OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return • Hacker News Board

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

#121

Post by 15457345234 » Tue, Nov 21, 2023, 9:13 PM UTC

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #109

15457345234 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> New talent won't consider OpenAI

I think you can assume that there's a large pool of talent that would love to work at OpenAI, they were just turned off by the ... vibes ... coming from the e/acc locksteppy types.

It may be very easy to re-hire talent that's actually a lot smarter, if a bit less 'mission focussed.'

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

#122

Post by Pigalowda » Tue, Nov 21, 2023, 9:13 PM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #36

The employees won’t resign and I doubt Microsoft will match the hypothetical 90B valuation for their profit participation units, otherwise they would’ve left already (Microsoft has agreed to match). The investors have no power here and are effectively irrelevant. The remaining board had little to lose. The charter explicitly calls investment risky, so they’re good there too. > The Company's duty to this mission and t…

It's been less than 2 business days. It probably took you longer to decide to wash your car much less immediately pack up and move jobs.

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

#123

Post by 3cats-in-a-coat » Tue, Nov 21, 2023, 9:14 PM UTC

righthand wrote: post #114

3cats-in-a-coat wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sam Altman is currently talking to the board. You want them to spin up drama by quitting in the middle of the talks? You're trying too hard to copy paste your desired narrative on this and it fits so, so, so poorly.

If Sam comes back it’ll be under heavy changes. The board isn’t going to leave. You don’t get ousted and then get to call the shots, no matter how many employees you think you have on your side. Furthermore the fact that Sam is in talks is further proof that he won’t be coming back on his terms. As the board why would you fold to the employees just because they like a guy? I’m not copy pasting anything, cute diss tho…

Sorry to be blunt, but literally everything you said so far was nonsense, so I'll understand your opinion as a sign that Sam Altman will come back and the board will resign.

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

#124

Post by rokizero » Tue, Nov 21, 2023, 9:14 PM UTC

righthand wrote: post #96

narrator wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So no evidence of wrongdoing then: -----> WHY DID THEY DO IT? SERIOUSLY! They all just decided to wake up that day and say let's go fire Sam and blow up the company because "lack of candor" that they can't even give details on?? These are serious people doing serious stuff. These are not idiots. What the heck is going on? Can anyone explain?

Yeah there has been plenty of explanation. Sam Altman has competing interests and was looking to leverage OpenAI’s tech in those interests.

Source??

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

#125

Post by phpisthebest » Tue, Nov 21, 2023, 9:14 PM UTC

3cats-in-a-coat wrote: post #106

spamizbad wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

[flagged]

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

#126

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Nov 21, 2023, 9:14 PM UTC

agloe_dreams wrote: post #54

jacquesm wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All they need is another 2% and at a measly two billion that would be an easy settlement. The board members get to save face and Satya is off to the races, employees happy, investors happy. It could easily happen.

What is interesting is that Sam noted that OpenAI board should go after his shares if he were to go off on the company...which implies some sort of ownership that others had no prior knowledge of. What's the over-under of his shares being more than 2%?

[deleted]

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

#127

Post by flappyeagle » Tue, Nov 21, 2023, 9:16 PM UTC

righthand wrote: post #102

flappyeagle wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Do you think they hired those people because they're useless?

> The board is calling their bluff right now

The board is not doing much of anything. They picked a CEO then she went to team sam. Then they picked another CEO and now he's threatening them with resignation. Not to mention the 3 other people they tried to bring into the role who refused.

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

#128

Post by jacquesm » Tue, Nov 21, 2023, 9:16 PM UTC

blackoil wrote: post #110

phpnode wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They usually are not.

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

#129

Post by golergka » Tue, Nov 21, 2023, 9:16 PM UTC

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…

> The tech is fine.

Have you ever maintained the software where the original team left? I have. And though it was much less complex and cutting edge than what OpenAI is doing, it was a massive pain with loss of knowledge and time.

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

#130

Post by otteromkram » Tue, Nov 21, 2023, 9:16 PM UTC

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #109

15457345234 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Plenty of talent flooding the market right now.

Say, what agenda are you trying to push, spaceman? This is the second comment of yours in this thread trying to make it seem like everyone at OpenAI is irreplaceable, so maybe you missed the hundreds of thousands of tech layoffs this year in the US.