Let’s say how would Ilya play along after this? Any similar incidents historically, like a failed coup but the participant got to stay?
OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
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Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
How would that work, economically? Wasn't a key enabler of early transitor work that required capital investment was modest? SotA AI research seems to be well past that point.
> Wasn't a key enabler of early transitor work that required capital investment was modest? They were simple in principle but expensive at scale. Sounds like LLMs.
Is there SotA LLM research not at scale?
My understanding was that practical results were indicating your model has to be pretty large before you start getting "magic."
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#153A lot of people here seem to be forgetting [Hanlon's Razor]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor ) > Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
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Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#154This was handled so very, very poorly. Frankly it's looking like Microsoft is going to come out of this better than anyone, especially if they end up getting almost 500 new AI staff out of it (staff that already function well as a team). > In their letter, the OpenAI staff threaten to join Altman at Microsoft. “Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary should we…
In hindsight firing Sam was a self-destructing gamble by the OpenAI board. Initially it seemed Sam may have committed some inexcusable financial crime but doesn't look so anymore. Irony is that if a significant portion of OpenAI staff opt to join Microsoft, then Microsoft essentially killed their own $13B investment in OpenAI earlier this year. Better than acquiring for $80B+ I suppose.
They acquired Activision for 69B recently.
While Activision makes much more money I imagine, acquiring a whole division of productive, _loyal_ staffers that work well together on something as important as AI is cheap for 13B.
Some background: https://sl.bing.net/dEMu3xBWZDE
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#155If they join Sam Altman and Greg Brockman at Microsoft they will not need to start from scratch because Microsoft has full rights [1] to ChatGPT IP. They can just fork ChatGPT. Also keep in mind that Microsoft hasn't actually given OpenAI $13 Billion because much of that is in the form of Azure credits. So this could end up being the cheapest acquisition for Microsoft: They get a $90 Billion company for peanuts. [1]…
I got the impression that the most valuable models were not published. Would Microsoft have access to those too according to their contract?
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#156At this point, I think it’s absolutely clear no one has any idea what happened. Every speculation, no matter how sophisticated, has been wrong. It’s time to take a breath, step back, and wait until someone from OpenAI says something substantial.
I wonder if AGI took over the humans and guided their actions.
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#157Do whatever you want but don't break the API or I will go homeless
Just create an OpenAPI endpoint on azure. Pretty sure not run by OpenAI itself.
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#158> Remarkably, the letter’s signees include Ilya Sutskever, the company’s CTO who has been blamed for coordinating the boardroom coup against Altman in the first place. What in the world is happening at OpenAI?
If it weren’t so unbelievable, I’d almost accuse them of orchestrating all this to sell to Microsoft without the regulatory scrutiny. It’s like they distressed the company to make an acquisition one of mercy instead of aggression, knowing they already had their buyer lined up.
> sell to Microsoft without the regulatory scrutiny
I keep hearing this, principally from Silicon Valley. It’s based on nothing. Of course this will receive both Congressional and regulatory scrutiny. (Microsoft is also likely to be sued by OpenAI’s corporate entity, on behalf of its outside investors, as are Altman and anyone who jumps ship.)
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#159It seems odd to have it described as “may resign.” Seems like the worst of all worlds. That’s like trying to create MAD with the position you “may” launch nukes in retaliation.
It's easier to get the support of 500 educated people at a moments notice by using sane words like 'may'. This is rational given the lack of public information as well as a board that seems to be having seizures. Using the word 'may' may seem empty-handed; but it ensures a longer list of names attached to the message -- allowing the board a better glimpse of how many dominoes are lined up to fall.
The board is being given a sanity-check; I would expect the signers intentionally left themselves a bit of room for escalation/negotiation.
How often do you win arguments by leading off with an immutable ultimatum?
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#160I suspect they’ll quit, and the “top” N percent will be picked up by Microsoft with healthy comp packages. Microsoft will have effectively purchased the company for $10 billion. The net upside of this coup business may just flow to Microsoft shareholders.