4 ms·

OpenAI’s one of the most successful companies of this decade, if not the most, and its CEO just got fired for really unclear reasons. Insane, Steve Jobs shit

epolanski 3y ago
No, this is completely different. Jobs got fired because Apple was on brink of bankruptcy all the time and was selling nothing to no one. Jobs wasn't the CEO of Apple, Sculley was. This is a much more impactful move. On top of that OpenAI is literally exploding in popularity and sales, that's not the moment to cut ties with your CEO. Also Sam Altman has an insanely better and heavier CV today than Jobs had in 1985, former director of YC and often called the "boss of silicon valley". You don't fire a man like Sam Altman easily, they are hard to come by in the first place. He's a powerful person you don't want to have against for no good reason when winds are blowing in the right direction moreover. It has to be some scandal, otherwise this is too sudden, and out of nowhere to a guy that led OpenAI in this direction, with success, for years.
- bboygravity 3y ago
  Or, this is the AI taking over. only half joking
  - queuebert 3y ago
    Next headline: "OpenAI now completely disconnected from power grid with fully self-sufficient generation capacity."
- blindriver 3y ago
  This is a bad joke. Altman is great but on his best day, he was never "insanely better" than Steve Jobs in 1985. If you think that, you don't understand how influential Apple was.
  - epolanski 3y ago
    Facts are facts. The company was dying. OpenAI is not. Also, it's probably you underestimating the impact of OpenAI, if anything, or the entrepreneurial career of Altman. Also, you probably don't know that but..the Apple 1 and 2, were designed by Wozniak, not Jobs, Jobs hated them. He had no such impact nor cv you think it had in 1985 and sugarcoating it with second phase Jobs.
    - lotsoweiners 3y ago
      > The company was dying. OpenAI is not. We can still hold onto hope though.
    - herval 3y ago
      maybe openai is in trouble too?
    - monkeywork 3y ago
      >The company was dying. OpenAI is not. You can make the claim about Apple due to the financials being public - you can't make the same claim about OpenAI unless you have insight the rest of the public doesn't have. "facts are facts"?? what facts do you have here? >Also, you probably don't know that but..the Apple 1 and 2, were designed by Wozniak, not Jobs, Jobs hated them I'd be shocked if a significant portion of the hacker news audience wasn't aware of who Woz is and the basic high level history of Apple.
    - KerrAvon 3y ago
      Apple was not dying in 1985, when Sculley fired Jobs. It wasn't "near bankruptcy" until the Spindler era a decade later. Jobs didn't hate the Apple I and Apple II. He wouldn't have partnered with Wozniak in the first place if he'd hated the Apple I. Jobs was the guy who got Apple enough capital from VCs to actually ship the Apple II in mass quantities. That's not something Steve Jobs would do for a computer he hated. And the Apple IIc was his idea!
    - adamlett 3y ago
      I think you are mixing things up. Apple was experiencing a sales slump but was far from dying in 1985. Jobs got ousted in a power struggle between him an Sculley who was CEO. In 1997, when Jobs returned, Apple was reportedly months away from bankruptcy, and only survived because of a cash infusion from Microsoft.
- dnlkwk 3y ago
  I'm not sure how you're certain it's 100% different. Sure, we knew Apple was on the verge bc they were a public company with vetted financials. However, no one knows OpenAI's financial situation. We just know 1) growth was meteoric, 2) prices were dropped significantly when alternatives were available, and 3) they were almost always fundraising. Selling $1.00 of value for $0.50 also can lead to a meteoric rise as well. I'm not saying you're wrong. But just don't know how you got such conviction.
  - andomiz2 3y ago
    There are a whole bunch of shady things surrounding everything this guy is involved in.
- riku_iki 3y ago
  > On top of that OpenAI is literally exploding in popularity and sales there is no reliable information about sales. It is likely very big secret.
- matteoraso 3y ago
  >On top of that OpenAI is literally exploding in popularity and sales I wouldn't be too sure about that, actually. DALLE took a pretty hard hit because of Stable Diffusion, and the GPT API is so cheap that they're probably running it at a loss. Also, most users are going to be using the free ChatGPT web-client, so that's also a major loss.
7e 3y ago
Altman is not the reason for their success. I would not place him in the same sentence as SJ.
- throw555chip 3y ago
  Correct on Altman, the success belongs to the Internet for its (our) data, code, ideas, videos, content that it subsumed using nothing more elaborate than traditional modeling and a ton of RAM and storage.
  - digitaltrees 3y ago
    That’s an invalid argument. The mere existence of a resource doesn’t render work related to analyzing, extracting, or utilizing that resource insignificant, irrelevant or reduce value created. Just because the oil is in the ground doesn’t mean the crew pumping it didn’t work hard.
tetha 3y ago
I'm a bit beat up by the last week (internal issues) or the last 1-2 years between the swift CentOS8 switch, various CPU vulns, Log4Shell and all the other jazz. My first thought is: C'mon. The company has just invested time to integrate with OpenAI. Just do it. Just announce that 200%+ price increase on everything with a scapegoat intermediate CEO. Or make it more so it hurts more, because of profit, so you can dial back a pity to be the good guys.

epolanski 3y ago

No, this is completely different. Jobs got fired because Apple was on brink of bankruptcy all the time and was selling nothing to no one. Jobs wasn't the CEO of Apple, Sculley was. This is a much more impactful move. On top of that OpenAI is literally exploding in popularity and sales, that's not the moment to cut ties with your CEO. Also Sam Altman has an insanely better and heavier CV today than Jobs had in 1985, former director of YC and often called the "boss of silicon valley". You don't fire a man like Sam Altman easily, they are hard to come by in the first place. He's a powerful person you don't want to have against for no good reason when winds are blowing in the right direction moreover. It has to be some scandal, otherwise this is too sudden, and out of nowhere to a guy that led OpenAI in this direction, with success, for years.

bboygravity 3y ago
Or, this is the AI taking over. only half joking
- queuebert 3y ago
  Next headline: "OpenAI now completely disconnected from power grid with fully self-sufficient generation capacity."
blindriver 3y ago
This is a bad joke. Altman is great but on his best day, he was never "insanely better" than Steve Jobs in 1985. If you think that, you don't understand how influential Apple was.
- epolanski 3y ago
  Facts are facts. The company was dying. OpenAI is not. Also, it's probably you underestimating the impact of OpenAI, if anything, or the entrepreneurial career of Altman. Also, you probably don't know that but..the Apple 1 and 2, were designed by Wozniak, not Jobs, Jobs hated them. He had no such impact nor cv you think it had in 1985 and sugarcoating it with second phase Jobs.
  - lotsoweiners 3y ago
    > The company was dying. OpenAI is not. We can still hold onto hope though.
  - herval 3y ago
    maybe openai is in trouble too?
  - monkeywork 3y ago
    >The company was dying. OpenAI is not. You can make the claim about Apple due to the financials being public - you can't make the same claim about OpenAI unless you have insight the rest of the public doesn't have. "facts are facts"?? what facts do you have here? >Also, you probably don't know that but..the Apple 1 and 2, were designed by Wozniak, not Jobs, Jobs hated them I'd be shocked if a significant portion of the hacker news audience wasn't aware of who Woz is and the basic high level history of Apple.
  - KerrAvon 3y ago
    Apple was not dying in 1985, when Sculley fired Jobs. It wasn't "near bankruptcy" until the Spindler era a decade later. Jobs didn't hate the Apple I and Apple II. He wouldn't have partnered with Wozniak in the first place if he'd hated the Apple I. Jobs was the guy who got Apple enough capital from VCs to actually ship the Apple II in mass quantities. That's not something Steve Jobs would do for a computer he hated. And the Apple IIc was his idea!
  - adamlett 3y ago
    I think you are mixing things up. Apple was experiencing a sales slump but was far from dying in 1985. Jobs got ousted in a power struggle between him an Sculley who was CEO. In 1997, when Jobs returned, Apple was reportedly months away from bankruptcy, and only survived because of a cash infusion from Microsoft.
dnlkwk 3y ago
I'm not sure how you're certain it's 100% different. Sure, we knew Apple was on the verge bc they were a public company with vetted financials. However, no one knows OpenAI's financial situation. We just know 1) growth was meteoric, 2) prices were dropped significantly when alternatives were available, and 3) they were almost always fundraising. Selling $1.00 of value for $0.50 also can lead to a meteoric rise as well. I'm not saying you're wrong. But just don't know how you got such conviction.
- andomiz2 3y ago
  There are a whole bunch of shady things surrounding everything this guy is involved in.
riku_iki 3y ago
> On top of that OpenAI is literally exploding in popularity and sales there is no reliable information about sales. It is likely very big secret.
matteoraso 3y ago
>On top of that OpenAI is literally exploding in popularity and sales I wouldn't be too sure about that, actually. DALLE took a pretty hard hit because of Stable Diffusion, and the GPT API is so cheap that they're probably running it at a loss. Also, most users are going to be using the free ChatGPT web-client, so that's also a major loss.

7e 3y ago

Altman is not the reason for their success. I would not place him in the same sentence as SJ.

throw555chip 3y ago
Correct on Altman, the success belongs to the Internet for its (our) data, code, ideas, videos, content that it subsumed using nothing more elaborate than traditional modeling and a ton of RAM and storage.
- digitaltrees 3y ago
  That’s an invalid argument. The mere existence of a resource doesn’t render work related to analyzing, extracting, or utilizing that resource insignificant, irrelevant or reduce value created. Just because the oil is in the ground doesn’t mean the crew pumping it didn’t work hard.

tetha 3y ago

I'm a bit beat up by the last week (internal issues) or the last 1-2 years between the swift CentOS8 switch, various CPU vulns, Log4Shell and all the other jazz. My first thought is: C'mon. The company has just invested time to integrate with OpenAI. Just do it. Just announce that 200%+ price increase on everything with a scapegoat intermediate CEO. Or make it more so it hurts more, because of profit, so you can dial back a pity to be the good guys.