Even if SamA manages to come back, will future investors be spooked and he won’t be able to raise the large round of financing?
there are no future investors. If OpenAI cant bootstrap from 11 billion + profits, they wont be able to.
OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
761–770 of 1001 posts
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#762It's insane to me how easily Sam's side can spin the board firing him for violating the company's Charter and then not backtracking at all as "Within 24 hours the board has come crawling back, I- er Sam Altman might deign to return if they grovel hard enough and I'm given complete control." This is really, really clearly incestuous tech media stuff as part of a pressure campaign. Sam is the darlin of tech media and h…
There's nothing insane at all. The board has the freedom to make their choices, but they must own the consequences of those choices. This appears to be a choice they made which has had obvious consequences they miscalculated. Having to walk it back to some degree would prove their inability to effectively plan and govern.
It might, if that had actually happened. There is not good evidence that this has actually happened, and it's just a fact that Sam + investors are going on a massive pressure campaign to try to regain control that they are not legally entitled to, including a media blitz.
Moreover, there is an impartiality issue here in the tech press. A lot of the tech press disagree with the OpenAI Charter and think that Sam's vision of OpenAI as basically Google but providing consumer AI products is superior to the Charter, which they view in incredibly derogatory terms ("people who think Terminator is real"). That's fine, people can disagree on these important issues!
But I think as a journalist it's not engaging fairly with the topic to be on Sam's political side here and not even attempt to fairly describe the cause of the dispute, which is the non-profit Board accusing Sam Altman of violating the OpenAI charter which they are legally obligated to uphold. This is particularly important because if you actually read the OpenAI Charter, it's really clear to see why they've made that decision! The Charter clearly bans prioritising commercialisation and profit seeking, and demands the central focus be building an AGI, and I don't think a reasonable observer can look at OpenAI Dev Day and say it's not reasonable to view that as proof that OpenAI is no longer following its charter.
Basically, if you disagree with the idea of the non-profit and its Charter, think the whole thing is science-fiction bunk and the people who believe in it are idiots, I think you should argue that instead of framing all of this as "It's a coup" without even disclosing that you don't support the non-profit Charter in the first place.
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#763Earlier quoted context omitted.
the board is the ones that fired him, why would they resign if Sam isn't back?
Because they won't have a company to "run the board for" anymore if Sam doesn't come back (since so many people have threatened to resign).
Question: is there a public statement signed by a large number OpenAI employees saying that they will resign over this? I don’t know. I have seen that three people resigned. If I were an OpenAI employee I think I would wait a month and see how things shake out. Those employees can probably get very highly paid jobs elsewhere, now, or later.
The Anthropic founders left OpenAI after Altman shifted the company to be a non-profit controlling a for profit entity, right?
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#764This had to be fake
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#765I hope he'll make a new one!
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#766Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mass resignations from whom, I wonder. Other researchers?
Presumably a significant amount of OpenAI employees are motivated by money, at least in some form. The board just vaporised the tender offer, and likely much of their valuation. It’s hard to have confidence in that.
And with the popularity and success of GPT whatever they do next will likely be wildly successful. The timing couldn't be more perfect.
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#767It's insane to me how easily Sam's side can spin the board firing him for violating the company's Charter and then not backtracking at all as "Within 24 hours the board has come crawling back, I- er Sam Altman might deign to return if they grovel hard enough and I'm given complete control." This is really, really clearly incestuous tech media stuff as part of a pressure campaign. Sam is the darlin of tech media and h…
While this is an insightful perspective, it doesn't change the fact that the board is revealed as incompetent. Either they made a mistake in firing him and are now walking it back (while yielding so much leverage that Altman can condition his return on the resignation of everyone who voted to fire him), or they have such little credibility that some standard-practice media collusion has created sufficient pressure to…
...or they don't respond to these pressure tactics, continue talking to their employees to ameliorate legitimate concerns, and accept that some of Sam's hires will go to join him. OpenAI's core (remembering that OpenAI's Charter doesn't demand it makes cool consumer/developer AI products, it demands OpenAI build AGI safely) is not the ChatGPT product team or admin, it is the research team that Ilya leads (or lead until a month ago when Sam tried to sideline him). The company isn't going to leave to follow Sam, or at least the scientists and engineers aren't. They've lost some technical leads that Sam hired and will probably lose more, but it's worth it to make sure that OpenAI is actually following its Charter.
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#768It's insane to me how easily Sam's side can spin the board firing him for violating the company's Charter and then not backtracking at all as "Within 24 hours the board has come crawling back, I- er Sam Altman might deign to return if they grovel hard enough and I'm given complete control." This is really, really clearly incestuous tech media stuff as part of a pressure campaign. Sam is the darlin of tech media and h…
> violating the company's Charter What did he violate specifically?
"Our primary fiduciary duty is to humanity. We anticipate needing to marshal substantial resources to fulfill our mission, but will always diligently act to minimize conflicts of interest among our employees and stakeholders that could compromise broad benefit."
The Board has the power to determine whether Sam is fulfilling his fiduciary duty and whether his conflicts of interest (WorldCoin, Humane AI, etc) compromise broad benefit.
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#769I think Microsoft is behind all of this. The “kumbaya let’s work together for humanity” Microsoft has been swapped out for the old Microsoft. Too much is at stake for them.
I read Nadella has threatened to turn off OpenAIs computers and would litigate the hell out of them to prevent the computers from being turned back on. Which is why the board is suddenly open to negotiation with Altman. Yeah, that's the Microsoft of old. Don't trust 'em. Bad news for OpenAI, and any hope that this stuff won't be used for evil.
You're reading this wrong.
When you fuck up, you get punished for it. And the OpenAI board is about to be punished. This is the problem with giving power to people who don't actually understand how the world works. They use it stupidly, short-sightedly, and without considering the full ramifications of their actions.
Re: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
#770Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe. Or maybe they can profit differently going forward. Sam is not the reason OpenAI is gangbusters, its tech is. What I’m not hearing in any of this reporting is how Sam Altman is somehow the secret sauce. And it’s because he isn’t. This is “rules for thee but not for me”. He as a bad fit, 2/3 the board outed him, and investors are mad because they didn’t feel included. You know, like how they include employees i…
He's extraordinarily talented by all accounts, especially at fundraising. But his Apple was Loopt. He's not the secret sauce but a facilitator - more Tim than Steve. Perhaps like Steve was to Pixar. "The start-up company must either cross or die, but what value is life if to gain it one has to go against one’s best self?" - Moore, Crossing the Chasm , p. 75
his arc doesnt line up with Jobs. Loopt was how he got his foot into the door at YC as a founder.
at YC he made a name for himself, built the rolodex, and learned how to build startups to the point that he turned OpenAI into a rocketship and now has unlimited access to capital and talent to build another one.