8 ms·
So this is probably indicative of a scandal of some sort right?
by DylanBohlender 3y ago
So this is probably indicative of a scandal of some sort right?
- Bjorkbat 3y agoHis sister on Twitter made some pretty crazy abuse allegations against him a while back, but it didn't seem to get much coverage outside of the usual Twitter crowd. But who knows, maybe there's a connection.
- buffington 3y agoI don't use Twitter, nor do I really pay attention to Sam Altman, but the allegations of abuse are things I've seen covered. Your use of "crazy abuse allegations" is strange to me as well. I hardly see any of her allegations as being "crazy". Here's a collection of things she's said about the abuse. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman-s-sister-annie-altman-claims-sam-has-severely https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...
- caust1c 3y agoNot sure that there can be any other interpretation based on my reading of it.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jurgenaut23 3y agoYes, very likely Altman has done something _very_ wrong, and the board wants to maintain plausible deniability.
- saliagato 3y agoWe all know what. HN moderators are deleting all related comments. Edit: dang is right, sorry y’all
- ro_bit 3y agoShowdead shows one comment that doesn't really bring anything of substance. How many comments can a mod even delete on a 10 minute old post (post origin to the time you wrote your comment)
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- p1esk 3y agoKnow what?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- parthdesai 3y ago> We all know what Genuinely curious, what is it?
- wahnfrieden 3y agoSexual abuse allegations from his sister.
- ilikehurdles 3y agoI don’t believe accusations from March about something that allegedly happened when he was 13 would be the cause of any of this.
- partiallypro 3y agoOther women could have come forward.
- junon 3y agoAltman is gay, FWIW.
- rchaud 3y agoI would have thought that being CEO of Worldcoin would have been bad enough optics-wise from having him take a top role at a serious company.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- electriclove 3y agoStrange how people forget or are unaware of how absolutely evil that venture is
- afro88 3y agoHow so? You're not thinking of OneCoin perhaps?
- codetrotter 3y agoNo. > Many critics have called Worldcoin's business—of scanning eyeballs in exchange for crypto—dystopian and some have compared it to bribery. https://time.com/6300522/worldcoin-sam-altman/ https://time.com/6300522/worldcoin-sam-altman/ > market makers control 95% of the total circulating supply at launch, leading to an initial market imbalance. https://beincrypto.com/worldcoin-wld-privacy-risk/ https://beincrypto.com/worldcoin-wld-privacy-risk/ > Worldcoin’s use of biometric data, which is unusual in crypto, raises the stakes for regulators. Multiple agencies expressed safety concerns amid reports of the sale of Worldcoin digital identities, known as World IDs, on virtual black markets, the ability to create and profit off of fake IDs, as well as the theft of credentials for operators who sign up new users. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-08-23/worldcoin-s-eyeball-scanning-crypto-dream-is-under-threat https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-08-23/worldc...
- afro88 3y agoWow. Just wow. Thanks for the info.
- lumost 3y agoOn paper, Sam Altman would have made everyone on the board billionaires. For them to vote him out in this manner indicates that he must have done something egregious to jeopardize that. Lying on P&L, stock sale agreements, or turning down an acquisition offer under difficult circumstances seems likely.
- iandanforth 3y agoAs noted in the release: "The majority of the board is independent, and the independent directors do not hold equity in OpenAI."
- nonfamous 3y agoIn fact, I believe Altman was the only member of the board that held equity in OpenAI. There was some vague reference to a “previous VC arrangement” in the FAQ.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- samspenc 3y agoSam Altman had no equity in OpenAI https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/24/openai-ceo-sam-altman-didnt-take-any-equity-in-the-company-semafor.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/24/openai-ceo-sam-altman-didnt-... He confirmed it verbally as well in his May 2023 hearing in Congress https://twitter.com/thesamparr/status/1658554712151433219?lang=en https://twitter.com/thesamparr/status/1658554712151433219?la...
- nonfamous 3y agoFrom https://openai.com/our-structure https://openai.com/our-structure : > Even OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, does not hold equity directly. His only interest is indirectly through a Y Combinator investment fund that made a small investment in OpenAI before he was full-time. That word “directly” seems to be relevant here.
- rococode 3y agoSomewhat hidden beneath the huge headline of Altman being kicked out is that Brockman (chairman) is also out. Which could indicate something more systemically wrong than just a typical "CEO did something bad" situation. > As a part of this transition, Greg Brockman will be stepping down as chairman of the board and will remain in his role at the company, reporting to the CEO.
- harryh 3y agoBrockman is off the board but not fired. Which is weird right? You'd think if he was involved in whatever the really bad thing is then he would be fired.
- foota 3y agoMaybe Sam was the ring leader and he just went along with it?
- floxy 3y agoCould be something like Brockman pushing to investigate further, before having the vote, and the rest of the board not liking that.
- sulam 3y agoIt's probably simple reporting logic. Having a board member reporting to someone not on the board would be problematic.
- jholman 3y agoNo, that sort of thing isn't that weird, in relatively young companies. Think of when Eric Schmidt was CEO of Google. Larry Page and Sergei Brin reported to him as employees of Google, and he (as CEO of Google) reported to himself-and-also-them (as the board), and all of them (as the board) reported to Larry and Sergei (as majority owners). For another example, imagine if OpenAI had never been a non-profit, and look at the board yesterday. You'd have had Ilya reporting to Sam (as employees), while Sam reports to Ilya (with Ilya as one member of the board, and probably a major stakeholder). Now, when it gets hostile, those loops might get pretty weird. When things get hostile, you maybe modify reporting structures so the loops go away, so that people can maintain sane boundaries and still get work done (or gracefully exit, who knows).
- resource0x 3y agoNot _very_ wrong, just duping investors about the technical and financial prospects of the company. Nothing serious /s
- renecito 3y agois always about money, even immoral behavior falls down to potential economic impact. my 2 cents that he lied about profitability, they should be expending massive money in operations, they need to cut cost to deliver an attractive business model for their service and from a shinny startup star boss that'd had to be a straight f.u.
- karmasimida 3y agoNot regular money I think it could be transferring of OpenAI’s assets to other entities. It is scandalous for sure
- Iv 3y agoEither that or he refused to do something that would bring a quick money grab. 50/50 as far as I'm concerned.
- Iv 3y agoThe board discovered that the process `GPT5-training` that has been running for months on their über-datacenter was actually mining bitcoins.
- Dr_Birdbrain 3y agoXD I love this theory
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- kylediaz 3y agoIt could possibly have to do with his sister's allegations. It's one of the top autocomplete results when you google "sam altman", so people are definitely talking about it.
- wslh 3y agoThis? https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman-s-sister-annie-altman-claims-sam-has-severely https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...
- o11c 3y agoSeems to be based entirely on "repressed memories" which is junk science. False memories are demonstrably very easy to create.
- prepend 3y agoSounds more like some strategic difference of opinion. My guess is that either they’re financially super hosed. Or one group wants to build skynet and one doesn’t. A scandal would probably be something along the lines of either “we love him and wish him the best” (hidden) or “he doesn’t represent the values of our org and we love XYz” (embraced)
- threatofrain 3y agoWould you call your CEO a liar just because of a strategic difference in opinion?
- svachalek 3y agoRight. We all know the template for differences of opinion. "Sam just really wanted to spend more time with his family. Hugs, Sam!"
- FateOfNations 3y agoIf you started executing your strategy and hid it from the board and told them you were doing what they told you to do, yes.
- jurgenaut23 3y agoNo, this passage tells me that the board wants to cover their ass: "he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board [...]. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI." It's not just a "hey, we don't really agree on x or y so let's part ways". It's more "hey, this guy did something that could get us in jail if we don't cut tie immediately".
- HlessClaudesman 3y agoSomeone at the company did a bad thing, and everything is securities fraud.
- janejeon 3y ago
- cvhashim04 3y agoHostile takeover? Board politics?
- shepardrtc 3y agoSatya going for the throat
- atlasunshrugged 3y agoHis sister had levied allegations of abuse https://www.themarysue.com/annie-altmans-abuse-allegations-against-openais-sam-altman-highlight-the-need-to-prioritize-humanity-over-tech/ https://www.themarysue.com/annie-altmans-abuse-allegations-a...
- OfficialTurkey 3y agoI don't think this is it. The allegations aren't brand new and the board says he lied.
- bosie 3y agoi assume you mean she lied?
- sparkling 3y agoFrom the website: > "[...] If someone — correction, if generally a white, cis man — presents himself with enough confidence, then venture capitalists, media [...]" I stopped reading right there. This kind of race-baiting adds zero context to the story (which may or may not be true).
- whatamidoingyo 3y agoSame. Don't know why you got downvoted.
- arcatech 3y agoHow a person is perceived based on race and gender is definitely relevant context for this.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- astrange 3y agoThe "white cis man" stuff isn't an incisive comment, it's an academic's way of trying to get into an insult war with other academics. Constantly calling out "cis men" is in fact transphobic, which is how you can tell they don't care about it. If you think cis men and trans men behave differently or are always treated differently, this means you don't think they're both men. Also sama is not white. Although he does appear to have gotten a series of jobs with not a lot of experience by convincing Paul Graham to figuratively adopt him.
- stg22 3y ago"he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board" = "He lied to us about something important" Murati's selection as interim CEO is a surprise and might be an attempt to distance the company from whatever the board is claiming Altman lied about.
- golergka 3y agoThose kinds of news are usually sugar coated to the point of caramelisation. This one isn't. It must be something very ugly.