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OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

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Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#651

Post by tevon »

mikhael28 wrote: post #597

It doesn't take a genius to figure out they are losing stupid amounts of money, with no major plan to recoup their investments. Board probably took a look at updated burn-rate projections, saw that they have 6 months of runway, saw that they don't have enough GPUs, saw that Llama and Mistral and whatever other open-source models are awesome and run on personal computers, and thought to themselves - why the hell are w…

This also doesn't fit with their recent announcements significantly lowering prices. If they were that worried about losing $ they wouldn't have cut prices, they're the clear leader from a performance perspective and can command a premium.

And up to today they probably had one of the best fundraising prospects of any private company in the world.

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#652

Post by irthomasthomas »

bluedevilzn wrote: post #621

Greg just quit too: https://twitter.com/gdb/status/1725667410387378559

So, from the coldness to microsoft, I'm guessing the GPTs launch problems + the Microsoft deal + life isn't fair?

Edit: by GPTs problems I really meant suspending pro signups. I just thought the stress was down to the demand for GPTs.

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#653

Post by pyuser583 »

baidifnaoxi wrote: post #405

- Cant be a personal scandal, press release would be worded much more differently - Board is mostly independent and those independent dont have equity - They talk about not being candid - this is legalese for “lying” The only major thing that could warrant something like this is Sam going behind the boards back to make a decision (or make progress on a decision) that is misaligned with the Charter. Thats the only fir…

How would that work? Does a non profit have shares?

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#654

Post by cowl »

paxys wrote: post #607
baidifnaoxi wrote: post #405

- Cant be a personal scandal, press release would be worded much more differently - Board is mostly independent and those independent dont have equity - They talk about not being candid - this is legalese for “lying” The only major thing that could warrant something like this is Sam going behind the boards back to make a decision (or make progress on a decision) that is misaligned with the Charter. Thats the only fir…

Why do people think it has to be some single big incident? Sam Altman has been the head of OpenAI for many years now, while the company has been in intense public spotlight only in the recent few months. The dynamic today is very different from 2019 or whenever he was hired. He also doesn't have any voting shares, which means he is entirely at the mercy of the board. It's entirely possible that they simply don't like…

The knives out language is very unusual for any CEO dismissal. The urgent timing (they didnt even wait for the closure of markets just 30 min later, causing MSFT to lose billions). Anything less than massive Legal and Financial/regulatory risk or a complete behind the back Deal with someone, would have been handled with much more calm and a much less adversive language. Also Greg Borkman has now resigned after it was annoucned that he would step down as chairman of the board. https://twitter.com/gdb/status/1725667410387378559

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#655

Post by numbsafari »

pbadams wrote: post #507
baidifnaoxi wrote: post #405

- Cant be a personal scandal, press release would be worded much more differently - Board is mostly independent and those independent dont have equity - They talk about not being candid - this is legalese for “lying” The only major thing that could warrant something like this is Sam going behind the boards back to make a decision (or make progress on a decision) that is misaligned with the Charter. Thats the only fir…

Altman has claimed before that he doesn't hold equity in OpenAI. He could have some kind of more opaque arrangement that gives him a material stake in the financial success of OpenAI, and downplayed it or didn't disclose it to the board. Who knows, though -- I'm sure we'll find out more in the next few weeks, but it's fun to guess.

Could be that they had an expectation that he not own stock in MSFT since they have such a direct relationship there and found out that he has been holding shares in MSFT.

Re: OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

#656

Post by robbie-c »

baidifnaoxi wrote: post #405

- Cant be a personal scandal, press release would be worded much more differently - Board is mostly independent and those independent dont have equity - They talk about not being candid - this is legalese for “lying” The only major thing that could warrant something like this is Sam going behind the boards back to make a decision (or make progress on a decision) that is misaligned with the Charter. Thats the only fir…

> Cant be a personal scandal, press release would be worded much more differently

I'm not sure, I agree with your point re wording but the situation with his sister that really got resolved, so I can't help but wonder if it's related. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...

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