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OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

wsj.com

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Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#101

Post by spaceman_2020 »

righthand wrote: post #24
jacquesm wrote: post #13

Does anybody know who is currently CEO of OpenAI? Friday, Sam. Saturday, Mira. Sunday was a day off, Monday it was Emmet so who is it for today? Kidding aside, the board is under more and more pressure but - surprisingly - they haven't folded yet. I am interpreting that as that they are trying to get something out of it that nobody is willing to give them. The new CEO is also surprisingly not to be found at all, no p…

I don’t think the board is under any pressure. If they don’t do anything else they just need the employees to fold on their threat to resign. Even if the employees resign, ChatGPT is still running and there are lots of people willing to take the defecting employees spots. The only thing they are pressured on is to fill in the story for the media point of view which is irrelevant to the actual functioning of OpenAI.

Good luck keeping those employees around even if they all decide to fold.

These folks are being flooded with offers. Why would they work for an organization that doesn't care what 95% of them want?

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#102

Post by righthand »

flappyeagle wrote: post #88
righthand wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? The board announced the removal of a CEO which they have the power to do. It upset a bunch of employees who liked the CEO. The board is in search of a new CEO. OpenAI’s valuation isn’t because Sam Altman is worth $90B it’s the tech. The tech is fine. Investors have no reason to worry about their investment in the tech. The people under pressure are Sam Altman trying to reclaim his job he was fired from and Satya…

> The board announced the removal of a CEO which they have the power to do. They have the power to remove him momentarily, do they have the power to keep him out? we're still finding out. > OpenAI’s valuation isn’t because Sam Altman is worth $90B it’s the tech. OpenAI's valuation is nominally because of the tech. It's fundamentally because of the people. 90% of the staff is threatening to follow Sam to $MS so that's…

If it’s fundamentally about the people, can you name some of these 90% that OpenAI couldn’t live without? Other than Ilya? From where I’m sitting the 90% are replaceable in a flooded market of available software engineers.

If Satya and Sam make them happy then go work for Microsoft. The board is calling their bluff right now.

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#103

Post by somedude895 »

righthand wrote: post #24
jacquesm wrote: post #13

Does anybody know who is currently CEO of OpenAI? Friday, Sam. Saturday, Mira. Sunday was a day off, Monday it was Emmet so who is it for today? Kidding aside, the board is under more and more pressure but - surprisingly - they haven't folded yet. I am interpreting that as that they are trying to get something out of it that nobody is willing to give them. The new CEO is also surprisingly not to be found at all, no p…

I don’t think the board is under any pressure. If they don’t do anything else they just need the employees to fold on their threat to resign. Even if the employees resign, ChatGPT is still running and there are lots of people willing to take the defecting employees spots. The only thing they are pressured on is to fill in the story for the media point of view which is irrelevant to the actual functioning of OpenAI.

> there are lots of people willing to take the defecting employees spots.

Even 20% of employees leaving a company simultaneously is catastrophic. I think you're underestimating the effects here.

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#104

Post by spaceman_2020 »

thinkindie wrote: post #85
righthand wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? The board announced the removal of a CEO which they have the power to do. It upset a bunch of employees who liked the CEO. The board is in search of a new CEO. OpenAI’s valuation isn’t because Sam Altman is worth $90B it’s the tech. The tech is fine. Investors have no reason to worry about their investment in the tech. The people under pressure are Sam Altman trying to reclaim his job he was fired from and Satya…

Technology is not made out of thin air but it is made - and maintained - by people; and when 500 out of 700 people threaten to quit on the spot and leave for competitors, or for Microsoft, investors might not be happy at all.

It's not 500/700. It's like 728/770 last I checked. Almost everyone.

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#106

Post by 3cats-in-a-coat »

spamizbad wrote: post #86
3cats-in-a-coat wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It upset a bunch of employees. The tech is fine". Uhmm, it upset 98% (not figuratively, but mathematically) of all 700 employees who signed a petition to quit unless he's reinstated and for the board to resign. As for the tech... who... exactly do you think created, maintains and is developing future enhancement for the tech? Is it doing it by itself? Sorry, we're not there yet .

I think one lesson we learned from Twitter is that you can cull a large amount of a tech workforce and the product will keep humming along, albeit at a reduced rate of change. Also, unlike Twitter, OpenAI pays engineers very competitive salaries and can aggressively re-hire roles.

You learned the wrong lesson. Twitter is dying and operating at a significantly degraded level, including moderation, content filtering, ad positioning, which caused a third or fourth mass advertiser exodus just few days ago.

Also. Leading the world in revolutionary AI is not exactly like maintaining a pre-existing message app.

Twitter:

- Had 7500 employees before Musk fired most of them.

- Now 1300, of which 550 are full-time devs.

- That's a company valuated at less than $16 billion currently, and losing about $2 billion a year.

OpenAI:

- Has 700 employees, including world-leading scientists and researchers that are practically irreplaceable.

- If they resign, it'll have 14 employees.

- For a company that before Sam Altman was fired was valuated at $90 billion.

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#107

Post by DonHopkins »

jacquesm wrote: post #13

Does anybody know who is currently CEO of OpenAI? Friday, Sam. Saturday, Mira. Sunday was a day off, Monday it was Emmet so who is it for today? Kidding aside, the board is under more and more pressure but - surprisingly - they haven't folded yet. I am interpreting that as that they are trying to get something out of it that nobody is willing to give them. The new CEO is also surprisingly not to be found at all, no p…

Credit where credit is due for righting the ship!

https://donhopkins.com/home/CostaConcordiaFTFY.jpg

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#108

Post by code_runner »

righthand wrote: post #65
flappyeagle wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These words are gonna get ate one way or another. There is no outcome where the current board wins. Emmet is already threatening the board with resignation unless they provide evidence of wrongdoing [1]. Which they don't have, because they would have revealed it already. They are empty shirts. [1] https://x.com/emilychangtv/status/1727020834005700914?s=20

Why? The board announced the removal of a CEO which they have the power to do. It upset a bunch of employees who liked the CEO. The board is in search of a new CEO. OpenAI’s valuation isn’t because Sam Altman is worth $90B it’s the tech. The tech is fine. Investors have no reason to worry about their investment in the tech. The people under pressure are Sam Altman trying to reclaim his job he was fired from and Satya…

They claimed to remove the CEO with cause. They have not provided cause. Even the twitch dude is asking for the cause.

The board just firing off half-cocked and then going silent is probably a larger source the issues for employees than altman the person/leader. There is effectively nobody in the driver seat and the board can't be trusted to do anything in the best interests of the company.

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#109

Post by spaceman_2020 »

15457345234 wrote: post #23
jacquesm wrote: post #13

Does anybody know who is currently CEO of OpenAI? Friday, Sam. Saturday, Mira. Sunday was a day off, Monday it was Emmet so who is it for today? Kidding aside, the board is under more and more pressure but - surprisingly - they haven't folded yet. I am interpreting that as that they are trying to get something out of it that nobody is willing to give them. The new CEO is also surprisingly not to be found at all, no p…

> Does anybody know who is currently CEO of OpenAI? Emmett Shear. Altman won't be back. Investors like success and returns but they don't like companies where all the employees have basically sworn out an oath of fealty to the CEO, as it means they (the investors) have basically no control over anything.

Employees hate working for companies where they have no voice too. Morale will drop and attrition will skyrocket. New talent won't consider OpenAI, existing talent will leave.

The investment goes to zero anyway without talent.

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#110

Post by blackoil »

phpnode wrote: post #30
jacquesm wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> given a high legal risk if it hires a majority of OpenAI employees What legal risk would that be? All they have to do is to claim that they are protecting their interests, besides it is not as if Microsoft has ever been afraid of a legal challenge.

MS and OpenAI certainly have non-solicitation clauses in their contracts. MS could afford the legal battle but isn't it better for them to wait it out and see what happens first?

Are non-solicitation clauses legal?? one between AAPL and GOOG were illegal.
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