Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 272 posts

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#231

Post by dumpsterdiver »

4death4 wrote: post #66
flappyeagle wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These words are gonna get ate one way or another. There is no outcome where the current board wins. Emmet is already threatening the board with resignation unless they provide evidence of wrongdoing [1]. Which they don't have, because they would have revealed it already. They are empty shirts. [1] https://x.com/emilychangtv/status/1727020834005700914?s=20

In a normal corporation, they would be empty shirts, because ultimately they serve at bequest of the share holders. But this is a non-profit so they actually have a lot of power and don't need to answer to anyone.

As we are all witnessing, they have to answer to their employees.

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#232

Post by smegger001 »

spamizbad wrote: post #86
3cats-in-a-coat wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It upset a bunch of employees. The tech is fine". Uhmm, it upset 98% (not figuratively, but mathematically) of all 700 employees who signed a petition to quit unless he's reinstated and for the board to resign. As for the tech... who... exactly do you think created, maintains and is developing future enhancement for the tech? Is it doing it by itself? Sorry, we're not there yet .

I think one lesson we learned from Twitter is that you can cull a large amount of a tech workforce and the product will keep humming along, albeit at a reduced rate of change. Also, unlike Twitter, OpenAI pays engineers very competitive salaries and can aggressively re-hire roles.

Twitter is a very different animal. A twitter clone can be thrown together over a weekend with average web stack coders, making it scalable is a bit more work true but nothing fundamentally new or revolutionary. OpenAI on the other hand is working on new, challenging hard problems in a complex feild of math/computer science.

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#233

Post by smegger001 »

3cats-in-a-coat wrote: post #89
righthand wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Uhmm, it upset 98% (not figuratively, but mathematically) of all 700 employees who signed a petition to quit unless he's reinstated and for the board to resign. And they have yet to leave as far as I know. Seems like no one is in an actual hurry to quit.

Sam Altman is currently talking to the board. You want them to spin up drama by quitting in the middle of the talks? You're trying too hard to copy paste your desired narrative on this and it fits so, so, so poorly.

To be fair if this board is good at one thing it is spinning up drama

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#234

Post by smegger001 »

zarzavat wrote: post #95
3cats-in-a-coat wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It upset a bunch of employees. The tech is fine". Uhmm, it upset 98% (not figuratively, but mathematically) of all 700 employees who signed a petition to quit unless he's reinstated and for the board to resign. As for the tech... who... exactly do you think created, maintains and is developing future enhancement for the tech? Is it doing it by itself? Sorry, we're not there yet .

98% is meaningless. If Altman is reinstated then he will have the power to fire anyone who didn’t sign. You’d be an idiot not to sign it.

If they didn't sign he wouldnt have the leverage to come back in the first place

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#235

Post by righthand »

maxdoop wrote: post #228
righthand wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude I’m all over this thread because people are responding to me. It’s called conversation. You want me to run and hide because 20 people jumped on me with opposing thoughts? Oh yeah I think Sam is sleazier than most people seem to think. I also don’t think he’s in the right because the board has been quiet. The whole thing is insular and one sided. Everything they’re doing/saying is to try and control the board. Th…

No, I think you're mistaking my tone. I was genuinely curious, because it's rare to see someone with a sure view on this mad saga! And I wanted to learn a bit more from the somewhat-less-popular side (I do think there is an odd cultish energy around Sam at the moment from some folks). I don't know enough about Sam or the board at all, so curious as to reasons why he might be sleazy/sneaky. The board being quiet, in m…

IMO opinion the board is quiet because they owe the media and public nothing as they are not a publicly traded company. The entire frenzy around this is seated with the employees, Microsoft CEO, and outlets looking for clicks. In a week or so when this is over everyone will see how much of a nothing burger this will have turned out to be…IMO.

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#236

Post by jacquesm »

otteromkram wrote: post #130
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Employees hate working for companies where they have no voice too. Morale will drop and attrition will skyrocket. New talent won't consider OpenAI, existing talent will leave. The investment goes to zero anyway without talent.

Plenty of talent flooding the market right now. Say, what agenda are you trying to push, spaceman? This is the second comment of yours in this thread trying to make it seem like everyone at OpenAI is irreplaceable, so maybe you missed the hundreds of thousands of tech layoffs this year in the US.

Not that level talent though.

If you know where to find a hundred or so people of the caliber that OpenAI has managed to attract so far you should get into the recruiting business pronto because you could make a few million easily.

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#237

Post by jacquesm »

type0 wrote: post #204
jacquesm wrote: post #13

Does anybody know who is currently CEO of OpenAI? Friday, Sam. Saturday, Mira. Sunday was a day off, Monday it was Emmet so who is it for today? Kidding aside, the board is under more and more pressure but - surprisingly - they haven't folded yet. I am interpreting that as that they are trying to get something out of it that nobody is willing to give them. The new CEO is also surprisingly not to be found at all, no p…

Does anybody know who is currently CEO of OpenAI? They should assign ChatGPT to be CEO

That would put 'dogfooding' on a whole new level.

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#238

Post by jacquesm »

DonHopkins wrote: post #198
jacquesm wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hehe. That's funny.

Damn, I was hoping you'd be horrified as a Dutchman.

Hehe, as a Dutchman I wonder how many people pick up on that joke, but yes, chance missed. Too busy. On a less busy day I would have seen my chance and jumped for it. But don't worry, you're not off the hook yet.

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#239

Post by jacquesm »

ChatGTP wrote: post #192
DebtDeflation wrote: post #166

It's not reported as much as it should be, but at one point in 2021 the OpenAI board had 10 people on it. In the beginning of 2023 it had 9 people. 3 stepped down over the course of 2023 and were not replaced, leaving only 6 in place by the time of last week's fiasco. 2 of the 6 were then removed on Friday leaving 4. The typical large company will have 10-12 people on the board. Apparently, OpenAI's bylaws do not set…

This is the type of thing Microsoft should known about before investing, billions in the company. They are crying foul now and it might work out ok. But they were asking for it.

Well, you are putting a lower bound on the incompetence at the board. But I wouldn't bet on them being that familiar with the bylaws.

Re: OpenAI investors keep pushing for Sam Altman’s return

#240

Post by flappyeagle »

righthand wrote: post #229
josephg wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From where I’m sitting the 90% are replaceable in a flooded market of available software engineers. The market is flooded with junior engineers who have recently graduated from coding boot camps, and who might be good at building the specific types of software they have been shown. However, there is, as I understand it, still a dearth of senior engineers who can do the sort of work that OpenAI engineers are doing:…

It is not flooded with junior engineers, it's engineers of all skill levels. I happen to know as someone who is senior looking for work right now. Most of the open positions are for senior and staff level positions. Microsoft isn't clambering to hire them, they're clambering for the IP. The OpenAI employees will get significantly less if they go over to Microsoft.

My guy. It’s flooded with juniors. Juniors at all levels of junior-ness. Including ones called “senior”
Post reply on HN