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Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

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Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#411
post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is obviously a great leader and those that work there wanted to work with him. It’s very clear in this thread how undervalued exceptional leadership actually is, as evidence by comments thinking the top role in the most innovative company could be just plug-and-play.

This comment made me look for a recent article about Paul Graham firing him from Ycombinator for being exactly not a great leader or trustworthy person. The article was just days ago but it’s eluding my search.

Would love to see it. Everything I’ve read/seen from PG regarding Sama has been nothing but high praise. My understand is Sam chose to leave YC president role to pursue other interests/ventures which eventually turned into OpenAI

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't really make sense to be unwilling to divulge company secrets if you're willing to gut the company for this hill.

They weren't willing to gut the company. That's why Sam is back as CEO.

It sounded like they would if they could (for instance trying to sell to Anthropic or instating a "slow it way down" CEO), but they even failed at that. Not an effective board at all.

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They didn't, though. They threatened to continue tomorrow! Are you saying ~80% of OpenAI employees did not threaten to stop being employees of OpenAI during this kerfuffle?

They're saying that ~80% of OpenAI employees were determined to follow Sam to Microsoft and continue their work on GPT at Microsoft. They're saying this actually signals stability, as the majority of makers were determined to follow a leader to continue making the thing they were making, just in a different house. They're saying that while OpenAI had some internal tussling, the actual technology will see progress und…

They showed they are hypocrites.

Blaming the board the hindered OpenAI mission by firing Altman but at the same time threaten to work for MS which would kill that mission completely.

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would that have accomplished? The old board members would still be in charge of the same thing they are today: absolutely nothing. They overplayed their position. That's all there is to it.

>> They overplayed their position. That's all there is to it. They tried to enforce the non-profit's charter, as is their duty. I would hardly frame that as overplaying their hand.

> They tried to enforce the non-profit's charter

There is literally no evidence to it. If it is about the charter they could directly say it was about the charter rather than using strong language when firing and going silent.

So no one, not even their new CEO they picked knows the reason of firing and this reason has been cited as truth by HN multiple times.

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#415
This pushed our small team to try Azure instance of GPT3.5 - wow 20 times faster. API does not fail to respond to server requests as we found oh so often on the OpenAI API. We now have something fast enough and stable enough to actually use. Pricing is higher, but my goodness, it actually works.

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Had they been effective at enforcing the charter they would have not folded all of their power to someone they view does not enforce the charter. There is nothing they could have done to fail more. How specifically do you suggest they should have "not folded all of their power"? Are you saying they should have stuck to their guns when it came to firing Sam? In any case, it's not obvious to me that the board actually…

> that press release could make a big difference -- to the SEC and other federal regulators, for example. They might even have already done this confidentially via the SEC Whistleblower Protection route. We don't yet know who filed this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38469149 I guess this might have seemed like their best option if a public statement would be a breach of NDA's. That said, I still wish they'd j…

>I guess this might have seemed like their best option if a public statement would be a breach of NDA's. That said, I still wish they'd just have some backbone and issue a public statement, NDA's be damned, because the question of upholding a fiduciary duty to be beneficial to all of humanity is super important, and the penalties for a violation of an NDA would be a slap on the wrist compared to the boost in reputation they would have gotten for being seen to publicly stick to their principles.

I see what you're saying, but unilateral disclosure of confidential information is not necessarily in humanity's best interest either. Especially if it sets a bad precedent, and creates a culture of mutual distrust among people who are trying to make AI go right.

Ultimately I think you have to accept that at least in principle, there are situations where doing the right thing just isn't going to make you popular, and you should do it anyways. I can't say for sure if this is one of those situations.

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They threatened to walk across the street to a service you aren’t using.

And if they walk across that street, I'll cancel my subscription on this side of the street, and start a subscription on that side of the street. Assuming everything else is about equal, such as subscription cost and technology competency. Seems like a simple maneuver, what's the hang up? The average person is just using ChatGPT in a browser window asking it questions. It seems like it would be fairly simple, if ever…

Not that easy, MS can sell the service of GPT but don't own it.

No OpenAI no GPT.

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They threatened to walk across the street to a service you aren’t using.

And if they walk across that street, I'll cancel my subscription on this side of the street, and start a subscription on that side of the street. Assuming everything else is about equal, such as subscription cost and technology competency. Seems like a simple maneuver, what's the hang up? The average person is just using ChatGPT in a browser window asking it questions. It seems like it would be fairly simple, if ever…

It's super easy to replace an OpenAI api endpoint with an Azure api endpoint. You totally correct here. I don't see why people are acting like this is a risk at all.

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#419
post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best explanation I've read is https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KXHMCH7wCxrvKsJyn/openai-fac... and https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KXHMCH7wCxrvKsJyn/openai-fac... along with Zvi's overview in https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/sGpBPAPq2QttY4M2H/openai-the...

Or, just go to the source: "The Prince", Machiavelli

I’m reading the Prince now as bed time read. It’s not going into my head

Re: Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

#420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, OpenAI lost a bit of its magic. It's sad because it was really fun so far to see all the great progress. But there are so many unanswered questions still and the lack of transparency is an issue, as is the cult like behavior that can be observed recently.

By cult-like behavior, are you referring to 700+ OpenAI employees threatening to quit unless the board brought back Altman?

Peer pressure.

https://nitter.net/JacquesThibs/status/1727134087176204410

Like in a cult.

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