Isn't Microsoft essentially acquiring OpenAI at almost zero cost? You have IP rights to OpenAI's work, and you will have almost all the brains from OpenAI, and there is no regulatory scrutiny like Activision acquisition.
Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO
81–90 of 985 posts
Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO
#82It seems the next step, is the board to sign the letter calling for the board resignation. The insanity will be complete, and all can get back to therapy.
Ilya has signed the petition, so that's two out of three left.
he was said to start the whole mess and indeed he announced Sam's firing,,now he plays the victim, even movies can not switch plot this fast, keep some minimum dignity please
Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO
#83The fact that these people aren't currently willing to "rewind the clock" about a week shows the dangers of human ego. Nothing permanent has been done that can't be undone fairly simply, if all parties agree to undo it. What we're watching now is the effect of ego momentum on decision making. Try it. It's not a crazy idea. Put everything back the way it was a week ago and then agree to move forward. It will be like h…
[deleted]
Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO
#84As I posted elsewhere, I think this is a conflict between Dustin Moskovitz and Sam Altman. Ilya may have been brought into this without his knowledge (which might explain why he retracted his position).
Dustin Moskovitz was an early employee at FB, and the founder of Asana. He also created (along with plenty of MSFT bigwigs) a non-profit called Open Philanthropy, which was a early proponent of a form of Effective Altruism and also gave OpenAI their $30M grant. He is also one of the early investors in Anthropic.
Most of the OpenAI board members are related to Dustin Moskovitz this way.
- Adam D'Angelo is on the board of Asana and is a good friend to both Moskovitz and Altman
- Helen Toner worked for Dustin Moskovitz at Open Philanthropy and managed their grant to OpenAI. She was also a member of the Centre for the Governance of AI when McCauley was a board member there. Shortly after Toner left, the Centre for the Governance of AI got a $1M grant from Open Philanthropy and McCauley joined the board of OpenAI
- Tasha McCauley represents the Centre for the Governance of AI, which Dustin Moskovitz gave a $1M grant to via Open Philanthropy and McCauley ended up joining the board of OpenAI
Over the past few months, Dustin Moskovitz has also been increasingly warning about AI Safety.
In essense, it looks like a split between Sam Altman and Dustin Moskovitz
Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO
#85The fact that these people aren't currently willing to "rewind the clock" about a week shows the dangers of human ego. Nothing permanent has been done that can't be undone fairly simply, if all parties agree to undo it. What we're watching now is the effect of ego momentum on decision making. Try it. It's not a crazy idea. Put everything back the way it was a week ago and then agree to move forward. It will be like h…
Small amount of residual consequences? The employees are asking for the board to resign. So their jobs are literally on the line. That's not really a small consequence for most people.
Their board positions are gone either way. If they stay OpenAI is done.
Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO
#86As of 10am PT, 700 of 770 employees have signed the call for board resignation. [1] [1] https://twitter.com/joannejang/status/1726667504133808242
Incredible. Is this unprecedented or have been other cases in history where the vast majority of employees standup against the board in favor of their CEO?
I highly doubt this is directly in support of Altman and more about not imploding the company they work for. But you never know.
Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO
#87This whole thing is bizarre. OpenAI was the one company I was sure would be fine for the forseeable future!
The amount of money and power their products might offer makes it pretty desirable. Theoretically there should be no limit to the amount and type of shenanigans that are possible in this particular situation.
Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO
#88Guess OpenAI that was actually open was dead the moment Altman took MS money and completely change the organization. People there got a taste of the money and the mission went out the window.
A lesson to learn I guess, just because something claims to be a nonprofit with a mission doesn’t mean it is/always will be so. All it takes is a corporation with deep pockets to compromise a few important people*, indirectly giving them a say in the organization, and things can change very quickly.
* This was what MS did to Nokia too, if I remember correctly, to get them to adopt the Windows Phone platform.
Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe a precondition for Sam and Greg returning to OpenAI is that the board gets restructured (decelerationists culled). That is probably good for MSFT.
But probably better for Sam to stay with OpenAI right? More power leading your own firm than being an employee of MSFT
He has a green light to build a new thing and operate it as its own, obv. MS will own most of the equity but then he will have something as well.
OpenAI is a non-profit, so, no material benefit to him (at face value, I don't believe this is the case, though).
Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO
#90The fact that these people aren't currently willing to "rewind the clock" about a week shows the dangers of human ego. Nothing permanent has been done that can't be undone fairly simply, if all parties agree to undo it. What we're watching now is the effect of ego momentum on decision making. Try it. It's not a crazy idea. Put everything back the way it was a week ago and then agree to move forward. It will be like h…
> Nothing permanent has been done that can't be undone fairly simply ...aside from accusing Sam Altman of essentially lying to the board?
Fair point but a footnote given the amount of fall-out, that's on them and they'll have to retract that. Effectively they already did.