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OpenAI's employees were given two explanations for why Sam Altman was fired

businessinsider.com

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Re: OpenAI's employees were given two explanations for why Sam Altman was fired

#81

Post by kmlevitt »

Neither of these reasons have anything to do with a lofty ideology regarding the safety of AGI or OpenAI’s nonprofit status. Rather it seems they are micromanaging personnel decisions.

Also notice that Ilya Sutskever is presenting the reasons for the firing as just something he was told. This is important, because people were siding with the board under the understanding this firing was led by the head research scientist who is concerned about AGI. But now it looks like the board is represented by D’Angelo, a guy who has his own AI Chatbot company and a bigger conflict of interest with than ever since dev day, when open AI launched highly similar features.

Re: OpenAI's employees were given two explanations for why Sam Altman was fired

#82

Post by WiSaGaN »

Given the nonsensical reason provided here, I am led to believe that this entire farce is aimed at transforming OpenAI from a non-profit to a for-profit company one way or another, e.g., significantly raising the profit cap, or even changing it completely to a for-profit model. There may not be a single entity scheming or orchestrating it, but the collective forces that could influence this outcome would be very pleased to see it unfold in this way.

Re: OpenAI's employees were given two explanations for why Sam Altman was fired

#83

Post by ipaddr »

dekhn wrote: post #47
bloopernova wrote: post #36

"Sustkever is said to have offered two explanations he purportedly received from the board" I'd like some corroboration for that statement because Sustkever has said very inconsistent things during this whole merry debacle.

Also, since he's on the board, and it wouldn't have been Brockman or Altman who gave him this info... there are only three people left: "non-employees Adam D’Angelo, Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner."

The obvious answer is he was the one Sam gave an opinion on. He was one of the people doing duplicate work (probably the first team). Sam said good things about him to his ally and bad things to another board member. There was a falling out between that board member and Sam and she spilled the beans.

Re: OpenAI's employees were given two explanations for why Sam Altman was fired

#84

Post by tsunamifury »

x86x87 wrote: post #24
maxbond wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The truth is in-between, if a company tells you you're valuable or even irreplaceable they're buttering you up. Thank them but try not to let it go to your head, if the wind changes you can end up under the bus. But a powerful brand really can collapse overnight if 90%+ of employees leave. We're seeing some odd bedfellows here, between the C-levels and VCs in closed door meetings and employees acting collectively. No…

the question I have is: how much of this is really happening and how much of this is a narrative fabricated to match a desired outcome by the side with the best PR? It's really hard to understand now and we will probably learn way more details once things cool down.

Don’t confuse the lizards who know how to take advantage of chaos with a pre planned conspiracy

Re: OpenAI's employees were given two explanations for why Sam Altman was fired

#85

Post by kmlevitt »

ben_w wrote: post #46
woeirua wrote: post #22

Beyond parody. To fire the CEO of _any_ company over this is insane. It really looks like the board went rogue and decided to shut the company down. Are we sure this isn’t some kind of decapitation strike by GPT5? That seems more credible by the minute now.

My current ill-informed guess is blackmail against the board with a demand to stop further development. Obviously I have no evidence, but it fits marginally less poorly than the other random guesses people are making.

The best theory I’ve seen is that D’Angelo is just angry because Altman scooped his AI Chatbot company Poe on dev day without informing him first:

https://twitter.com/scottastevenson/status/17267310228620087...

if this was the case it would explain why he can’t give the real reason for the firing: because saying it out loud would put him in severe legal Jeopardy.

Re: OpenAI's employees were given two explanations for why Sam Altman was fired

#86

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o »

x86x87 wrote: post #6

Title says: OpenAI's employees were given two explanations for why Sam Altman was fired. They're unconvinced and furious. Some breaking news: An employer does not owe you an explanation. You exchange money for labor. If anyone thinks for a second that they are essential or that anyone would prioritize them over the company I think they are delusional. OpenAI is a brand (at least in tech) with large recognition and th…

Well here's the power of collective action in play.

Re: OpenAI's employees were given two explanations for why Sam Altman was fired

#87

Post by vitorgrs »

riku_iki wrote: post #66
impulser_ wrote: post #31

There is no way this is true. If it is the board might be the dumbest people alive. You fire the CEO and completely destroy a 90b company because of these two reasons? No wonder everyone wants out. I would think I was going crazy if I sat in a meeting and heard these two reason.

> If it is the board might be the dumbest people alive. it totally sounds like they outsourced company management to ChatGPT..

Only if GPT-2. GPT-3 is smarter than this, let alone 4.

Re: OpenAI's employees were given two explanations for why Sam Altman was fired

#88

Post by jaredsohn »

riku_iki wrote: post #66
impulser_ wrote: post #31

There is no way this is true. If it is the board might be the dumbest people alive. You fire the CEO and completely destroy a 90b company because of these two reasons? No wonder everyone wants out. I would think I was going crazy if I sat in a meeting and heard these two reason.

> If it is the board might be the dumbest people alive. it totally sounds like they outsourced company management to ChatGPT..

I've thought they should have run more decisions by ChatGPT to predict what might happen

Re: OpenAI's employees were given two explanations for why Sam Altman was fired

#89

Post by DebtDeflation »

>Sustkever is said to have offered two explanations he purportedly received from the board

He received from the board? Here we go again with the narrative that Ilya was a bystander, at most an unwilling participant. He was a member of the board, on equal footing with the other board members, and his vote to oust Sam was necessary for there to be a majority.

Re: OpenAI's employees were given two explanations for why Sam Altman was fired

#90

Post by yellow_postit »

x86x87 wrote: post #29
vikingbeast wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird take in this context. Nearly all of the company has threatened to walk out and join Microsoft.

hah. these people obviously have not worked for Microsoft. You need to remember why this tech emerged in a place like OpenAI and not MS or Google. The structure and the politics of a big corporation are not conducive to cutting edge tech. They may go to Microsoft, but they will not be able to innovate in the same way and will probably fall into irrelevance in the long run.

I’d bet a bunch actually have at either Google, Microsoft or Meta Research. Microsoft’s had an ok track record recently of letting acquisitions stay pretty independent. The atrophy and cultural reversion to the mean of a large corporation will still happen, but at a slower pace.

If I were Microsoft I’d also look at making it easy to get investment from folks leaving soon after the acquisition through their investment arm.

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