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Microsoft was blindsided by OpenAI's ouster of CEO Sam Altman

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Re: Microsoft was blindsided by OpenAI's ouster of CEO Sam Altman

#81

Post by SilasX »

paxys wrote: post #34
WestCoastJustin wrote: post #7

Link to MS statement https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/11/17/a-statement-from... In my opinion, I'd say the shortness and lack of details backs up the story that they had no idea. You'd see way more words if a marketing department had it's hands on something like this. This was 100% a get something out asap job.

Yup this is definitely a "our stock has fallen 2% on the news, hurry up and say something to investors!" kind of letter.

Just for once I’d like to see such a statement look like, “You sheep probably want a comment on today’s news. We’re not doing that. We’re just content to buy up all the shares you’re panic-dumping. Looking forward to flipping them back to you next week when you panic in the other direction.”

(Assuming they have some plan that gives them the flexibility to trade shares directly on the market like that. I think $GME had something like this?)

Edit: And, of course, actually mean it, unlike Caroline Ellison and the $22 FTT: https://twitter.com/carolinecapital/status/15892874579753041...

Re: Microsoft was blindsided by OpenAI's ouster of CEO Sam Altman

#82

Post by serf »

Terretta wrote: post #72
woeirua wrote: post #4

Something big and bad was going on at OpenAI, and if I were MSFT I would be very nervous about the money that you’ve invested in OpenAI right now.

Or not nervous at all: “we’re committed to delivering all of this to our customers ... We have ... full access to everything we need to deliver on our innovation agenda...” I'd argue this is signaling they have the IP / source code / models / etc. (Which, for what it's worth, is common in substantial partnership agreements.)

>I'd argue this is signaling they have the IP / source code / models / etc.

I think that just signals that they have a firm business agreement with OAI regardless of what Altman might be doing.

with a product like chatGPT, especially given the nature of how it has been presented thus far (our servers, our API, your account on those servers) , it seems extraordinarily dangerous to treat it like a common partnership agreement.

Re: Microsoft was blindsided by OpenAI's ouster of CEO Sam Altman

#83

Post by [deleted] »

aduffy wrote: post #35
speedylight wrote: post #3

> Microsoft, which has invested billions in OpenAI, learned that OpenAI was ousting CEO Sam Altman just a minute before the news was shared with the world, according to a person familiar with the situation. Well this probably disproves the theory that it was a power grab by Microsoft. It didn’t make too much sense anyway since they already have access to tech behind GPT and Microsoft doesn’t necessarily need the clou…

The "coup by MSFT" conspiracy theory made no sense. Microsoft has an insanely good deal with OpenAI: * Exclusive access to resell OpenAI's technology and keep nearly all of that revenue for themselves, both cloud and services * Receive 75% of OpenAI's profits up to $1 trillion All they had to do is not rock the boat and let the golden goose keep laying eggs. A massive disruption like this, so soon after DevDay would…

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft was blindsided by OpenAI's ouster of CEO Sam Altman

#84

Post by quickthrowman »

IAmNotACellist wrote: post #51
aduffy wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "coup by MSFT" conspiracy theory made no sense. Microsoft has an insanely good deal with OpenAI: * Exclusive access to resell OpenAI's technology and keep nearly all of that revenue for themselves, both cloud and services * Receive 75% of OpenAI's profits up to $1 trillion All they had to do is not rock the boat and let the golden goose keep laying eggs. A massive disruption like this, so soon after DevDay would…

OpenAI shouldn't even be making a profit, as it's a 501(c)3 charity. The whole umbrella for-profit corp they formed when they became popular should be illegal, and is clearly immoral.

You have it backwards, the not for profit entity owns the for profit entity. From Wikipedia:

> OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence (AI) organization consisting of the non-profit OpenAI, Inc.[4] registered in Delaware and its for-profit subsidiary corporation OpenAI Global, LLC.[5]

IKEA [0] and Rolex [1] are structured in a similar manner, although different since they’re not US based.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stichting_INGKA_Foundation

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Wilsdorf#Hans_Wilsdorf_...

Re: Microsoft was blindsided by OpenAI's ouster of CEO Sam Altman

#86

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

robbyking wrote: post #59
broken_clock wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In journalist speak, that means "credible person I know who would get fired if I said their name." It's probably literally an exec on the OpenAI/Microsoft partnership. The alternative to "a person familiar" is us as readers never get this information at all.

I think a lot of people don't understand how anonymous sourcing works in jounalism.

It's hard. I'm instinctively inclined to believe this story, but from first principles, why should I trust that Axios has adequately vetted this source? All I know about them is that lots of people in my circles send me their articles, I've never seen or conducted a review of their journalistic practices.

Obviously thinking about it this way would cause me to miss or disbelieve a lot of true stories, but it doesn't seem right to say I should trust every outlet I see widely posted either.

Re: Microsoft was blindsided by OpenAI's ouster of CEO Sam Altman

#87

Post by speedylight »

aduffy wrote: post #35
speedylight wrote: post #3

> Microsoft, which has invested billions in OpenAI, learned that OpenAI was ousting CEO Sam Altman just a minute before the news was shared with the world, according to a person familiar with the situation. Well this probably disproves the theory that it was a power grab by Microsoft. It didn’t make too much sense anyway since they already have access to tech behind GPT and Microsoft doesn’t necessarily need the clou…

The "coup by MSFT" conspiracy theory made no sense. Microsoft has an insanely good deal with OpenAI: * Exclusive access to resell OpenAI's technology and keep nearly all of that revenue for themselves, both cloud and services * Receive 75% of OpenAI's profits up to $1 trillion All they had to do is not rock the boat and let the golden goose keep laying eggs. A massive disruption like this, so soon after DevDay would…

This is probably a dumb question, but what are some specific scenarios of financial malfeasance that could’ve taken place? Like Altman stealing money from OpenAI?

Re: Microsoft was blindsided by OpenAI's ouster of CEO Sam Altman

#88

Post by [deleted] »

samspenc wrote: post #64
xxpor wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They invested in the for-profit, not the non-profit. The non-profit controls the for-profit.

There are now 4 people left in the OpenAI non-profit board, after the ouster of both Sam and Greg today. 3 of the 4 remaining are virtual unknowns, and they control the fate of OpenAI, both the non-profit and the for-profit. Insane.

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft was blindsided by OpenAI's ouster of CEO Sam Altman

#89

Post by crop_rotation »

peyton wrote: post #76
crop_rotation wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This all feels very stupid on their part now looking at the board member names but I never saw this point raised before on HN. I guess nobody could predict this including MSFT.

The real reason could be something most people would find incredibly stupid. Mira coup attempt or something similar.

I think the new CEO is mostly irrelevant here, and it feels more like a board coup where one third of the board is ousted.

Re: Microsoft was blindsided by OpenAI's ouster of CEO Sam Altman

#90

Post by Keyframe »

kcb wrote: post #67
VirusNewbie wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would they bring to the table? It doesn't seem like Greg Brockman brings more than Ilya, and what would sam do?

A big investment from another trillion dollar tech company.

Join them up with Amodei again and.. going wild on speculation and fiction.. they fall back to Elon and Grok and it turns out it was his play all along?
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