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OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

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Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#971

Post by insane_dreamer »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #935
insane_dreamer wrote: post #930

Earlier quoted context omitted.

<1% chance that Sam did not know what was in those exit docs

I've been disparaging Sam and OpenAI a fair amount in this thread, but I find it plausible that Sam didn't know. I remember a job a few years ago where they sent me employment paperwork that was for a very different position than the one I was hired for. (I ended up signing it anyways after a few minor changes, because I liked it better than the paperwork I expected to see.) If OpenAI is a "move fast and break things…

I don’t expect Sam to know every detail as CEO. But this particular clause is very impactful and something that the CEO of a startup would have had to sign off on rather than some underling making the decision on their own.

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#972

Post by OkGoDoIt »

loceng wrote: post #893
awesomeMilou wrote: post #738

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See this great video from Sabine Hossenfelder here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S9sDyooxf4 We have surpassed the 1.5°C goal and are on track towards 3.5°C to 5°C. This accelerates the climate change timeline so that we'll see effects postulated for the end of the century in about ~20 years.

The climate models aren't based on accurate data, nor enough data, so they lack integrity and should be taken with a grain of salt. Likewise, the cloud seeding they seem to be doing nearly worldwide now - the cloud formations from whatever they're spraying - are artificially changing weather patterns, and so a lot of the weather "anomalies" or unexpected-unusual weather-temperatures could very easily be because of th…

I heard of cloud seeding theoretically, but is that actually widespread globally now?

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#973

Post by awesomeMilou »

loceng wrote: post #968
awesomeMilou wrote: post #959

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The climate models aren't based on accurate data I'm sorry, do you have a source for that claim? You seem to dismiss the video without any evidence.

My other comment will link you to plenty of resources: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40378842

You linked to a comment about dieting. The comment contains no sources relevant to climate change.

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#974

Post by m463 »

twobitshifter wrote: post #251
modeless wrote: post #202

A lot of the brouhaha about OpenAI is silly, I think. But this is gross. Forcing employees to sign a perpetual non-disparagement agreement under threat of clawing back the large majority of their already earned compensation should not be legal. Honestly it probably isn't, but it'll take someone brave enough to sue to find out.

If I have equity in a company and I care about its value, I’m not going to say anything to tank its value. If I sell my equity later on, and then disparage the company, what can OpenAI hope to do to me?

They might attack your book deal (which would sell more books!)

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#975

Post by hansvm »

tcbawo wrote: post #842
fastball wrote: post #743

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say that is "quite common". If you throw a bunch of unenforceable clauses into an NDA/non-compete/whatever, that increases the likelihood of the whole thing being thrown out, which is not a can of worms most corporations want to open. So it is actually toeing a delicate balance most of the time, not a "let's throw everything we can into this legal agreement and see what sticks".

> If you throw a bunch of unenforceable clauses into an NDA/non-compete/whatever, that increases the likelihood of the whole thing being thrown out I’m not sure that this is true. Any employment contract will have a partial invalidity/severability clause which will preserve the contract if individual clauses are unenforceable.

The severability clause is itself on the table for being stricken, and it's much more likely to happen if too many of the wrong parts of the contract would otherwise invoke it.

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#976

Post by throwaway2037 »

eternauta3k wrote: post #836
throwaway2037 wrote: post #719

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"finance": A bit of a broad brush, don't you think? Is working at a Landsbank or Sparkasse in Germany really so "poisonous"?

Yes, of course, narrow that down to the crazy wolf-of-wall-street subset.

Better to say so in the first place. At this point in 2024, the all too common trope about Wall Street-film-like bad guys on a trading floor are basically gone. They haven't really existed since post-GFC in 2009. Do you have first hand experience that says otherwise?

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#978

Post by lnsru »

objektif wrote: post #892
lnsru wrote: post #890

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will not vote. But give me US salaries in Germany please. All these €100k@35 hours workweek offers are boring. It’s almost top salary for senior level developers at big companies. Mostly no stock at all. I will sign probably every shady document for one million € stock compensation.

Just come to US pls. It is the whole package you sign up for not just the salaries. Shitty food, healthcare etc.

I missed my chance for the great relocation. But buddies in New York and San Diego are doing just fine. Both of them make total comp of roughly quarter million and are buying everything they want. The food is good, hospitals modern and clean.

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#979

Post by rcbdev »

KoolKat23 wrote: post #531
rcbdev wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OpenAI is outputting the partially copyright-infringing works of their LLM for profit. How does that square?

You, the user, is inputting variables into their probability algorithm that's resulting in the copyright work. It's just a tool.

Yes, a tool that they charge me money to use.

Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?

#980

Post by smcin »

pants2 wrote: post #900
robertlagrant wrote: post #774

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or makes life much shittier for most humans by making most of us obsolete I'm not sure this is true. If all the things people are doing are done so much more cheaply they're almost free, that would be good for us, as we're also the buyers as well as the workers. However, I also doubt the premise.

Up to the point of AGI, most productivity increases have resulted in less physical / menial labor, and more white collar work. If AGI is smarter than most humans, the pendulum will swing the other way, and more humans will have to work physical / menial jobs.

Look on the bright side: they'll stop calling Frank Herbert a visionary.
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