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

We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

741–750 of 1001 posts

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#741

Post by bart_spoon »

gandutraveler wrote: post #683
eclectic29 wrote: post #196

The media and the VCs are treating Sam like some hero and savior of AI. I’m not getting it. What has he done in life and/or AI to deserve so much respect and admiration? Why don’t top researchers and scientists get equivalent (if not more) respect, admiration and support? It looks like one should strive to become product manager, not an engineer or a scientist.

There is a reason why the top researchers and engineers at OpenAI stood behind Sam. Someday you will learn the value of good leader

Stock options?

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#742

Post by danaris »

busyant wrote: post #642
eclectic29 wrote: post #196

The media and the VCs are treating Sam like some hero and savior of AI. I’m not getting it. What has he done in life and/or AI to deserve so much respect and admiration? Why don’t top researchers and scientists get equivalent (if not more) respect, admiration and support? It looks like one should strive to become product manager, not an engineer or a scientist.

> Why don’t top researchers and scientists get equivalent (if not more) respect, admiration and support? I can't believe I'm about to defend VCs and "senior management" but here goes. I've worked for two start-ups in my life. The first start-up had dog-shit technology (initially) and top-notch management. CEO told me early on that VCs invest on the quality of management because they trust good senior executives to hi…

> All I'm saying is that I used to diminish the importance of quality senior leadership.

Quality senior leadership is, indeed, very important.

However, far, far too many people see "their company makes a lot of money" or "they are charismatic and talk a good game" and think that means the senior leadership is high-quality.

True quality is much harder to measure, especially in the short term. As you imply, part of it is being able to choose good management—but measuring the quality of management is also hard, and most of the corporate world today has utterly backwards ideas about what actually makes good managers (eg, "willing to abuse employees to force them to work long hours", etc).

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#744

Post by baking »

hdivider wrote: post #529
eclectic29 wrote: post #196

The media and the VCs are treating Sam like some hero and savior of AI. I’m not getting it. What has he done in life and/or AI to deserve so much respect and admiration? Why don’t top researchers and scientists get equivalent (if not more) respect, admiration and support? It looks like one should strive to become product manager, not an engineer or a scientist.

This, 100%. Sam pontificated about fusion power, even here on HN. Beyond investing in Helion, what did he do? Worldcoin. Tempting impoverished people to give up biometric data in exchange for some crypto. And serving as the face of mass-market consumer AI. Clearly that's more cool, and more attractive to VCs. Meanwhile, what have fusion scientists and engineers done? They kept on going, including by developing ML sys…

He is the Executive Chairman of Helion Energy so it is not just a passive investment.

That said, I wish Helion wasn't so paranoid about Chinese copycats and was more open about their tech. I can't help but feel Sam Altman is at least partly responsible for that.

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#745

Post by sealthedeal »

eclectic29 wrote: post #196

The media and the VCs are treating Sam like some hero and savior of AI. I’m not getting it. What has he done in life and/or AI to deserve so much respect and admiration? Why don’t top researchers and scientists get equivalent (if not more) respect, admiration and support? It looks like one should strive to become product manager, not an engineer or a scientist.

Simply put Altman is now the face of AI.

If you were to ask Altman himself though im sure he would highlight the true innovators of AI that he holds in high respect.

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#747

Post by dgrin91 »

flagrant_taco wrote: post #700
garrison wrote: post #637

If OpenAI remains a 501(c)(3) charity, then any employee of Microsoft on the board will have a fiduciary duty to advance the mission of the charity, rather than the business needs of Microsoft. There are obvious conflicts of interest here. I don't expect the IRS to be a fan of this arrangement.

I don't expect the government to regulate any of this aggressively. AI is much to important to the government and military to allow pesky conflicts of interest to slow down any competitive advantage we may have.

If you think that OpenAI is the Gov's only source of high quality AI research then I have a bridge to sell you.

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#748

Post by emodendroket »

eclectic29 wrote: post #196

The media and the VCs are treating Sam like some hero and savior of AI. I’m not getting it. What has he done in life and/or AI to deserve so much respect and admiration? Why don’t top researchers and scientists get equivalent (if not more) respect, admiration and support? It looks like one should strive to become product manager, not an engineer or a scientist.

Then again wasn't that always true? What did Steve Jobs really build?

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#749

Post by [deleted] »

random_cynic wrote: post #308
laserlight wrote: post #236

With Sam coming back as CEO, hasn't OpenAI board proven that it has lost its function? Regardless of who is in the board, they won't be able to exercise one of the most fundamental of their rights, firing the CEO, because Sam has proven that he is unfireable. Now, Sam can do however he pleases, whether it is lying, not reporting, etc. To be clear, I don't claim that Sam did, or will, lie, or misbehave.

No that hasn't at all been the case. The board acted like the most incompetent group of individuals who've even handed any responsibility. If they went through due process, notified their employees and investors, and put out a statement of why they're firing the CEO instead of doing it over a 15 min Google meet and then going completely silent, none of this outrage would have taken place.

[deleted]

Re: We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO

#750

Post by Kinrany »

serial_dev wrote: post #521
eclectic29 wrote: post #196

The media and the VCs are treating Sam like some hero and savior of AI. I’m not getting it. What has he done in life and/or AI to deserve so much respect and admiration? Why don’t top researchers and scientists get equivalent (if not more) respect, admiration and support? It looks like one should strive to become product manager, not an engineer or a scientist.

> It looks like one should strive to become product manager, not an engineer or a scientist. In my experience, product people who know what they are doing have a huge impact on the success of a company, product, or service. They also point engineering efforts in the right direction, which in turn also motivate engineers. I saw good product people leaving completely destroy a team, never seen that happen with a good e…

Good engineers create systems that can survive their departure.
Post reply on HN