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Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

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Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#221

Post by qqqwerty »

gpt5 wrote: post #86
Maxion wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It sounds very out of line of what you'd expect. Except if Sam and Greg have some anti-compete clauses. If they join MS, they have a nice 10 billion USD leverage against any lawsuites.

non-competes are extremely hard to enforce in California. Sam would literally have to download Open AI trade secrets into a USB drive to get in trouble.

That is only the case for rank and file employees. From my understanding executives, particularly ones with large equity stakes, are not exempt from non-competes. Sam doesn't have equity though, and I am not sure if non-profit status changes anything, but regardless I suspect any non-compete questions would need to be settled in court. Probably not something to stop Sam from starting a competitor as he could afford the lawyers and potential settlement. I suspect the MSFT move has more to do with keeping the ball rolling and keeping Satya happy.

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#223

Post by pearjuice »

pknerd wrote: post #91

Weird. Why did not he start a new company?

Because OpenAI has first mover advantage, an actual product, the household "ChatGPT" name and starting anything from 0 would mean you start with a 3-0 disadvantage. Even if you threw a few billion dollars at it and attracted all of the top minds for at least a year - probably longer - you will be seen as the "ChatGPT alternative". How long before you can capture the momentum they have now with OpenAI? It's also a legal minefield, even when the majority of employees of OpenAI migrate, there will be all kinds of no-competes and conflicts of interest.

Strategically, this is probably a better move. Microsoft doesn't see their investment implode and they probably have some sort of plan to inject or absorb Sam and/or Microsoft back into OpenAI to prevent this in the future. Perhaps replacing the board of directors to prevent further infighting.

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#224

Post by 15457345234 »

waihtis wrote: post #8

Anyone else find it strange that startup founders of the magnitude of Sam & Greg would join a gigantic corporation as employees? It sounds very out of line of what you'd expect.

Sounds desperate to me, a bit like that 'I'm in the office' photo-op. A bit like having access to the models or whatever is sustaining him somehow lol

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#225

Post by mighmi »

famouswaffles wrote: post #110
rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #62

Presumably Sam and Greg now get to pick up where they left off and keep productizing GPT-4 since Microsoft has the IP and is hosting their own GPT-4 models on Azure, right? The more interesting thing is whether or not they'll be able to build and release something equivalent to GPT-5, using Microsoft's immense resources, before OpenAI is able to.

GPT-5 is almost certainly already done. But considering they sat on 4 for 8 months with Altman as head, who knows if it'll see the light of day.

5 months ago they said they hadn't started training: https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/07/openai-gpt5-sam-altman/ and had no intention to do so within the next 6 months: https://the-decoder.com/gpt-5-is-nowhere-close-says-openai-c...

They just started development in the last week or so: https://decrypt.co/206044/gpt-5-openai-development-roadmap-g...

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#226

Post by ah765 »

waihtis wrote: post #8

Anyone else find it strange that startup founders of the magnitude of Sam & Greg would join a gigantic corporation as employees? It sounds very out of line of what you'd expect.

I think Sam's goal is to create AGI, same as most of the other founders of OpenAI. If he just wanted money and power, he probably would have continued with YC or some other startup instead of joining the nonprofit and unproven OpenAI at the time.

His opinion on the ideal path differs from Ilya's, but I'm guessing his goal remains the same. AGI is the most important thing to work on, and startups and corporations are just a means of getting there.

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#227

Post by user_named »

cornel_io wrote: post #84
waihtis wrote: post #8

Anyone else find it strange that startup founders of the magnitude of Sam & Greg would join a gigantic corporation as employees? It sounds very out of line of what you'd expect.

They're likely going to be the ones who manage the OpenAI relationship...what better way to fuck the people who fucked them than by becoming the ones who literally control the resources that they need?

Hilarious. The look on Ilyas face when these two show up at the office for their "sync", or perhaps he's ordered to travel to a location of the owner/client's choosing.

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#228

Post by ffgjgf1 »

g42gregory wrote: post #185

Wow. This sounds like an amazing coup for Microsoft. They are getting Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, "together with colleagues". With this team, they will be able to rebuild GPT in-house. I fear that with this development, the commercial side of the OpenAI is pretty much gone. Which sounds like what the OpenAI board has intended to do all along. I think this will also spark a big exodus from OpenAI. I am also curious…

Presumably they still have the deal with MS and will continue to receive funding as long as they meet their obligations? (Of course no clue what they are..)

Re: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft

#229

Post by alvis »

tw1984 wrote: post #200

[flagged]

Indeed. Sutskever should have been able to foresee the move. It's just not hard to see Altman will just get another place to continue what he has done in OpenAI. Maybe his hope is he can slow him down like a year or so? But now by joining MS, it's effectively no much difference.
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