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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

#432
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

So what is Nathan Labenz saying? That GPT-4 is dangerous somehow? It will get many people out of jobs? MS Office got all the typists out of jobs. OCR and Medical Software got all the medical transcriptionists out of jobs. And they created a lot more jobs in the process. GPT-4 is a very powerful tool. It has not a whiff of AGI in it. The whole AGI "scare" seems to be extremely political.

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

#433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually interesting this is a universal phase of children.

Beginner's mind. I wonder if McKinsey's done any work on that... Also, one of the simplest algorithms to get to the bottom of anything.

yeah it means like there's this genetic drive to understand the world. Do many other animals have this hard coded in?

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

#434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of the board's failure to make their case, recent news suggests that the SEC is going to investigate whether it is true that Altman acted in the manner you describe, which would be a violation of fiduciary duty. I agree that it seems like an open & shut case. Typical SEC timelines mean that this will go public in about 18 months from now. An anonymous person has already filed an SEC whistleblower complaint…

The Michigan Post article is mostly speculation and that publication doesn’t have much depth/history to it. Check out their “advertise with us” page. This whole info dump feels like a mishmash of links to thoughtful things (Stratechery) with links to speculative articles that are clearly biased. Like how is “Influencer Magazine” breaking a story that Wall Street Journal and Kara Swisher are overlooking? I don’t mean…

I would guess that "WLW FUTURE PRESS RELEASE DISTRIBUTION" is a publicist service that was hired by the person making the whistleblower complaint. upwardbound claims there's a lot of money in being a successful whistleblower: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38388246

I don't know if I find the Microsoft/OpenAI favor trading allegation that persuasive (unless new information is uncovered, e.g. Microsoft letting Sam use a private jet or something like that). However if the SEC actually ends up enforcing the "fiduciary duty is to humanity" thing in OpenAI's charter at some point, that would be incredibly sweet.

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

#436

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!

The reason the CEO could oust the board like that was that after the board fired the CEO, 720 of the 770 employees of the company got together and signed a pledge that they will all leave unless the CEO is reinstated and the board fired. This was the purest example of labor democracy and self-organization in action in the United States I have ever seen, my takeaway is rather the opposite of "they are all expendable".…

The combined will of the employees is much less meaningful when they're saying "DO IT OR WE'LL TAKE AN ATTRACTIVE OFFER THAT'S ON THE TABLE."

I'd have been more impressed by their unity if it would have meant actually losing their jobs.

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

#437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason the CEO could oust the board like that was that after the board fired the CEO, 720 of the 770 employees of the company got together and signed a pledge that they will all leave unless the CEO is reinstated and the board fired. This was the purest example of labor democracy and self-organization in action in the United States I have ever seen, my takeaway is rather the opposite of "they are all expendable".…

Yeah, and that just means that the board is useless de facto . Nice story on a company, maybe, but really bad thing on a "non-profit".

I don't think it means that the board is useless, but rather that their power has a limit, as all leadership positions do, and the way the fired the CEO has crossed the line too far.

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

#438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beginner's mind. I wonder if McKinsey's done any work on that... Also, one of the simplest algorithms to get to the bottom of anything.

yeah it means like there's this genetic drive to understand the world. Do many other animals have this hard coded in?

Reminds me of those greedy slime things

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

#439
post #145

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!

How about the possibility that the board made a huge mistake and virtually everyone working for the company got pissed?

I think this is the correct take

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

#440
post #184

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!

Just the whim of 1 person? Just the ego of 1 person? 700+ egos it seems. Ultimately, what is an organization if not the people who make it up? Regardless of what actually happened in this Mexican novela, whoever was steering the narrative - in awareness or not - led everyone to this moment and the old board lost/gave up. > Who is driving the company (companies)? There's probably not a single answer that covers all or…

Not just egos, a 9-figure secondary tender offer employees were counting on.
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