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Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

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Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#351

Post by happytiger »

jacquesm wrote: post #265
Denzel wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a strange statement because I definitely canceled my subscription as a result of the happenings. This very public battle confirmed for me how misaligned OpenAI is with the originating charter and mission of its nonprofit. And I didn’t want to financially contribute towards that future anymore. I guess my subscription didn’t count as a customer.

This happens to me frequently. When I report an obvious problem in some service it is always the very first time that they've heard of it and no other customers seem to have the issue.

Same. I don’t think it’s the truth. It happens with alarming frequency to our family. We seem to be some kind of stealth customer QA for companies.

The other possibility is that they are lying to cover their ass, but they would never do that… right?

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#352

Post by mupuff1234 »

cpncrunch wrote: post #115
qualifiedai wrote: post #45

Ilya is the one irreplaceable employee there, not Sam

There is no indication that Ilya has left the company, just the board. He seems happy with Sam’s return. https://twitter.com/ilyasut/status/1727434066411286557

The sentence about Ilya's continued "work relationship" with the company sounds like corpspeak for Ilya is out.

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#353

Post by queuebert »

Denzel wrote: post #222
kaycebasques wrote: post #121

> The fact that we did not lose a single customer will drive us to work even harder for you, and we are all excited to get back to work. I'm not a big customer, but I am starting the process of moving away from OpenAI in response to these events

That’s a strange statement because I definitely canceled my subscription as a result of the happenings. This very public battle confirmed for me how misaligned OpenAI is with the originating charter and mission of its nonprofit. And I didn’t want to financially contribute towards that future anymore. I guess my subscription didn’t count as a customer.

I don't think CEOs are selected for their honesty.

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#354

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

7e wrote: post #166
drooby wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just so strange. This is such a clearly justifiable reason that the fact that they didn't argue it... or argue.. anything, makes me very suspicious that it is correct.

They were either scared of being sued for defamation or unwilling to divulge existential company secrets. Or both.

I think "unwilling to divulge company secrets" is the best explanation here.

We know that OpenAI does a staged release for their models with pre-release red-teaming.

Helen says the key issue was the board struggling to "effectively supervise the company": https://nitter.net/hlntnr/status/1730034017435586920#m

Here's Nathan Labenz on how sketchy the red-teaming process for GPT4 was. Nathan states that OpenAI shut him out soon after he reached out to the board to let them know that GPT4 was a big deal and the board should be paying attention: https://nitter.net/labenz/status/1727327424244023482#m [Based on the thread it seems like he reached out to people outside OpenAI in a way which could have violated a confidentiality agreement -- that could account for the shutout]

My suspicion is that there was a low-level power struggle ongoing on the board for some time, but the straw that broke the camel's back was something like Nathan describes in his thread. To be honest I don't understand why his thread is getting so little play. It seems like a key piece of the puzzle.

In any case, I don't think it would've been right for Helen to say publicly that "we hear GPT-5 is lit but Sam isn't letting us play with it", since "GPT-5 is lit" would be considered confidential information that she shouldn't unilaterally reveal.

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#355

Post by spoonjim »

Denzel wrote: post #222
kaycebasques wrote: post #121

> The fact that we did not lose a single customer will drive us to work even harder for you, and we are all excited to get back to work. I'm not a big customer, but I am starting the process of moving away from OpenAI in response to these events

That’s a strange statement because I definitely canceled my subscription as a result of the happenings. This very public battle confirmed for me how misaligned OpenAI is with the originating charter and mission of its nonprofit. And I didn’t want to financially contribute towards that future anymore. I guess my subscription didn’t count as a customer.

“Customer” usually means business customer in this context.

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#356

Post by queuebert »

civilized wrote: post #155
Berniek wrote: post #142

Who is driving the company (companies)? Certainly not the board, when it can be ousted on the whim of one person. Might as well just get rid of the board (all boards in this organization) as any decision made can be overthrown by a bit of publicity and ego. Perhaps it about getting rich at the expense of any ethics? Those who work for this company should bear this in mind, they are all expendable!

Hacker News represents hackers, not Boards of Directors. The hackers of OpenAI overwhelmingly demanded Sam back. Everyone here should be happy.

Why do the hackers support Sam? He's the least hacker-y of the major players at OpenAI. Seems like more of a fundraiser, marketing type with little technical skills. Hackers traditionally support technically competent people.

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#357

Post by ajmurmann »

queuebert wrote: post #353
Denzel wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a strange statement because I definitely canceled my subscription as a result of the happenings. This very public battle confirmed for me how misaligned OpenAI is with the originating charter and mission of its nonprofit. And I didn’t want to financially contribute towards that future anymore. I guess my subscription didn’t count as a customer.

I don't think CEOs are selected for their honesty.

I hear the board wasn't happy with Sam because he wasn't always entirely honest...

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#358

Post by tsunamifury »

mikeg8 wrote: post #331
tsunamifury wrote: post #228

I have an insanely hard time believing that a CEO that copies his customers and competes directly with them with his own consumer product will be “doubling down” to help customers. Sam has shown he has no good will towards anyone but himself.

Building products on top of their platform and then getting mad that they continue to add and improve said platform with additional functionality (without knowing their product roadmap in advance) seems petty. If they’re able to eat their customers lunch so quickly, it’s because the customers are building very thin and weak businesses with no actual innovation.

[flagged]

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#359

Post by willis936 »

enraged_camel wrote: post #348
willis936 wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would that have accomplished? The old board members would still be in charge of the same thing they are today: absolutely nothing. They overplayed their position. That's all there is to it.

>> They overplayed their position. That's all there is to it. They tried to enforce the non-profit's charter, as is their duty. I would hardly frame that as overplaying their hand.

That's one interpretation, and I'm sure it is the one they had. In my opinion they failed to enforce the charter. Had they been effective at enforcing the charter they would have not folded all of their power to someone they view does not enforce the charter. There is nothing they could have done to fail more.

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#360

Post by ajmurmann »

Berniek wrote: post #142

Who is driving the company (companies)? Certainly not the board, when it can be ousted on the whim of one person. Might as well just get rid of the board (all boards in this organization) as any decision made can be overthrown by a bit of publicity and ego. Perhaps it about getting rich at the expense of any ethics? Those who work for this company should bear this in mind, they are all expendable!

I've always like the metaphor that companies, especially large ones, are like an autonomous AI that has revenue generation as it's value function and operates in that interest and not in the interest of the individuals that make up the company.
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