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OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO

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

#711

Post by MVissers »

silenced_trope wrote: post #612
crop_rotation wrote: post #60

The board seems truly incompetent here and looking at the member list it doesn't seem very surprising. A competent board should have asked for legal and professional advice before taking a drastic step like this. Instead the board thought it was a boxing match and tried to deliver a knockout punch before the market closes with blunt language. This might be the most incompetent board for an organisation of this size.

The major investors whose money is on the line and who are funding the venture, Microsoft, Sequoia, and Khosla, were not given advanced warning or any input in to how this would impact their investment. I would definitely say the board screwed up. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/11/17/openai-in...

The board of the non-profit (one that fired Sam) has no fiduciary duty to those investors, I believe. Microsoft invested in the for-profit Openai, which is owned by the non-profit. The other ones I don't know.

The board has no responsibility to Microsoft whatsoever regarding this. Sam Altman structured it this way himself. Not to say that the board didn't screw up.

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

#712

Post by TerrifiedMouse »

thefourthchime wrote: post #684
woeirua wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no scenario here where Sam returns and OpenAI survives as a nonprofit. The board will be sacked.

I agree. The pretense that OpenAI is still an open or a nonprofit has been a farce for a while now, it is an aggressively for-profit, trying to be the next Google company, and everybody knows it.

Clearly people in the non-profit part are trying to bring the organization back to its non-profit origins - after Altman effectively high jacked their agenda and corporatized the organization for his own benefit; turning its name into a meme.

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

#713

Post by tsunamifury »

thinkcomp wrote: post #692
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

This does not solve the company's California AG problem. https://www.plainsite.org/posts/aaron/r8huu7s/

This could all be easily covered over with a few billion dollars. This is just some guy that thinks too small.

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

#715

Post by x86x87 »

adam_arthur wrote: post #689
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

Pretty incredible incompetence all around if true. From the board for not anticipating a backlash and caving immediately... from Microsoft for investing into an endeavor that is purportedly chartered as non-profit and governed by nobodies who can sink it on a whim. And having 0 hard influence on the direction despite a large ownership stake Why bother with a non-profit model that is surreptitiously for profit? The wh…

my question is: why not both? why not pursue the profit and use that to fuel the research into AGI. seems like a best of both worlds.

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

#716

Post by lazystar »

hughesjj wrote: post #657
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…

> The board was Altmans boss - this is pretty much their only job. Not at all. Ilya and George are on the board. Ilya is the chief scientist, George resigned with Sam and supposedly works like 80-100hrs a week

> supposedly works like 80-100hrs a week

if theyve been doin that for a while, no wonder the board wanted them gone. eventually you cause more work than you put out.

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

#717

Post by lazystar »

adam_arthur wrote: post #689
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

Pretty incredible incompetence all around if true. From the board for not anticipating a backlash and caving immediately... from Microsoft for investing into an endeavor that is purportedly chartered as non-profit and governed by nobodies who can sink it on a whim. And having 0 hard influence on the direction despite a large ownership stake Why bother with a non-profit model that is surreptitiously for profit? The wh…

look at the backgrounds of those board members... cant find any evidence that any of them have experience with corporate politics. theyre in way over their heads.

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

#718

Post by mizzao »

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…

Yep. There's the apparent legal leverage,

and then there's the real leverage of money and the court of public opinion.

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

#719

Post by cthalupa »

x86x87 wrote: post #715
adam_arthur wrote: post #689

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty incredible incompetence all around if true. From the board for not anticipating a backlash and caving immediately... from Microsoft for investing into an endeavor that is purportedly chartered as non-profit and governed by nobodies who can sink it on a whim. And having 0 hard influence on the direction despite a large ownership stake Why bother with a non-profit model that is surreptitiously for profit? The wh…

my question is: why not both? why not pursue the profit and use that to fuel the research into AGI. seems like a best of both worlds.

That's the intent of the arrangement, but there's also limits - when that pursuit of profit begins to interfere with the charter of the non-profit, you end up in this situation.

https://openai.com/charter

> OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI)—by which we mean highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work—benefits all of humanity.

My interpretation of events is the board believes that Altman's actions have worked against the interest of building an AGI that benefits all of humanity - concentrating access to the AI to businesses could be the issue, or the focus on commercialization of the existing LLMs and chatbot stuff causing conflict with assigning resources to AGI r&d, etc.

Of course no one knows for sure except the people directly involved here.

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

#720

Post by selimthegrim »

hughesjj wrote: post #657
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…

> The board was Altmans boss - this is pretty much their only job. Not at all. Ilya and George are on the board. Ilya is the chief scientist, George resigned with Sam and supposedly works like 80-100hrs a week

You mean Greg?
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