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OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

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Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#191
post #37

Extra respect is due to Jan Leike, then: https://x.com/janleike/status/1791498174659715494

Reading that thread it’s really interesting to me. I see how far we’ve come in a short couple of years. But I still can’t grasp how we’ll achieve AGI within any reasonable amount of time. It just seems like we’re missing some really critical… something…

Idk. Folks much smarter than I seem worried so maybe I should be too but it just seems like such a long shot.

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#192
post #37

Extra respect is due to Jan Leike, then: https://x.com/janleike/status/1791498174659715494

How do you know he’s not running off to a competing firm with Ilya and they’ve promised to make him whole.

More power to him if so. Stupid problems deserve stupid solutions.

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#195

Why have other companies not done the same? This seems legally tenuous to only now be attempted. Will we see burger flippers prevented from discussing the rat infestation at their previous workplace? (Don’t have X) - is there a timeline? Can I curse out the company on my deathbed, or would their lawyers have the legal right to try and clawback the equity from the estate?

[deleted]

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#196
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Talking to a lawyer is **never** bad advice. Especially in CA where companies will make you THINK they have power which they don’t.

I think never is inaccurate here. First, there are a lot of simply bad lawyers who will give you bad advice. Secondly, a lot of lawyers who either don't actually specialize in the legal field your case demands, or who have never actually tried any cases and have no idea how something might go down in a court with a jury. Third (the most predatory), a lot of lawyers actually see the client (not the opposing party) as the money fountain. Charging huge fees for their "consultation," "legal research," "team of experts," etc, and now the client is quickly tens-of-thousands in the hole without even an actual case being filed.

Talking to good, honest lawyers is a good idea. Unfortunately most people don't have access to good honest lawyers, or don't know how to distinguish them from crooks with law degrees.

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#197
post #37

Extra respect is due to Jan Leike, then: https://x.com/janleike/status/1791498174659715494

Reading that thread it’s really interesting to me. I see how far we’ve come in a short couple of years. But I still can’t grasp how we’ll achieve AGI within any reasonable amount of time. It just seems like we’re missing some really critical… something… Idk. Folks much smarter than I seem worried so maybe I should be too but it just seems like such a long shot.

When it comes to AI, as a rule, you should assume that whatever has been made public by a company like OpenAI is AT LEAST 6 months behind what they’ve accomplished internally. At least.

So yes, the insiders very likely know a thing or two that the rest of us don’t.

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

somebody explained to me early on that you cannot have a contract to have a contract. either initial agreement must state this condition clearly or they are signing another contract at employment termination which is bringing these new terms. IDK why would anyone sign that at termination unless they dangle additional equity. I dont think this BS they are trying to pull would be enforceable at least in California. tho…

Canceling my openai subscription as we speak, this is too much. I don't care how good it is relative to other offerings. Not worth it.

Claude is better anyways (at least for math classes.

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#199

Totally normal, nothing to see here. Keep building your disruptive, game-changing, YC-applicant startup on the APIs of this sociopathic corporation whose products are destined to destroy all trust humans have in other humans so that everyone can be replaced by chatbots. It's all fine. Everything's fine.

You don’t think the claim that “everyone can be replaced by chatbots” is a bit outrageous? Do you really believe this or is it just hyperbole?

Almost every part of the story that has made OpenAI a dystopian unicorn is hyperbole. And now this -- a company whose employees can't tell the truth or they lose access to remuneration. Everyone's Allen Weisselberg.

What's one more hyperbole?

Edit to add, provocatively but not sarcastically: next time you hear some AI-proponent-who-used-to-be-a-crypto-proponent roll out the "but aren't we all just LLMs, in essence?" justification for their belief that ChatGPT may have broad understanding, ask yourself: are they not just self-soothing over their part in mass job losses with a nice faux-scientific-inevitability bedtime story?

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#200
We're apparently at the Scientology stage of the AI hype cycle. One funny observation is, if you ostensibly believe that you're about to invent the AGI godhead who will render the economic system obsolete in < ~5 years or so, how do stock return no-criticism lawsuits fit into that kind of worldview
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