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Details emerge of surprise board coup that ousted CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI

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Re: Details emerge of surprise board coup that ousted CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI

#621

Post by jacquesm »

chaostheory wrote: post #614
ls612 wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By assassination I assume you mean metaphorical? As in to derail his rise before becoming party leader?

No, literal attempts. One attempt involved a battleship “accidentally” firing onto another battleship where both Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping were visiting. https://jamestown.org/program/president-xi-suspects-politica... Biased source, but she’s able to get a lot of unreported news from the mainland. https://www.jenniferzengblog.com/home/2021/9/20/deleted-repo... I will try to find more sources but Google is just shit th…

> One attempt involved a battleship “accidentally” firing onto another battleship where both Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping were visiting.

Hm. That really does qualify as an assassination attempt if it wasn't an actual accident. Enough such things happen by accident that it has a name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_fire

Re: Details emerge of surprise board coup that ousted CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI

#622

Post by dragonwriter »

adastra22 wrote: post #600
GCA10 wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only appropriate target for Microsoft's anger would be its own deal negotiators. OpenAI's dual identity as a nonprofit/for-profit business was very well known. And the concentration of power in the nonprofit side was also very well known. From the media coverage of Microsoft's investments, it sounds as if MSFT prioritized getting lots of business for its Azure cloud service -- and didn't prioritize getting a boar…

Sure, but Microsoft could also walk away today and leave OpenAI high and dry. They hold ALL the power here.

Microsoft terminating the agreement by which they supply compute to OpenAI and OpenAI licenses technology to them would be an existential risk to OpenAI (though other competing cloud providers might step in and fill the gap Microsoft created under similar terms), but -- whether or not OpenAI ended up somewhere else immediately (the tech eventually would, even if OpenAI failed completely and was dissolved) Microsoft would go from the best positioned enterprise AI cloud provider to very far behind overnight.

And while that might hurt OpenAI as an institution more than it hurts Microsoft as an institution, the effect on Microsoft's top decision-makers personally vs. OpenAI's top decisionmakers seems likely to be the other way around.

Re: Details emerge of surprise board coup that ousted CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI

#623

Post by ryukoposting »

ThinkBeat wrote: post #229

I have spent time thinking about who would become the next CEO and even without mushrooms my brain came up with a totally out of context idea: Bill Gates. Microsoft is after all invested in OpenAI, and Bill Gates has become "loved by all" (who dont remember evil Gates of the yesteryears. I am not saying it will happen, 99,999% it wont but still he is well known and may be a good face to splash on top of OpenAI. After…

I can't imagine he would be interested in a C-office role at this point. Board member? Sure.

Re: Details emerge of surprise board coup that ousted CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI

#624

Post by Ar-Curunir »

SoftTalker wrote: post #616
adastra22 wrote: post #593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PayPal had an exit, but it absolutely did not succeed in the financial revolution it was attempting. People forget now that OG PayPal was attempting the digital financial revolution that later would be bitcoin’s raison d'être.

Yep. PayPal was originally a lot like venmo (conceptually -- of course we didn't have phone apps then). It was a way for people to send each other money online.

Good thing for PayPal that it now owns Venmo :P

Re: Details emerge of surprise board coup that ousted CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI

#625

Post by trealira »

true_religion wrote: post #576
dragonwriter wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Has the US ever stated or followed a policy of neutrality Yes, most of the time from the founding until the First World War. > and openness? Not sure what sense of "openness" is relevant here.

I’m not sure you can call Manifest destiny neutral.

You're completely right. Neither can the Monroe Doctrine be called neutral, nor can:

- the Mexican-American War

- Commodore Perry's forced reopening of Japan

- The fact that President Franklin Pierce recognized William Walker's[1] regime as legitimate

- The Spanish-American war

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_(filibuster)

Re: Details emerge of surprise board coup that ousted CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI

#626

Post by krustyburger »

trenchgun wrote: post #605
intexpress wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Meanwhile, id under Carmack kept cranking out hit after hit for years, essentially shrugging off Romero's firing like nothing happened. I don't think that is accurate... The output of id Software after Romero left (post Quake 1) was a clear step down. The technology was fantastic but the games were boring and uninspired, at best "good" but never "great". It took a full 20 years for them to make something interestin…

Romero had basically no involvement in Deus Ex. Daikatana was a commercial and critical failure. Quake 2 and Quake III were commercial and critical successes.

The comment you’re replying to wasn’t claiming that Romero designed Deus Ex, but that his leaving id led to the game getting made. It absolutely did.

From Wikipedia:

>After Spector and his team were laid off from Looking Glass, John Romero of Ion Storm offered him the chance to make his "dream game" without any restrictions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex_(video_game)

Re: Details emerge of surprise board coup that ousted CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI

#627

Post by adastra22 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #622
adastra22 wrote: post #600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but Microsoft could also walk away today and leave OpenAI high and dry. They hold ALL the power here.

Microsoft terminating the agreement by which they supply compute to OpenAI and OpenAI licenses technology to them would be an existential risk to OpenAI (though other competing cloud providers might step in and fill the gap Microsoft created under similar terms), but -- whether or not OpenAI ended up somewhere else immediately (the tech eventually would, even if OpenAI failed completely and was dissolved) Microsoft w…

Not if they invested in Sam’s new startup, under agreeable profit-focused terms this time, and all the OpenAI talent (minus Ilya) followed.

Re: Details emerge of surprise board coup that ousted CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI

#628

Post by fulladder »

financypants wrote: post #608
wolverine876 wrote: post #46

> Angel investor Ron Conway wrote, "What happened at OpenAI today is a Board coup that we have not seen the likes of since 1985 when the then-Apple board pushed out Steve Jobs. It is shocking; it is irresponsible; and it does not do right by Sam & Greg or all the builders in OpenAI." With all sympathy and empathy for Sam and Greg, whose dreams took a blow, I want to say something about investors [edit: not Ron Conway…

I think almost everyone at OpenAI would be ok if there were layoffs there though

Why? Are there a lot of useless employees there?

Re: Details emerge of surprise board coup that ousted CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI

#629

Post by ThinkBeat »

ryukoposting wrote: post #623
ThinkBeat wrote: post #229

I have spent time thinking about who would become the next CEO and even without mushrooms my brain came up with a totally out of context idea: Bill Gates. Microsoft is after all invested in OpenAI, and Bill Gates has become "loved by all" (who dont remember evil Gates of the yesteryears. I am not saying it will happen, 99,999% it wont but still he is well known and may be a good face to splash on top of OpenAI. After…

I can't imagine he would be interested in a C-office role at this point. Board member? Sure.

Yeah are right. He probably would not be.

Re: Details emerge of surprise board coup that ousted CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI

#630

Post by dragonwriter »

adastra22 wrote: post #627
dragonwriter wrote: post #622

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft terminating the agreement by which they supply compute to OpenAI and OpenAI licenses technology to them would be an existential risk to OpenAI (though other competing cloud providers might step in and fill the gap Microsoft created under similar terms), but -- whether or not OpenAI ended up somewhere else immediately (the tech eventually would, even if OpenAI failed completely and was dissolved) Microsoft w…

Not if they invested in Sam’s new startup, under agreeable profit-focused terms this time, and all the OpenAI talent (minus Ilya) followed.

At best, that might enable them to eventually come back, once new products are built from scratch, but that takes non-zero time.
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