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We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

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Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#221

Post by cornholio »

shubhamjain wrote: post #162

At the end of the day, we still don't know what exactly happened and probably, never will. However, it seems clear there was a rift between Rapid Commercialization (Team Sam) and Upholding the Original Principles (Team Helen/Ilya). I think the tensions were brewing for quite a while, as it's evident from an article written even before GPT-3 [1]. > Over time, it has allowed a fierce competitiveness and mounting pressu…

What the general public thinks is irrelevant here. The deciding factor was the staff mutiny, without which the organization is an empty shell. And the staff sided with those who aim for rapid real world impact, with directly affects their career and stock options etc.

It's also naive to think it was a struggle for principles. The rapid commercialization vs. principles is what the actors claim to rally their respective troops, in reality it was probably a naked power grab, taking advantage of the weak and confuse org structure. Quite an ill prepared move, the "correct" way to oust Altman was to hamstring him in the board and enforce a more and more ceremonial role until he would have quit by himself.

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#222

Post by loveparade »

lacker wrote: post #140
tomohelix wrote: post #17

So, Ilya is out of the board, but Adam is still on it. I know this will raise some eyebrows but whatever. Still though, this isn't something that will just go away with Sam back. OAI will undergo serious changes now that Sam has shown himself to be irreplaceable. Future will tell but in the long terms, I doubt we will see OAI as one of the megacorps like Facebook or Uber. They lost the trust.

Let's see, Sam Altman is an incredibly charismatic founding CEO, who some people consider manipulative, but is also beloved by many employees. He got kicked out by his board, but brought back when they realized their mistake. It's true that this doesn't really pattern-match with the founding story of huge successful companies like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, or Google. But somehow, I think it's still possible that a…

I think people following Sam Altman is jumping to conclusions. I think it's just as likely that employees are simply following the money. They want to make $$$, and that's what a for-profit company does, which is what Altman wants. I think it's probably not really about Altman or his leadership.

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#223

Post by [deleted] »

shubhamjain wrote: post #162

At the end of the day, we still don't know what exactly happened and probably, never will. However, it seems clear there was a rift between Rapid Commercialization (Team Sam) and Upholding the Original Principles (Team Helen/Ilya). I think the tensions were brewing for quite a while, as it's evident from an article written even before GPT-3 [1]. > Over time, it has allowed a fierce competitiveness and mounting pressu…

[deleted]

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#224

Post by justrealist »

loveparade wrote: post #175
shubhamjain wrote: post #162

At the end of the day, we still don't know what exactly happened and probably, never will. However, it seems clear there was a rift between Rapid Commercialization (Team Sam) and Upholding the Original Principles (Team Helen/Ilya). I think the tensions were brewing for quite a while, as it's evident from an article written even before GPT-3 [1]. > Over time, it has allowed a fierce competitiveness and mounting pressu…

> I think only a minority of the general public truly cares about AI Safety, the rest are happy seeing ChatGPT helping with their homework Not just the public, but also the employees. I doubt there are more than a handful of employees who care about AI Safety.

the team is mostly e/acc

so you could say they intentionally don't see safety as the end in itself, although I wouldn't quite say they don't care.

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#225

Post by jacobedawson »

swatcoder wrote: post #195
shubhamjain wrote: post #162

At the end of the day, we still don't know what exactly happened and probably, never will. However, it seems clear there was a rift between Rapid Commercialization (Team Sam) and Upholding the Original Principles (Team Helen/Ilya). I think the tensions were brewing for quite a while, as it's evident from an article written even before GPT-3 [1]. > Over time, it has allowed a fierce competitiveness and mounting pressu…

> If you truly believed that Superhuman AI was near, and it could act with malice, won't you try to slow things down a bit? FWIW, that's called zealotry and people do a lot of dramatic, disruptive things in the name of it. It may be rightly aimed and save the world (or whatever you care about), but it's more often a signal to really reflect on whether you, individually, have really found yourself at the make-or-break…

It's more often a signal to really reflect on whether you, individually as a Thanksgiving turkey, have really found yourself at the make-or-break nexus of turkey existence. The answer seems to be "no" most of the time.

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#226

Post by mlyle »

swatcoder wrote: post #195
shubhamjain wrote: post #162

At the end of the day, we still don't know what exactly happened and probably, never will. However, it seems clear there was a rift between Rapid Commercialization (Team Sam) and Upholding the Original Principles (Team Helen/Ilya). I think the tensions were brewing for quite a while, as it's evident from an article written even before GPT-3 [1]. > Over time, it has allowed a fierce competitiveness and mounting pressu…

> If you truly believed that Superhuman AI was near, and it could act with malice, won't you try to slow things down a bit? FWIW, that's called zealotry and people do a lot of dramatic, disruptive things in the name of it. It may be rightly aimed and save the world (or whatever you care about), but it's more often a signal to really reflect on whether you, individually, have really found yourself at the make-or-break…

Your comment perfectly justifies never worrying at all about the potential for existential or major risks; after all, one would be wrong most of the time and just engaging in zealotry.

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#227

Post by dmix »

arketyp wrote: post #201
shubhamjain wrote: post #162

At the end of the day, we still don't know what exactly happened and probably, never will. However, it seems clear there was a rift between Rapid Commercialization (Team Sam) and Upholding the Original Principles (Team Helen/Ilya). I think the tensions were brewing for quite a while, as it's evident from an article written even before GPT-3 [1]. > Over time, it has allowed a fierce competitiveness and mounting pressu…

For all the talk about responsible progress, the irony of their inability to align even their own incentives in this enterprise deserves ridicule. It's a big blow to their credibility and questions whatever ethical concerns they hold.

It's fear driven as much as moral, which in an emotional humans brain tends to triggers personal ambition to solve it ASAP. A more rational one would realize you need more than just a couple board members to win a major ideological battle.

At a minimum something that doesn't immediately result in a backlash where 90% of the engineers most responsible for recent AI dev want you gone, when you're whole plan is to control what those people do.

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#230

Post by MVissers »

Gud wrote: post #61

Once we develop an actual, fully functional AGI, it’s going to steamroll us isn’t it. If these are the stewards of this technology, it’s time to be worried now.

“And that moment was the final nail in the coffin of humankind from earth. They choose, yet again, for money and power. And they shaped AI in their image.

Another civilization perished in the great filter.”

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