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OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns

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Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns

#681

Post by anonymouskimmer »

hef19898 wrote: post #400
jacquesm wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, indeed and that's the real loss here: any chance of governing this properly got blown up by incompetence.

Of we ignore the risks and threats of AI for a second, this whole story is actually incredibly funny. So much childish stupidity on display on all sides is just hilarious. Makes what the world would look like if, say, the Manhattan Project would have been managed the same way. Well, a younger me working at OpenAI would resign latest after my collegues stage a coup againstvthe board out of, in my view, a personality c…

> Makes what the world would look like if, say, the Manhattan Project would have been managed the same way.

It was not possible for a war-time government crash project to have been managed the same way. During WW2 the existential fear was an embodied threat currently happening. No one was even thinking about a potential for profits or even any additional products aside from an atomic bomb. And if anyone had ideas on how to pursue that bomb that seemed like a decent idea, they would have been funded to pursue them.

And this is not even mentioning the fact that security was tight.

I'm sure there were scientists who disagreed with how the Manhattan project was being managed. I'm also sure they kept working on it despite those disagreements.

Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns

#682

Post by the_gipsy »

efdee wrote: post #629
hospitalJail wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few weeks ago my 4yr old Minecraft gamer was playing pretend and said "I'm fighting the biggest boss. THE MICROSOFT BOSS!" Yeah M$ hasnt had a good reputation. I finally left Windows this year because I'm afraid of them after Win11. 2023/4 will be the year of the Linux Desktop in retrospect. (or at least my family's religion deemed it)

You'd do yourself a favor by not referring to them as "M$". It taints your entire message, true or not.

Please, no cancel-culture.

Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns

#683

Post by selimthegrim »

brigadier132 wrote: post #545
autaut wrote: post #405

Years from now we will look back to today as the watershed moment when ai went from technology capable of empowering humanity, to being another chain forged by big investors to enslave us for the profits of very few ppl. The investors (Microsoft and the Saudi’s) stepped in and gave a clear message: this technology has to be developed and used only in ways that will be profitable for them.

Amazing how you don't see this as a complete win for workers because the workers chose profit over non-profit. This is the ultimate collective bargaining win. Labor chose Microsoft over the bullshit unaccountable ethics major and the movie star's girlfriend.

Oh well, bullshit unaccountable ethics major, ex member of Congress, I guess CIA agents on boards are fungible these days

Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns

#684

Post by appel »

FartyMcFarter wrote: post #651
Emma_Goldman wrote: post #621

I don't really understanding why the workforce is swinging unambiguously behind Altman. The core of the narrative thus far is that the board fired Altman on the grounds that he was prioritising commercialisation over the not-for-profit mission of OpenAI written into the organisation's charter.[1] Given that Sam has since joined Microsoft, that seems plausible, on its face. The board may have been incompetent and shor…

> I don't really understanding why the workforce is swinging unambiguously behind Altman. Maybe it has to do with them wanting to get rich by selling their shares - my understanding is there was an ongoing process to get that happening [1]. If Altman is out of the picture, it looks like Microsoft will assimilate a lot of OpenAI into a separate organisation and OpenAI's shares might become worthless. [1] https://www.f…

That sounds like a reasonable assessment, FartyMcFarter.

Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns

#685

Post by ninepoints »

Emma_Goldman wrote: post #621

I don't really understanding why the workforce is swinging unambiguously behind Altman. The core of the narrative thus far is that the board fired Altman on the grounds that he was prioritising commercialisation over the not-for-profit mission of OpenAI written into the organisation's charter.[1] Given that Sam has since joined Microsoft, that seems plausible, on its face. The board may have been incompetent and shor…

Imagine putting all your energy behind the person who thinks worldcoin is a good idea...

Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns

#686

Post by hawski »

gadders wrote: post #641
hawski wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often hear that about the OpenAI board, but in general are people here know most board members of some big/darling tech companies? Outside of some of the co-founders I don't know anyone.

I don't mean I know them personally, but they don't seem to be major names in the manner of (as you see down thread) the Google Founders bringing in Eric Schmidt. They seem more like the sort of people you'd see running wikimedia.

I meant "know" in the sense you used "heard".

Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns

#688

Post by changoplatanero »

Emma_Goldman wrote: post #659
mcny wrote: post #631

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't really understanding why the workforce is swinging unambiguously behind Altman. I have no inside information. I don't know anyone at Open AI. This is all purely speculation. Now that that's out out the way, here is my guess: money. These people never joined OpenAI to "advance sciences and arts" or to "change the world". They joined OpenAI to earn money. They think they can make more money with Sam Altman in…

Really? If they work at OpenAI they are already among the highest lifetime earners on the planet. Favouring moving oneself from the top 0.5% of global lifetime earners to the top 0.1% (or whatever the percentile shift is) over the safe development of a potentially humanity-changing technology would be depraved. EDIT: I don't know why this is being downvoted. My speculation as to the average OpenAI employee's place in…

Status is a relative thing and openai will pay you much more than all your peers at other companies.

Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns

#689

Post by kashyapc »

Silicon Valley outsider here. Am I being harsh here?

I just bothered to look at the full OpenAI board composition. Besides Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman, why are these people eligible to be on the OpenAI board? Such young people, calling themselves "President of this", "Director of that".

- Adam D'Angelo — Quora CEO (no clue what he's doing on OpenAI board)

- Tasha McCauley — a "management scientist" (this is a new term for me); whatever that means

- Helen Toner — I don't know what exactly she does, again, "something-something Director of strategy" at Georgetown University, for such a young person

No wise veterans here to temper the adrenaline?

Edit: the term clusterf*** comes to mind here.

Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns

#690

Post by dangerface »

Emma_Goldman wrote: post #621

I don't really understanding why the workforce is swinging unambiguously behind Altman. The core of the narrative thus far is that the board fired Altman on the grounds that he was prioritising commercialisation over the not-for-profit mission of OpenAI written into the organisation's charter.[1] Given that Sam has since joined Microsoft, that seems plausible, on its face. The board may have been incompetent and shor…

> Given that Sam has since joined Microsoft, that seems plausible, on its face.

He is the biggest name in ai what was he supposed to do after getting fired? His only options with the resources to do AI are big money, or unemployment?

It seems plausible to me that if the not for profits concern was comercialisation then there was really nothing that the comercial side could do to appease this concern besides die. The board wants rid of all employes and to kill off any potential business, they have the power and right to do that and looks like they are.

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