Don't anti-compete clauses apply here, or no, because… California?
OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
961–970 of 1001 posts
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#962If I weren't so adverse to conspiracy theories, I would think that this is all a big "coup" by Microsoft: Ilya conspired with Microsoft and Altman to get him fired by the board, just to make it easy for Microsoft to hire him back without fear of retaliation, along with all the engineers that would join him in the process. Then, Ilya would apologize publicly for "making a huge mistake" and, after some period, would jo…
I mean, I don't actually believe this. But I am reminded of 2016 when the Turkish president headed off a "coup" and cemented his power.
More likely, this is a case of not letting a good crisis go to waste. I feel the board was probably watching their control over OpenAI slip away into the hands of Altman. They probably recognized that they had a shrinking window to refocus the company along lines they felt was in the spirit of the original non-profit charter.
However, it seems that they completely misjudged the feelings of their employees as well as the PR ability of Altman. No matter how many employees actually would prefer the original charter, social pressure is going to cause most employees to go with the crowd. The media is literally counting names at this point. People will notice those who don't sign, almost like a loyalty pledge.
However, Ilya's role in all of this remains a mystery. Why did he vote to oust Altman and Brockman? Why has he now recanted? That is a bigger mystery to me than why the board took this action in the first place.
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#963Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Microsoft hasn't actually given OpenAI $13 Billion because much of that is in the form of Azure credits To be clear, these don't go away. They remain an asset of OpenAI's, and could help them continue their research for a few years.
"Cluster is at capacity. Workload will be scheduled as capacity permits." If the credits are considered an asset, totally possible to devalue them while staying within the bounds of the contractual agreement. Failing that, wait until OpenAI exhausts their cash reserves for them to challenge in court.
Surely OpenAI could win a suit if they did that.
I presume their deal is something different to the typically Azure experience and more direct / close to the metal.
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#964I don't really understanding why the workforce is swinging unambiguously behind Altman. The core of the narrative thus far is that the board fired Altman on the grounds that he was prioritising commercialisation over the not-for-profit mission of OpenAI written into the organisation's charter.[1] Given that Sam has since joined Microsoft, that seems plausible, on its face. The board may have been incompetent and shor…
I believe it is hard to understand these kind of movements because there isn't one reason. As has been mentioned, it may be money for some. For others it may be anger over what they feel was the board mishandling the situation and precipitating this mess. For others it may be loyalty. For others peer pressure. etc.
This has moved from the kind of decision a person makes on their own, based on their own conscience, and has become a public display. The media is naming names and publicly counting the ballots. There is a reason democracy happens with secret ballots.
Consider this, if 500 out of 770 employees signed the letter - do you want to be someone who didn't? How about when it gets to 700 out of 770? Pressure mounts and people find a reason to show they are all part of the same team. Look at Twitter and many of the employees all posting "OpenAI is nothing without its people". There is a sense of unity and loyalty that is partially organic and partially manufactured. Do you want to be the one ostracized from the tribe?
This outpouring has almost nothing to do with profit vs non-profit. People are not engaging their critical thinking brains, they using their social/emotional brains. They are putting community before rationality.
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#965Earlier quoted context omitted.
So this was completely unnecessary cock-up -- still ongoing. Without Ilya' vote this would not even be a thing. This is really comical, Naked Gun type mess. Ilya Sutskever is one of the best in the AI research, but everything he and others do related to AI alignment turns into shit without substance. It makes me wonder if AI alignment is possible even in theory, and if it is, maybe it's a bad idea.
We can’t even get people aligned. Thinking we can control a super intelligence seems kind of silly.
i always thought it was the opposite. the different entities in a society are frequently misaligned, yet societies regularly persist beyond the span of any single person.
companies in a capitalist system are explicitly misaligned with eachother; success of the individual within a company is misaligned with the success of the company whenever it grows large enough. parties within an electoral system are misaligned with eachother; the individual is often more aligned with a third party, yet the lesser-aligned two-party system frequently rules. the three pillars of democratic government (executive, legislative, judicial) are said to exist for the sake of being misaligned with eachother.
so AI agents, potentially more powerful than the individual human, might be misaligned with the broader interests of the society (or of its human individuals). so are you and i and every other entity: why is this instance of misalignment worrisome to any disproportionate degree?
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#966Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh man, I'm not looking forward to Microsoft AGI.
"You need to reboot your Microsoft AGI. Do you want to do it now or now?"
I really don't get how Microsoft still gets a hard time about this when MacOS updates are significantly more aggressive, including with their reboot schedules.
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#967Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don't really understanding why the workforce is swinging unambiguously behind Altman. Maybe it has to do with them wanting to get rich by selling their shares - my understanding is there was an ongoing process to get that happening [1]. If Altman is out of the picture, it looks like Microsoft will assimilate a lot of OpenAI into a separate organisation and OpenAI's shares might become worthless. [1] https://www.f…
But doesn't Altman joining Microsoft, and them quitting and following, put them back at square 0? MS isn't going to give them millions of dollars each to join them.
That's why they'd rather Altman rejoins OpenAI as mentioned.
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#968Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's no way to read any of this other than that the entire operation is a clown show. All respect to the engineers and their technical abilities, but this organization has demonstrated such a level of dysfunction that there can't be any path back for it. Say MS gets what it wants out of this move, what purpose is there in keeping OpenAI around? Wouldn't they be better off just hiring everybody? Is it just some kin…
I'm not sure about the entire operation so much as the three non AI board members. Ilya tweeted: >I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we've built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company. and everyone else seems fine with Sam and Greg. It seems to be mostly the other directors causing the clown show - "Quora CEO Adam D'Angel…
Well there’s a significant difference in the board’s incentives. They don’t have any financial stake in the company. The whole point of the non-profit governance structure is so they can put ethics and mission over profits and market share.
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#969I'm pretty sure the revolt is now 95% of employees, can it grow any further?
Re: OpenAI staff threaten to quit unless board resigns
#970Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly this. I saw another commenter raise this point about Tasha (and Helen, if I remember correctly) noting that her LinkedIn profile is filled with SV-related jargon and indulge-the-wife thinktanks but without any real experience taking products to market or scaling up technology companies. Given the pool of talent they could have chosen from their board makeup looks extremely poor.
> indulge-the-wife thinktanks Regardless of context, this is an incredibly demeaning comment. Shame on you
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