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Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#681

Post by ramraj07 »

thawab wrote: post #397
computerex wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know it's not just about the monetary compensation, that's rather short-sighted. sama is not hurting for cash. Being the CEO of OpenAI, in the climate that we are in, brings with it a lot of exposure and influence.

to add to your point: He was sitting with heads of state because of openai.

That’s just mere fashion. My dad once was good friends with the then president of India. Didn’t mean nothing to any effort or initiative he wanted. It’s not knowing or sitting with someone that matters, it was leverage. Doubt Sam had that on any leader. Didn’t even have it on his own board lol.

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#682

Post by infamouscow »

Iv wrote: post #299
mirzap wrote: post #193

This is escalating rather quickly. It is an incredibly irresponsible move by the OpenAI board. Hypergrowing company, and now they managed to shake up their user's trust in leadership stability. This has Adam's (D'Angelo) fingerprints all over it (for context, he did overthrow his co-founder, and Quora has been struggling ever since). This guy shouldn't sit on any board ever again. I predict the board will be fired, a…

> and now they managed to shake up their user's trust in leadership stability Do users care about that? I care about features stability and avoidance of shitification. That's why I am usually preferring open models to depending on OpenAI's API. This drama has me curious about the outcome and if it leads to more openness from OpenAI, it may gain me back as a user.

> Do users care about that? I care about features stability and avoidance of shitification.

I pay for ChatGPT, and I care.

What percentage of users, and how many in absolute numbers is a matter of debate, but this nonsense (and it is nonsense) is antithetical to building a strong trusting relationship with AI. At the very least it's as antithetical to their mission.

If we take a step back, the benchmark now is to be actually transparent. Radically transparent. Like when Elon purchased Twitter and aired all the dirty laundry in the Twitter Files transparent. The cowards at OpenAI hiding behind lawyers advising them of lawsuits are just that, cowards. Leaders stand by their principles in the darkest of times, regardless of whatever highfalutin excuses one could hide behind. It's pathetic and embarrassing. A lawsuit at a heavily funded tech startup at this level is not even a speeding ticket in the grand scheme of things.

95%+ of tech startup wisdom from the last decade is completely irrelevant now. We're living in a new era. The idea people will forget this in a month doesn't hold for AI. It holds for food delivery apps, not AI tech the public believes (right or wrong) might be an existential threat to their prosperity and economic future.

The degree of leadership buffoonery taking place at OpenAI is not acceptable and one must be genuinely stupid to defend it. Everyone involved should resign if they have any self-respect.

My prognostication is the market will express it's displeasure in the coming weeks and months, setting the tone for everyone else going forward. How the hell is anyone supposed to trust OpenAI after this?

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#683

Post by romafirst3 »

romafirst3 wrote: post #236
makapuf wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

80h a week doing stuff does not prove your level at it, it proves your work capacity. Being good at something lies in the result and/or appreciation of your work by skilled pairs, which also seem to be there.

So why even claim he did 80 hours a week coding, while also being the chairman of the board? Can we get a pllleeeeeeaaaase???? He’s clearly a terrible programmer and/or a terrible chairman and to be honest this news says he’s at least 1 of 2 on the above.

I guess I just don’t like BS in all its forms.

I don’t like nonsense PR stories or myths about people’s extraordinary prowess.

I just respond badly to BS and these statement have obvious BS if you stop for even a second to think about them.

On some level too, it offends me when I see right minded intelligent people in my community lapping it up.

So a couple of things.

Say I were to tell you that he was the President of openAI but he also did 80 hours of janitorial work per week.

Would you say that was a good use of his time?

Would you say that maybe he should be spending his time on being president of the company and not mopping up? You would be right.

Now substitute programming for janitorial work.

Now be a little more critical about things you see online.

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#684

Post by dabockster »

pjc50 wrote: post #338
antman wrote: post #163

So what was he lying about that got the board so pissed? A story that fits is that they assumed/knew that he had different goals and/or was going to create a spinoff. If they waited for the GPT5 pretraining to finish and then they minimized the cost of the loss of Altman and the engineers. The whole secrecy, compartmentalization and urgency of their actions could only be explained by being against a wall. Otherwise i…

I don't think the firing would be this dramatic if it was merely lying to the board; I suspect it's something where: - he makes misleading statement to board - board puts this in regulatory filing (e.g. SEC) - board finds out this is a legally critical statement - they _have_ to fire him in order to avoid becoming accomplices. The reverse of the other Sam situation.

Yeah this feels like a possible white collar crime. And with the US government out for blood right now about tech abuses, even a minor tax audit wouldn't be good for them.

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#685

Post by dev_0 »

mirzap wrote: post #193

This is escalating rather quickly. It is an incredibly irresponsible move by the OpenAI board. Hypergrowing company, and now they managed to shake up their user's trust in leadership stability. This has Adam's (D'Angelo) fingerprints all over it (for context, he did overthrow his co-founder, and Quora has been struggling ever since). This guy shouldn't sit on any board ever again. I predict the board will be fired, a…

[dead]

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#686

Post by benkarst »

junto wrote: post #357
benkarst wrote: post #230

It's incredible how many of you alleged tech people think that Sam just wanted a world of safe AI while his actions suggest he wanted to make dump trucks of money. He was the one who partnered with Microsoft and turned it from a non-profit to a for-profit company.

Isn’t the for-profit a subsidiary on the non-profit?

Correct. That's why they were able to fire Sam.

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#687

Post by chucke1992 »

datameta wrote: post #581
blurbleblurble wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen the bugs of multiple 10x engineers multiply together for 10^n x bugs

In my experience I have encountered two 10x engineers: 1) Moves fast, flexes their authority to sweep small stuff under the rug until it is out of scope and can be "fixed real quick" later. Often leverages many subject matter experts through effective and persistent communication and learns quick enough to get PRs through the door (that sometimes need "quick" fixes later). Enjoys selecting items that benefit their ca…

Sorry, but what is SMI?

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#688

Post by CamperBob2 »

lazystar wrote: post #666
CamperBob2 wrote: post #659

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"This radio thing is a dead end. I usually just get a bunch of static when I turn it on, or maybe an electrical shock. And even if it works, it's only a question of whether a tube burns out before the battery dies." - lazystar's grandpa, circa 1923

as i mentioned earlier, i was one of the first generation of bitcoin users. the problems with it have yet to be fixed.

This isn't bitcoin. It's radio.

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#689

Post by aj7 »

mejutoco wrote: post #649
aj7 wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should be. The slight improvements in messaging autocomplete in iOS 17 have made a noticeable difference in my texting. To have an iPhone that understands me, and a Siri that doesn’t say, “Here’s what I found on the web” is extremely valuable.

Idk. It looks like Apple is happy to sell you the hardware to do the image recognition etc on your own device and receive the result. They can claim privacy and save on computation.

Then they can charge.

Re: Three senior researchers have resigned from OpenAI

#690

Post by nobodyandproud »

JohnFen wrote: post #532
bozhark wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one wants to be another woz

Why not?? Being another Woz would be amazing.

I just saw this. Glad to see I’m not the only one.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/21/why-apple-co-founder-steve-w...

My take: He’s the Keanu Reeves of tech (or Keanu is the Woz of the film industry). The world can use more of this.

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