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OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

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Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#181

Post by jampekka »

s1gnp0st wrote: post #107
victor106 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet in multiple interviews he says he is not in it for the money. Saying that you are not in it for the money is becoming like a fashion statement. What’s wrong in saying that you’re in it for both money and passion?

I personally find the presentation of corporate missions in quasi-religious terminology extremely off-putting. The company might be doing great things, but there ought to be cultural space left for things much more important than companies.

Also they are blatant lies. The company can not, even by law, follow its mission if deviating from it is more profitable.

One of those things we all know is bullshit but we just pretend not smelling it.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#182

Post by jacquesm »

outside1234 wrote: post #117
nabla9 wrote: post #53

This kind of stuff is the reason why Altman was fired. The board lost trust for his honesty from many small things that kept accumulating. Altman is back on condition that there is a investigation.

What is incredible is that this sort of double dealing is what he got fired from YC for doing - it is almost like nobody actually cares about AI safety or ethics and only about making money.

Is that documented somewhere?

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#183

Post by ramblerman »

belter wrote: post #33
gwnywg wrote: post #3

If the article is based on facts then... is this not an example of corruption?

It's called a conflict of interest. A smart or well advised CEO would seek approval from the board before such a deal. And maybe it was, when this specific CEO went looking for the approval or communicated it to the board, that soap opera got triggered.

It would have been so easy for them to raise that fact publicly though, and they would have massively won support.

The problem was their complete silence on what lead to Altman's ousting

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#184

Post by philipov »

jampekka wrote: post #181
s1gnp0st wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally find the presentation of corporate missions in quasi-religious terminology extremely off-putting. The company might be doing great things, but there ought to be cultural space left for things much more important than companies.

Also they are blatant lies. The company can not, even by law, follow its mission if deviating from it is more profitable. One of those things we all know is bullshit but we just pretend not smelling it.

What are you talking about? Please quote the law you refer to, so we can evaluate what it really does, because I don't believe you. There is no law that forces all companies to always pick the most profitable action. Especially not for non-profit corporations.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#185

Post by mrangle »

l33tman wrote: post #52
newsclues wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not a lawyer, but not necessarily. I think it comes down to, is this good for this company. If not and you are directing sales to another company that benefits you, that would be bad, but if buying from the other company you invest in is good for OpenAI, then it's ok. You are allow to have other investments, it comes down to disclosure, and not making a bad deal for reasons that personally profit you.

You're directly or indirectly making sure the company you've invested in will get boosted if you as CEO owns a stake. Therefore it's a conflict of interest - what if that particular company is only the second best to deal with? Either you as CEO or any middle-manager under you will probably give it some bonus points and it will end up getting the deal, news outlets will write about it, etc etc. At the very least you…

The completely anomalous board that specifically doesn't have a profit mission and therefore doesn't hold the company's well being as the first priority? That board is supposed to make decisions on purchasing?

What this comes down to is: a. Is it legal? b. Is any grey area worth challenging in court, if possible at all? c. OAI is operating under a weird form of public scrutiny that other companies largely aren't, for normal if questionable phenomena like this issue, because the public is suffering under the illusion that they have a company stake (and that somehow decisions like this are indicative of a moral hazard that jeapordizes that stake).

Nothing is going to stop LLM ("AI") re-modeling of the communal world. OAI will be far from the only player in that process. If anything, all of this nonsense attention on Altman's minutia will just serve to distract from anything actually helpful that could be done.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#186

Post by 93po »

Angostura wrote: post #163
dzink wrote: post #149

A nonbinding letter of intent in 2018? That is a limited downside unlimited upside kind of risk you take to fund extreme moon shots. Boom Supersonic did the same approach with United airlines, to fund a still undeveloped supersonic Airplane. A 1M investment like this is a hedge that has capped downside, restricted to Altman's personal money, and an infinite upside that gives an incentive to the founders to succeed. A…

Yes - the 2018 date was buried, rather disingenuously, I think.

Agreed, the headline is massively misleading. Journalism at its finest

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#187

Post by [deleted] »

s1gnp0st wrote: post #107
victor106 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet in multiple interviews he says he is not in it for the money. Saying that you are not in it for the money is becoming like a fashion statement. What’s wrong in saying that you’re in it for both money and passion?

I personally find the presentation of corporate missions in quasi-religious terminology extremely off-putting. The company might be doing great things, but there ought to be cultural space left for things much more important than companies.

[deleted]

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#188

Post by ric2b »

lopatin wrote: post #161
belter wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again the argument: "I am so rich I would not possibly be dishonest for such a small amounts..." ?

If someone could explain the dishonest part to a simpleton like me it would be sincerely appreciated. So he has an incentive to do business with a chip maker that he invested in. But that's allowed right? Or is the argument more that it's like insider trading (investing?) because he knew he might announce business with it in the future? Since it's not publicly traded, I don't even know if that's unethical.

He is not the owner of OpenAI so it can be considered harmful to the company if there was a better chip maker or deal available but he chose the one he has a personal take in.

It would be very hard to prove that choosing company A over company B was a knowingly worse choice for OpenAI though.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#189

Post by 93po »

baking wrote: post #136
DalasNoin wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to find estimates of Sam's net worth and found estimates from 250-700 million usd. However, it seems that most of his net worth is bound up in equity in private companies and startups[1]. 1 million usd could be a very substantial part of his liquid net worth. [1] https://www.thestreet.com/investors/sam-altman-net-worth-how...

Sam Altman claimed to have written a $375 million check from his own money to invest in Helion Energy. Maybe when all the lawsuits happen we will know more about his investments.

Like a literal check, or a proverbial check where his illiquid assets serve as collateral to a bank who writes the check?

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#190

Post by philip1209 »

As a VC, isn't "Somebody wants to buy our stuff, we just need money to deliver on it" the ideal pitch?

The alternative was that OpenAI prepaid for these chips, and took on a lot of risk. From Altman's position, he's personally taking on risk instead of having OpenAI (and its investors) take it on.

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