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Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

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Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#451

Post by dontlaugh »

lovecg wrote: post #433
nullindividual wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm no fan of rich people as a principle given they suck wealth from the poor and Smaug the money away like the narcissists they are, but this is the definition of that horrible cancel culture. She's accused him which isn't something the public should act upon. If proven, then it's appropriate to form that negative opinion.

> suck wealth from the poor and Smaug the money away like What does that even mean? They buy up factories and let them sit idle?

The poor work in the factories, yet the owners of the factories get paid without having worked.

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#452

Post by adventured »

lovecg wrote: post #433
nullindividual wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm no fan of rich people as a principle given they suck wealth from the poor and Smaug the money away like the narcissists they are, but this is the definition of that horrible cancel culture. She's accused him which isn't something the public should act upon. If proven, then it's appropriate to form that negative opinion.

> suck wealth from the poor and Smaug the money away like What does that even mean? They buy up factories and let them sit idle?

It's based on the false premise that there is a specific amount of wealth and that's it (which also requires fixed productivity, which is a crazy premise if one knows anything about the past several hundred years or has ever read a single history textbook). So in order for someone to be rich, they had to steal it from someone else.

If you follow it to the logical conclusion, it's nothing more than repackaged original sin. All wealth, all income, is stolen from someone else with less, therefore you are all evil without exception to the extent you have anything. It's a liberal form of original sin (for humans to thrive we must alter our environment, we must save, to the extent you manage to accomplish that, you're evil, therefore you're evil for existing).

Keep in mind of course that China nicely disproved that premise in approximately the most dramatic way possible from ~1990-2020. If the pie were actually finite and had to be divided, swapped around, then China's extreme rise in wealth would have wiped out the equivalent of all of Western Europe's wealth combined.

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#453

Post by wetmore »

lovecg wrote: post #433
nullindividual wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm no fan of rich people as a principle given they suck wealth from the poor and Smaug the money away like the narcissists they are, but this is the definition of that horrible cancel culture. She's accused him which isn't something the public should act upon. If proven, then it's appropriate to form that negative opinion.

> suck wealth from the poor and Smaug the money away like What does that even mean? They buy up factories and let them sit idle?

Smaug is a dragon from The Hobbit who sits on a pile of gold and plunder, not smog.

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#455

Post by janejeon »

mongol wrote: post #58

This is entertaining in a way, and interesting to follow. But should I, as an ordinary member of mankind, root for one outcome or another? Is it going to matter for me how this ends up? Will AI be more or less safe one or other way, will it be bad for competition, prices, etc etc?

The way I see it is, it's not going to matter if I "care" about it in one way/outcome or another, so I just focus my attention on 1. How this could affect me (for now, the team seems committed to keeping the APIs up and running) and 2. What lessons can I take away from this (some preliminary lessons, such as "take extra care with board selection" and "listen to the lawyers when they tell you to do a Delaware C Corp").

Otherwise, no use in getting invested in one outcome or another.

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#456

Post by bambax »

> The remaining board holdouts who oppose Altman are Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo

There must be some interesting back story here. In 2014 Sam Altman accepted Quora into YC, controversially, since the company was at a much later stage than usual YC companies. At the time, Sam justified his decision by saying [0]:

> Adam D’Angelo is awesome, and we’re big Quora fans

So what happened?

[0] https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/quora-in-the-next-yc-batch

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#457

Post by eastbound »

gardenhedge wrote: post #436
belter wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are news from almost yesterday. This is a high turn carousel. Try to keep up... :-)

I would love to see the stats on hacker news activity the last few days

Yep. Maybe they assigned a second CPU core to the server[1].

[1] HN is famous for being programmed in Arc and serving the entire forum from a single processor (probably multicore). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37257928

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#458

Post by pk-protect-ai »

evantbyrne wrote: post #370
neilv wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given 90%, including leadership, seems a bad career move for remaining people not to sign, even if you agreed with the board's action.

[flagged]

We cannot ascertain the family circumstances of Altman's family. His sister's allegations are serious, but no legal actions were taken. However, it is surprising to see the treatment of his family, especially considering he is a man who purports to "care" about the world and envisions a bright future for all. Regardless of whether his sister has mental health issues or financial problems, it is unlikely that such a caring individual would not extend a helping hand to his family. This is especially true given her circumstances, which have effectively relegated her to the bottom of the social hierarchy as it is defined. Isn't it?

The entire situation involving the OpenAI board and the people involved,seems like the premise for a TV drama. It appears as though there is a deeper issue at play, but this spectacle is merely an extravagant distraction, possibly designed to conceal something. Or, perhaps it's similar to Shakespeare's concept - life is a theater, and some of THEM are merely actors...

Like everything else, it might revolve around money and power... I no longer believe in OpenAI's mission, especially after they subtly changed their "core values".

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#459

Post by evantbyrne »

Dalewyn wrote: post #430
evantbyrne wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not "cancel culture" to ask that your leaders address salacious allegations brought against them by their own family. The question of his firing is way less serious from a ethical standpoint, and yet this is what OpenAI employees are willing to stick their necks out for? That is some telling prioritization.

Burden of evidence for accusations is always on the accuser, the accused could flat out ignore and take them to a court of law and that would be perfectly reasonable. I have no idea nor do I care about what Altman's sister accuses him of, but until it's conclusively proven in a court of law it's not something that should be used as a basis for anything of consequence. Remember: Innocent until proven guilty beyond a s…

The existence of legal process does not preclude the responsibility of the board and employees to address allegations of this seriousness. And it is serious–it is not normal to be accused of rape by a sibling. Addressing the elephant in the room is not the same thing as being guilty by default you are falsely conflating acknowledgement with punishment. The lack of pressure to at least produce a public statement while this lessor drama does speaks volumes to the lack of moral guiding principles at OpenAI.

Re: Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO

#460

Post by zahma »

Can someone explain to me why this is being treated like a watershed moment? Obviously I know there's a lot of money tied up in OpenAI through Microsoft, but why should the street care about any of these backroom activities? Aren't we still going to get the same research and product either at MS or OpenAI?
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