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

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

#791
post #215

Disappointing outcome. The process has conclusively confirmed that OpenAI is in fact not open and that it is effectively controlled by Microsoft. Furthermore, the overwhelming groupthink shows there's clearly little critical thinking amongst OpenAI's employees either. It might not seem like the case right now, but I think the real disruption is just about to begin. OpenAI does not have in its DNA to win, they're too…

Hard to say without seeing how the two new board members lean.

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

#792
post #760

OpenAI's Future and Viability - OpenAI has damaged their brand and lost trust, but may still become a hugely successful company if they build great products - OpenAI looks stronger now with a more professional board, but has fundamentally transformed into a for-profit focused on commercializing LLMs - OpenAI still retains impressive talent and technology assets and could pivot into a leading AI provider if managed we…

> Peer pressure and groupthink likely also swayed employees more than principles

What makes this "likely"?

Or is this just pure conjecture?

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

#793

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.

IMO and experience a good product manager is far more important than a good engineer or good scientist

Elon Musk’s neuralink is a good example - the work they’re doing there was attacked by academics saying they’d done this years ago and it’s not novel, yet none of them will be the ones who ultimately bring it to market.

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

#794
post #760

OpenAI's Future and Viability - OpenAI has damaged their brand and lost trust, but may still become a hugely successful company if they build great products - OpenAI looks stronger now with a more professional board, but has fundamentally transformed into a for-profit focused on commercializing LLMs - OpenAI still retains impressive talent and technology assets and could pivot into a leading AI provider if managed we…

No structure or organization is stronger when their leader emerged as "irreplaceable".

[dead]

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

#795
post #215

Disappointing outcome. The process has conclusively confirmed that OpenAI is in fact not open and that it is effectively controlled by Microsoft. Furthermore, the overwhelming groupthink shows there's clearly little critical thinking amongst OpenAI's employees either. It might not seem like the case right now, but I think the real disruption is just about to begin. OpenAI does not have in its DNA to win, they're too…

> Furthermore, the overwhelming groupthink shows there's clearly little critical thinking amongst OpenAI's employees either.

"Because someone acts differently than I expected, they must lacks of critical thinking."

Are you an insider? If not, have you considered that perhaps OpenAI employees are more informed about the situation than you?

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

#796

Fascinating, I see a lot of VC/Msfot has overthrown our NPO governing structure because of profit incentives narrative. I don't think this is what really happened at all. The reason this decision was made was because 95% of employees sided with Sam on this issue, and the board didn't explain themselves in any way at all. So it was Sam + 95% of employees + All investors against the board. In which case the board shoul…

Of course, the profit incentive also applies to all the employees (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, its good to align the company's goals with those of the employees). But when the executives likely have 10s of millions of dollars on the line, and many of the IC's will likely have single digit millions on the line as well, it doesn't seem exactly straightforward to view this as the employees are unbiased adjudicators of what's in the interest of the non-profit entity, which is supposed to be what's in charge.

It is sort of strange that our communal reaction is to say "well this board didn't act anything like a normal corporate board": of course it didn't, that was indeed the whole point of not having a normal corporate board in charge.

Whatever you think of Sam, Adam, Ilya etc, the one conclusion that seems safe to reach is that in the end, the profit/financial incentives ended up being far more important than the NGOs mission, no matter what legal structure was in place.

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

#797

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.

CEO is a ruler, scientist is a worker. The modern culture treats workers as a replaceable matter, which is redundant after the work is done. They are just tools. Rulers, on the other hand, take the all praise and honors. It's "them" who did the work. Musk is an extreme example of this.

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

#798
post #760

OpenAI's Future and Viability - OpenAI has damaged their brand and lost trust, but may still become a hugely successful company if they build great products - OpenAI looks stronger now with a more professional board, but has fundamentally transformed into a for-profit focused on commercializing LLMs - OpenAI still retains impressive talent and technology assets and could pivot into a leading AI provider if managed we…

> - Mission-driven employees may still leave for opportunities at places like Anthropic

Which might have an oversight from AMZN instead of MSFT ?

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

#799

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.

What if I told you...Bill Gates was/is on the board of the non-profit Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?

Lol HN lawyering is hilarious.

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