is pretty much just keeping some grad students on the problem.
> I think it's funny how much credit Hinton gets for AI. His contribution is pretty much just keeping some grad students on the problem. Yes, clearly overrated in terms of credit. Doing foundational work in the field going back to the 70s which laid the groundwork and inspired the resurgence of neural networks in the late 80s. Being a solid community organiser throughout his career and keeping neural network research…
I think what the comment gets wrong is that even in the professor (PI) / grad student relationship, it's not defined as a purely managerial one. The one-on-one meetings between professor and graduate student are often about working out a new theory, even if the implementation and experimental work is left to the student. The amount of mind-share that goes on between is nontrivial, it is necessary for work that pushes the boundaries of human knowledge, and isn't at all like an executive asking for a report from an underling.
Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down
#866Through all of this, no one has cogently explained why Altman leaving is such a big deal. Why would workers immediately quit their job when he has no other company, and does he even know who these workers are? Are these people that desperate to make a buck (or the prospect of big bucks)? It seems like half of the people working at the non-profit were not actually concerned about the mission but rather just waiting ou…
The new CEO, (Emmett, not Mura, who was CEO for two days I guess) has publicly stated on multiple occasions "we need to slow down from a 10 to a 1-2". Ilya is also in favor of dramatically "slowing down". That's who's left in this company, running it. In the field of AI, right now, "slowing down" is like deciding to stop the car and walk the track by foot in the middle of a Formula 1 race. It's like going backwards.…
Also keep in mind govt are keeping an eye on this. If they are not careful they may get regulated like hell
Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down
#867Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s a big deal because he’s extremely charismatic and well connected and that matters much, much more for a tech company’s success than some programmers like to think.
What am I missing here: Sam Altman has zero charisma or cool factor. Every talk I've seen him in, he comes off as lethargic and sluggish. I get zero sense of passion or rallying drive around the hype of AI from him. He's not an AI visionary. He's not a hype man. He simply "is", and just because he happens to have been the CEO he's been thrust into the spotlight, but there's literally nothing interesting about him.
What you are missing is his record of success and making the people under him rich. That's the kind of person people to work for. They want to make money, not to work for someone who looks good on camera.
Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down
#868Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is actually pretty surprising to me, since a financially motivated person would normally wait until a better deal, and just collect their paycheck in the meantime. There's also no guarantee that Altman will really start a new company, or be able to collect funding to hire everyone quickly. I wonder if these people are just very loyal to Sam.
> This is actually pretty surprising to me, since a financially motivated person would normally wait until a better deal, and just collect their paycheck in the meantime. I imagine you need to signal that you want in on the deal by departing. Get founder equity.
Even if he had started a new company, there was no way a dozen employees were getting founder equity for showing loyalty
Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down
#869I 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
> and talent of those two
You are aware that more than just 2 people departed?
Re: Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down
#870Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think he's not as known in the outside world but it's really difficult to understate the amount of social capital sama has in the inner circles of Silicon Valley. It sounds like he did a good job instilling loyalty as a CEO as well, but the SV thing means that the more connected someone at the company is to the SV ecosystem, the more likely they like him/want to be on his good side. This is kind of like the leaders…
Every SV CEO has a "Sam Altman saved my butt during crucial incident X" story
What are some examples of these crucial incidents?