This saga is somehow more absurd than HBO's Silicon Valley.
You know what they say: "Life is stranger than fiction."
OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
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Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#52I'd bet money Satya was a driver of this reversal. I genuinely can't believe the board didn't see this coming. I think they could have won in the court of public opinion if their press release said they loved Sam but felt like his skills and ambitions diverged from their mission. But instead, they tried to skewer him, and it backfired completely. I hope Sam comes back. He'll make a lot more money if he doesn't, but I…
> I hope Sam comes back
Why? We would have more diversity in this space if he leaves, which would get us another AI startup with huge funding and know how from OpenAI, while OpenAI would become less Sam Altman like.
I think him staying is bad for the field overall compared to OpenAI splitting in two.
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#53How do I know if I can go to sleep?
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#54You know, I always found Mike judge to probably be the most prescient of all of the science fiction authors.
In Office Space, Idiocracy, and most relevant here in Silicon Valley; he accurately, and very precisely not only forecasts, but deconstructs the reasoning, and vapid lack of core philosophy behind each of the real life narratives he’s parodying.
That serious people still consider Silicon Valley as some kind of thing to aspire to is horrifying. This despite repeated examples of predictably base incompetence, lack of maturity and quite frankly avaricious opportunism as the kernel on which SV lies.
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#55This is so dysfunctional. Does the other half of the company quit now? How can this board remain in place, but who can replace them?
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#56Are you fucking kidding me? OK. OK. I’ve said this my whole career. Engineers are the most emotional specie of worker. There is a grand delusion that engineers are rational. This just goes to show how irrational they are. Snap reactions like this: sign of a brilliant but fucked up engineer. I am an engineer. I am under no illusion that I’m rational. Quite the opposite.
The board had other members beside Ilya. Mostly it shows how incompetent the board was.
Ilya was the driver. The others are no name dopes. Total pawns who don’t count.
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#57This makes sense. The board thinks they're calling the shots, but the reality is the people with the money are the ones calling the shots, always. Boards are just appointed by shareholders aka investors aka capital holders to do their bidding.
The capped-profit / non-profit structure muddles that a little bit, but the reality is that entity can't survive without the funding that goes into the for-profit piece
And if current investors + would-be investors threaten to walk away, what can the board really do? They have no leverage.
Sounds like they really didn't "play the tape forward" and think this through...
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#58Man that just screams chaos and disorder. I wonder what it's like right now in the internal chats.
OpenAI internal chat is likely just spam of the Bill-Hader-eating-popcorn GIF.
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#59[flagged]
And replace him with whom?
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#60The board seems truly incompetent here and looking at the member list it doesn't seem very surprising. A competent board should have asked for legal and professional advice before taking a drastic step like this. Instead the board thought it was a boxing match and tried to deliver a knockout punch before the market closes with blunt language. This might be the most incompetent board for an organisation of this size.