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Ex-OpenAI board member reveals what led to Sam Altman's brief ousting

businessinsider.com

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Re: Ex-OpenAI board member reveals what led to Sam Altman's brief ousting

#591

Post by helsinkiandrew »

thih9 wrote: post #582

> It’s come out that he was actually fired from his previous job at Y Combinator, which was hushed up at the time. What is that referring to?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/22/sam-alt...

(archive) https://archive.ph/aru0B

> Altman’s polarizing past hints at OpenAI board’s reason for firing him Before OpenAI, Altman was asked to leave by his mentor at the prominent start-up incubator Y Combinator, part of a pattern of clashes that some attribute to his self-serving approach

Re: Ex-OpenAI board member reveals what led to Sam Altman's brief ousting

#593

Post by Gud »

Aunche wrote: post #418
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If Altman is neglecting and being opaque about AI safety, as Toner claims, then the board should appoint someone to lead this effort and be fully transparent with them. No, that is absolutely not the role of the board (and I mean any board, not just OpenAI's), and that's the point I was trying to make. It is the CEO's role to define the org structure of the company. If the board feels that this structure doesn't me…

It's not typical for the board to directly intervene with the affairs for the company, but it's still far less unprecedented than making the most important decision in their history while deliberately excluding a third of the members. For example, a year before Yahoo fired Marissa Mayer, the board appointed a committee to explore "strategic alternatives" with management. https://www.businessinsider.com/marissa-mayer-…

Which is absolutely different than changing the corporate structure.

What the Yahoo Board was doing was essentially bringing in their own set of advisers.

Re: Ex-OpenAI board member reveals what led to Sam Altman's brief ousting

#594

Post by infecto »

pas wrote: post #553
sillysaurusx wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my most valuable memories is when I dismissed ChatGPT the day it came out. I didn't bother trying it; GPTs were just autocomplete, and OpenAI had already stretched the limits of what autocomplete could do, so this ChatGPT would just be slightly better autocomplete. Much like pg dismissing Facebook as lame when it first launched, I was exponentially mistaken: https://paulgraham.com/swan.html > History tends to…

It is a very fancy autocomplete indeed, but it's not like you missed anything on day 1. The engineering they put around GPT to make it work as a smart translator and eloquent "brainstormer" and whatnot is impressive, but so far there's no killer app in sight. (The biggest bang for the buck seems to be Copilot.)

It definitely is a killer app and light years ahead any competing product. Github copilot is good but different use case to me. If you meant MSFT Copilot, well that I am not sure what benefit if any exists.

Re: Ex-OpenAI board member reveals what led to Sam Altman's brief ousting

#595

Post by kklisura »

sackfield wrote: post #545
Havoc wrote: post #512

> [W]hen ChatGPT came out November 2022, the board was not informed in advance. We learned about ChatGPT on Twitter,” Jikes. Yeah I can see how a board would lose their sht. Boards are generally quite tolerant unless you keep them in the dark on strategic matters or ask them to rubber stamp stuff post fact.

I would be thrilled, if I were board member I would want the organisation to succeed and ChatGPT can't be described as anything other than an unmitigated success. I wouldn't feel the need to make myself the main character of the story and act like my permission was required for innovation. But that's just me.

I reckon being a board member is more than having a front row seat to a business

Re: Ex-OpenAI board member reveals what led to Sam Altman's brief ousting

#596

Post by 4ggr0 »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #564
phist_mcgee wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell it to search for an up to date answer.

OK but it’s still just relying on its training data, right? Or is it now able to look up live data from the internet? (I thought it was siloed).

ChatGPT uses the internet since last September.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37999172

Re: Ex-OpenAI board member reveals what led to Sam Altman's brief ousting

#597

Post by gmerc »

thinkingemote wrote: post #455
gmerc wrote: post #391

Technology has replaced religion but fills the same purpose now. It’s of course heresy to blaspheme against the prophets proclaiming the new AI church in one of the largest digital temples, but it’s true. We gather in these halls to HN Show the miracles delivered through the marvels of our digital lord at our mortal hands, we furiously discus the deep philosophical questions such as Microservice vs Monolith, spread l…

This comment gets a rare favourite. I fear both the protestant puritans and the heresy seeking inquisitors!

You may enjoy https://snekoil.weblog.lol/

Re: Ex-OpenAI board member reveals what led to Sam Altman's brief ousting

#598

Post by CLiED »

brandon272 wrote: post #218
stale2002 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Employees are not replacable like that. Almost the entire company was threatening to quit. If it was possible to simply replace all of openAI, then you could just do that now, as an outside party. So the boards choice was to either bring back Sam or watch the entire company go under.

> Almost the entire company was threatening to quit. This is the part that perplexes me. A CEO being fired is not an unusual occurrence. What about Sam Altman led such a huge number of employees to threaten to follow him out the door? Was it that the board's actions were viewed as internally unjust? Was it Altman's power of persuasion? Was/is Altman viewed by the staff as bringing something irreplaceable to the table…

The equity offering was nearing and then the board just fired Altman out of nowhere and had no credible reasons or a narrative to sell to the employees, then they quickly caught on that their comp would go to smokes with this clueless lot at the helm who can't even justify a firing without making a pig's breakfast of the whole affair and demanded the reinstatement of the CEO for their pocket's sake, simple as that.

Re: Ex-OpenAI board member reveals what led to Sam Altman's brief ousting

#599

Post by sackfield »

kklisura wrote: post #595
sackfield wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be thrilled, if I were board member I would want the organisation to succeed and ChatGPT can't be described as anything other than an unmitigated success. I wouldn't feel the need to make myself the main character of the story and act like my permission was required for innovation. But that's just me.

I reckon being a board member is more than having a front row seat to a business

It is. Like I said above I would be concerned about the continuing success of the organisation according to its operating principles. Destroying the company over childish disputes would not be fulfilling that charter. I'm very glad OpenAI got the competent board they deserved after this event.

Re: Ex-OpenAI board member reveals what led to Sam Altman's brief ousting

#600

Post by ben_w »

andy_ppp wrote: post #572

"We are disappointed that Ms. Toner continues to revisit these issues. An independent committee of the board worked with the law firm Wilmer Hale, to conduct an extensive review of the events of November." It's interesting that the review was never published and no comments from the review were mentioned. The "summary" here[1] only reveals a list of things they did and the least possible endorsement of Altman. "Wilme…

> I find it telling that they did not release the actual report.

Without opining on the merits of the case: lawyers on the job aren't known for saying more than they have to, nor for advising their clients to do so either.

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