Earlier quoted context omitted.
The replies that say "well the profits go to the non-profit, all's good" miss the reality of these high profit nonprofits: the profits invariably end up in the pockets of management. Most of those are essentially scams, but it doesn't mean that OpenAI isn't just a more subtle scam. The hype and the credulity of the general public play right into this scam. People will more or less believe anything Sam the Money Gushi…
If your beef with this structure is that executives get paid handsomely I have bad news about the entire category of nonprofits, regardless of whether they have for-profit arms or not.
Elon Musk sues Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI [pdf]
381–390 of 1001 posts
Re: Elon Musk sues Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI [pdf]
#382OpenAi is also being investigated by the SEC. If "Altman hadn’t been consistently candid in his communications with the board" is interpreted as being misleading then that could be interpreted as misleading investors and therefore securities fraud. https://www.wsj.com/tech/sec-investigating-whether-openai-in...
Isn’t everything securities fraud though
Re: Elon Musk sues Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI [pdf]
#383Earlier quoted context omitted.
The mental gymnastics that some tech bro has to go through to like Musk over Microsoft to the point that they still use the 2001 meme of "M$FT" is hilarious. I know just about everything I could ever need to know about both companies and I have tons, tons of friends who absolutely love and have been at "M$FT" for 5-20 years. I don't know a single person who likes working at Tesla or SpaceX and I used to live in Austi…
Wow the people employed by the evil gigacorporation like working for the entity shoveling mountains of money at them, what a completely unexpected stance for them to have. M$ is no different today than they were in the days of their EEE strategy, they've just fooled the techbros, as you put it, into believing they're still not the scum of the earth anymore.
Nobody reading HN who works at Microsoft is making killer money.
Re: Elon Musk sues Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI [pdf]
#384imo the most interesting page is page 40 if you don't feel like reading the whole thing. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39562778
Re: Elon Musk sues Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI [pdf]
#385Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I think for a governance structure, we should start with 5 people and I'd propose you, [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], and me. Technology would be owned by the foundation and used "for the good of the world", and in cases where it's not obvious how that should be applied the 5 of us would decide." You can find the number of letters of the redacted text and then guess who they are. It's fun!
> "for the good of the world", and in cases where it's not obvious how that should be applied the 5 of us would decide." It's hard not to be a bit cynical about such an arrangement.
Back when the public at least somewhat bought the idea that SV was socially progressive and would use its massive accumulation of capital for the good of humanity.
Re: Elon Musk sues Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI [pdf]
#386Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's described here: https://openai.com/our-structure Quote: Fifth, the board determines when we've attained AGI. Again, by AGI we mean a highly autonomous system that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work. Such a system is excluded from IP licenses and other commercial terms with Microsoft, which only apply to pre-AGI technology. > "Musk claims Microsoft's hold on Altman and the OpenAI board will kee…
I'm surprised such an important legal issue here is based on the definition of "AGI", seems really hard to define (I really think the concept is flawed). Does this consider that "most economically valuable work" is physical? And more importantly, with such money on the line, no one will agree on when AGI is attained.
Re: Elon Musk sues Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI [pdf]
#387Re: Elon Musk sues Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI [pdf]
#388Wouldn't you have to prove damages in a lawsuit like this? What damages does Musk personally suffer if OpenAI has in fact broken their contract?
Abuse of non-profit status is damaging to all citizens.
Re: Elon Musk sues Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI [pdf]
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
They didn't "turn it into" a for-profit though, they created a separate for-profit arm. This one is unusually successful but that's not an unusual thing for even "regular" charities to do in order to engage in some activities that they wouldn't normally be able to.
Perhaps the regular charity version of this should also be challenged. This case looks somewhat egregious as the for profit arm was able to fire the board of the non-profit parent. Likewise, openAI is selling "PPU" units, it's entirely unclear if anybody knows what these actually are. It's highly likely in my uneducated opinion that OpenAI will be told to adopt a standard corporate structure in the near term. They wi…
Re: Elon Musk sues Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI [pdf]
#390There is a lot in here but turning a non-profit into a for-profit definitely should be challenged. Otherwise why wouldn't everyone start as a non-profit, develop your IP, and then switch to 'for-profit' mode once you got something that works? You don't pay income taxes and your investors get write offs.
The replies that say "well the profits go to the non-profit, all's good" miss the reality of these high profit nonprofits: the profits invariably end up in the pockets of management. Most of those are essentially scams, but it doesn't mean that OpenAI isn't just a more subtle scam. The hype and the credulity of the general public play right into this scam. People will more or less believe anything Sam the Money Gushi…
OpenAI had to start as a non profit because there was no clear path forward. It was research. Kind of like doing research with the goal of curing cancer.
The unexpected breakthroughs came a bit quicker than anticipated and everybody was seeing the dollar signs.
I believe OpenAIs intial intention at the beginning was benign. But they just couldn't let go of the dollars.