Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

631–640 of 1001 posts

Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO

#631

Post by airstrike »

blazespin wrote: post #529
airstrike wrote: post #57

This 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…

The staff calls the shots. The money will go wherever the talent is.

Owners call the shots, otherwise staff would never get fired.

Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO

#632

Post by bigtunacan »

PheonixPharts wrote: post #607
shrimpx wrote: post #574

Ilya should split off from Altman/Brockman no matter where this lands. I sense an uncrossable chasm between these guys. Anyway I’m with Sutskever, the guy who builds models. Charismatic salesmen are a dime a dozen.

Over the years "tech" has been less and less about making things and more and more about making your investors money. Technical talented used to be extremely important in this industry, but it's slowly been being worn away over the years. I still like working in this industry because you can still find interesting problems to solve if you hunt for them, but they're getting harder to find and it increasingly seems lik…

What else would you expect? OpenAI spun up "separate" for profit company and recruited a bunch of industry top engineers and scientists with 500k+ salaries where the vast majority of it is tied to equity grants.

Most of the employees values do not align with a non profit, even if executives like Ilya do.

By firing Altman and trying to remind the world they are a non profit that answers to no one they are also telling their employees to fuck off on all that equity they signed on for.

Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO

#633

Post by j45 »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #630
shmatt wrote: post #598

This makes no sense. People are calling what the board did a coup, but Altman is trying (failing?) to stage a coup. The board was Altmans boss - this is pretty much their only job. Altman knew this and most likely ignored any questions or concerns of theirs thinking he is the unfireable superstar Imagine if your boss fired you - and your response was - I’ll come back if you quit! Yeah, no. People might confuse status…

I think the allure for Altman though would be that OpenAI already has all the pieces in place. Going off and starting his own thing would be great, but it would be at least a year to get product out, even if he had all the same players making it. And that's just to catch up to current tech

Except building something the second time around is often quicker and with the current gains of hardware capabilities and interest in the space… maybe it wouldn’t be a year behind.

Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO

#634

Post by Animats »

medler wrote: post #590
meetpateltech wrote: post #568

Update on the OpenAI drama: Altman and the board had till 5pm to reach a truce where the board would resign and he and Brockman would return. The deadline has passed and mass resignations expected if a deal isn’t reached ASAP https://twitter.com/alexeheath/status/1726055095341875545

Really weird phrasing in this tweet. The idea is that Altman and/or a bunch of employees were demanding the board reinstate Altman and then resign. And they’re calling it a “truce.” Oh, and there’s a deadline (5 pm), but since it’s already passed the board merely has to “reach” this “truce” “ASAP.” Edit: an update to the verge article sheds some more light, but I still consider it very sus since it’s coming from the…

"Missing a key 5PM PT deadline by which many OpenAI staffers were set to resign."

Says who? And did they resign?

Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO

#635

Post by ramraj07 »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #630
shmatt wrote: post #598

This makes no sense. People are calling what the board did a coup, but Altman is trying (failing?) to stage a coup. The board was Altmans boss - this is pretty much their only job. Altman knew this and most likely ignored any questions or concerns of theirs thinking he is the unfireable superstar Imagine if your boss fired you - and your response was - I’ll come back if you quit! Yeah, no. People might confuse status…

I think the allure for Altman though would be that OpenAI already has all the pieces in place. Going off and starting his own thing would be great, but it would be at least a year to get product out, even if he had all the same players making it. And that's just to catch up to current tech

Further wouldn’t they not be able to create GPT-x exactly as it was even though they know it?

Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO

#636

Post by j45 »

seanoliver wrote: post #608
shmatt wrote: post #598

This makes no sense. People are calling what the board did a coup, but Altman is trying (failing?) to stage a coup. The board was Altmans boss - this is pretty much their only job. Altman knew this and most likely ignored any questions or concerns of theirs thinking he is the unfireable superstar Imagine if your boss fired you - and your response was - I’ll come back if you quit! Yeah, no. People might confuse status…

I don't see how Sam can return if the board doesn't resign. It's either them or him at this point.

Hard to reconcile with people who would do something like that.

Differences in interpretations will happen but the YC rule that founder drama is too often a problem continues to exist and it shouldn’t be a surprise.

Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO

#637

Post by glitchc »

shmatt wrote: post #598

This makes no sense. People are calling what the board did a coup, but Altman is trying (failing?) to stage a coup. The board was Altmans boss - this is pretty much their only job. Altman knew this and most likely ignored any questions or concerns of theirs thinking he is the unfireable superstar Imagine if your boss fired you - and your response was - I’ll come back if you quit! Yeah, no. People might confuse status…

I'm pretty sure that's what happened.

Sam and Greg were trying to stage a coup, the rest of the board got wind of it and successfully countered in time (got to them first).

What they didn't expect is that a bunch of their own technical staff would be so loyal to Sam (or at least so prone to the cult of personality). Now they're caught in a Catch-22.

Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO

#638

Post by spoonyvoid7 »

shmatt wrote: post #598

This makes no sense. People are calling what the board did a coup, but Altman is trying (failing?) to stage a coup. The board was Altmans boss - this is pretty much their only job. Altman knew this and most likely ignored any questions or concerns of theirs thinking he is the unfireable superstar Imagine if your boss fired you - and your response was - I’ll come back if you quit! Yeah, no. People might confuse status…

> Imagine if your boss fired you - and your response was - I’ll come back if you quit! Yeah, no. People might confuse status with those of actual ceo shareholders like zuck, bezos, or musk. But Altman is just another employee

Think you're missing the big picture here. Sam Altman isn't an "easily replaceable employee" especially given his fundraising skills.

Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO

#639

Post by [deleted] »

shmatt wrote: post #598

This makes no sense. People are calling what the board did a coup, but Altman is trying (failing?) to stage a coup. The board was Altmans boss - this is pretty much their only job. Altman knew this and most likely ignored any questions or concerns of theirs thinking he is the unfireable superstar Imagine if your boss fired you - and your response was - I’ll come back if you quit! Yeah, no. People might confuse status…

[deleted]

Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO

#640

Post by m3kw9 »

meetpateltech wrote: post #568

Update on the OpenAI drama: Altman and the board had till 5pm to reach a truce where the board would resign and he and Brockman would return. The deadline has passed and mass resignations expected if a deal isn’t reached ASAP https://twitter.com/alexeheath/status/1726055095341875545

the board is the ones that fired him, why would they resign if Sam isn't back?
Post reply on HN