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Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO

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Re: Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO

#41

Post by skeeter2020 »

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Re: Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO

#42

Post by metalliqaz »

Altman is a consummate liar and insatiably greedy. The GOP will welcome him in. The downfall will hurt many.

In the words of Hitchens, "Do not imagine that you can escape judgment if you rob people with a false prospectus rather than with a knife."

Re: Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO

#43

Post by skeeter2020 »

threethirtytwo wrote: post #30
avaer wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal vendettas between the world's most powerful psychopaths playing out in the stock market while everyone else suffers does seem like the current meta. So it makes sense.

God why do people frame things in such extremes? Neither person is a psychopath. If anyone is closer to a psychopath it’s Altman, but he doesn’t completely fit the monicker.

When you're arguing the degree to which such powerful people fit the definition of psychopath, you're at extremes. You've just been in the warming pot too long to see it.

Re: Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO

#44

Post by yieldcrv »

randerson wrote: post #32
IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #21

The thesis is as follows: OpenAI receives funds as a non-profit. Some of those funds are redirected to for profit ventures. Critically, the GM (Altman) of the nonprofit owns shares of the for-profit ventures, that OpenAI funds were redirected into. A regular company could and does invest in any company even when there's a conflict, as long as the conflict is disclosed and the Board votes in favor of it. There's no cr…

Even if the board votes in favor, wouldn't it be tax evasion to fund a for-profit corporation using a 503(c)(3) - which is tax deductible for donors?

No, non profits can invest in anything. Publicly traded stocks are c-corps too, thats how endowments grow. There is nothing that distinguishes liquid vs illiquid c-corp shares.

Regarding founder ownership, the rules are extremely flexible like a non profit director can’t own more than 20 voting or 35% total of the business venture

but if it happens then it just needs to be remedied within 3 years

so for venture style deals that’s plenty of time to dilute down, and the little known secret in the startup space is that the founders non profit steps in as the lead investor, so all the other investors arent just twiddling their thumbs waiting for a founder to convince someone, it just closes. Other investors dilute founder and non profit, everything is compliant, value is created. Both for profit and non profit side will be tax free, due to QSBS

Re: Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO

#45

Post by threethirtytwo »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #43
threethirtytwo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God why do people frame things in such extremes? Neither person is a psychopath. If anyone is closer to a psychopath it’s Altman, but he doesn’t completely fit the monicker.

When you're arguing the degree to which such powerful people fit the definition of psychopath, you're at extremes. You've just been in the warming pot too long to see it.

[flagged]

Re: Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO

#46

Post by mcmcmc »

meowface wrote: post #33
boringg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't Sam Altman famously not own OpenAI? His whole arrangement is so shady.

Is there a more benign explanation for these things? Altman is undeniably famously cagey and political but despite most of the tech and non-tech worlds at this point seeing him as some kind of con artist, I still kind of want to try to believe he's not. No doubt some of OpenAI's founding principles like "stop + assist if a competitor gets to AGI first" are likely flying out the window, perhaps in part due to him and…

> he seems like someone who maybe regularly placates people to avoid personal problems and lies to get out of trouble rather than a Machiavellian tech baron.

This would be more plausible were it not for the staggering amount of wealth he’s amassed through those lies.

Re: Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO

#47

Post by ajross »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #21

The thesis is as follows: OpenAI receives funds as a non-profit. Some of those funds are redirected to for profit ventures. Critically, the GM (Altman) of the nonprofit owns shares of the for-profit ventures, that OpenAI funds were redirected into. A regular company could and does invest in any company even when there's a conflict, as long as the conflict is disclosed and the Board votes in favor of it. There's no cr…

That is emphatically NOT the thesis of the linked article. That's the argument made by the politicians being quoted and enumerated. What the article is trying to tell you is that these actions are entirely partisan, and reflect the desires and statements of the largest and wealthiest republican donor, who happens to own a competing interest.

You can think Altman is a bad person and OpenAI is something of a scam and still recognize that using the government as a tool to corruptly hobble your competition is a horrifyingly bad thing.

These are awful times we live in, I really fear what we'll have to be telling our grandkids. Will it be just a cautionary tale about the dangers of populism and partisanship or will it be sad, wistful tales about how much better things were... "before"?

Re: Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO

#48

Post by tremon »

threethirtytwo wrote: post #30
avaer wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal vendettas between the world's most powerful psychopaths playing out in the stock market while everyone else suffers does seem like the current meta. So it makes sense.

God why do people frame things in such extremes? Neither person is a psychopath. If anyone is closer to a psychopath it’s Altman, but he doesn’t completely fit the monicker.

Haven't you heard? Psychopath, like Pedophile, is a mere epithet these days, to indicate a person's favoured status with the in-crowd. In contrast to the equally meaningless epithet "woke".

Re: Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO

#49

Post by thinkingtoilet »

threethirtytwo wrote: post #30
avaer wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal vendettas between the world's most powerful psychopaths playing out in the stock market while everyone else suffers does seem like the current meta. So it makes sense.

God why do people frame things in such extremes? Neither person is a psychopath. If anyone is closer to a psychopath it’s Altman, but he doesn’t completely fit the monicker.

They are absolutely psychopaths. These are people that will flagrantly lie to your face and feel no remorse. They cause mass suffering and feel no remorse. They don't have empathy. They don't have normal human emotions.

Re: Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO

#50

Post by hgoel »

threethirtytwo wrote: post #45
skeeter2020 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you're arguing the degree to which such powerful people fit the definition of psychopath, you're at extremes. You've just been in the warming pot too long to see it.

[flagged]

So, now we need a clinical diagnosis to call evil people psychopaths or we're unhinged? Do you apply the same high standards to any of the garbage these guys spew or to the impacts of their projects?
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