17 ms·

- Cant be a personal scandal, press release would be worded much more differently - Board is mostly independent and those independent dont have equity - They

- Cant be a personal scandal, press release would be worded much more differently - Board is mostly independent and those independent dont have equity - They talk about not being candid - this is legalese for “lying” The only major thing that could warrant something like this is Sam going behind the boards back to make a decision (or make progress on a decision) that is misaligned with the Charter. Thats the only fireable offense that warrants this language. My bet: Sam initiated some commercial agreement (like a sale) to an entity that would have violated the “open” nature of the company. Likely he pursued a sale to Microsoft without the board knowing.

km3r 3y ago
Tbh surprised some of the personal stuff hasn't come to light. Nothing horrendous, but enough to push him out of any CEO role.
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- thequadehunter 3y ago
  Like what?
  - km3r 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - TechBro8615 3y ago
      The anti-snitching culture within this community seems to rival that of even the mafia. Perhaps that's why it's been called "the gay mafia" in the past...
      - km3r 3y ago
        More so just irresponsible to share 2nd hand rumors without evidence. If someone else had first hand experience that would be one thing, but its far enough away from me to confidently share.
      - deleted 3y ago
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  - chx 3y ago
    https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman-s-sister-annie-altman-claims-sam-has-severely https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...
    - OJFord 3y ago
      On the 'why is it being removed from HN' point, because incredible as dang is.. a lot is 'the algorithm' (christ) - if a few people flag it, I don't know how many, maybe it depends on other variables, then it's going to disappear. This thread (that SA fired) wasn't visible an hour or two ago, on pages 1, 2, or 3, when I looked confused that it wasn't here. (Only related topic was his tweet in response at the bottom of page 1 with <100 points.) And now here it is in pole position with almost 3500 points - the automated flagging and vouching and necessary moderator intervention must go crazy on posts like this. Can't jump to conspiracy cover-up on the basis of content that's not only user-generated but also user 'visibility-controlled' in terms of voting, flagging, vouching...
- dizzydes 3y ago
  Like what?
  - WillPostForFood 3y ago
    This is his sister's Twitter: https://twitter.com/phuckfilosophy https://twitter.com/phuckfilosophy
    - zymhan 3y ago
      Oh...
    - saintradon 3y ago
      Wasn't she dismissed as a uncredible witness / grifter or something?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - chx 3y ago
    https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman-s-sister-annie-altman-claims-sam-has-severely https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...
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- jsksjfjksmekfiz 3y ago
  That is no exaggeration absolutely a horrendous thing and is likely going to get him killed one way or another as it comes out. I've finally found a plausible explanation for his deranged savior of humanity shtick (thats the only way he can live with himself I'm sure). If that is indeed his sister (which I believe is established beyond a reasonable doubt by what I just read), I would not vote to convict anyone that strangled him or to death in public, and every single person that knew but did not say anything ought to be expelled from society so thoroughly that they die of exposure and never earn another cent from anybody. Including each and every one of you motherfucking pieces of shit on this site that knew about this and weren't shouting it from the rooftops.
SheinhardtWigCo 3y ago
Or, not commercial, but military/gov.
- smolder 3y ago
  Yeah. OpenAI is valuable not just commercially, but to the worlds governments, some of which can probably find ways to force out leadership they don't get along with.
  - colordrops 3y ago
    Your comment is reasonable. Perhaps hitting close to the truth considering the downvotes. Everything in this thread is speculation.
DiogoSnows 3y ago
It could also be related to a conflict of interests (or unreasonable use of OpenAI resources) with his other Ventures and investments which he failed to disclose?
- jameyk 3y ago
  This is the most likely. Also considering Humane recently announced their AI Pin and Sam has a large stake in that company.
romanhn 3y ago
Or rejected a sale without the board knowing.
- givemeethekeys 3y ago
  Are non-profit businesses allowed to sell? Who gets the money?
  - rjblackman 3y ago
    they transitioned to for-profit in 2019
  - s1artibartfast 3y ago
    The can. The non-profit org gets the money
  - hilux 3y ago
    Weirdly, they can find ways to do it, e.g. the sale of Open edX to 2U (an absolute private-sector shark) for $800 million.
  - komadori 3y ago
    Presumably, they could sell their business operations and the associated assets, and the non-profit entity would be left with the proceeds of the sale. I guess that could happen if the non-profit thought they could fulfill their purpose better with a big pile of cash to spend on something else rather than the original going concern.
  - tw04 3y ago
    Why not? They could take all the profit from the sale and distribute it to the executives and remain non-profit. Even If that didn’t work, it would just mean paying taxes on the revenue from the sale. There’s no retroactive penalty for switching from a non-profit to a for-profit (or more likely being merged into a for-profit entity). I am not an accountant or lawyer and this isn’t legal advice.
    - 3y ago
hackerlight 3y ago
Eric Schmidt calling Sam a hero also makes me think it isn't a personal scandal.
- aliston 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - thepasswordis 3y ago
    That's a pretty wild accusation that I feel like needs some substantiating.
    - hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
      Parent commenter is wildly embellishing/lying, but some of the details of Schmidt's open marriage have been widely reported: https://www.mic.com/articles/56553/eric-schmidt-has-15-million-extramarital-sex-pad-and-his-wife-is-ok-with-it https://www.mic.com/articles/56553/eric-schmidt-has-15-milli...
    - atdrummond 3y ago
      The cost is probably an exaggeration but this is not some secret: https://gothamist.com/news/google-boss-has-amazing-15-million-sex-fortress https://gothamist.com/news/google-boss-has-amazing-15-millio...
    - WJW 3y ago
      Best I could find was this: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2377785/Google-CEO-serial-womanizer-Eric-Schmidt-spends-15-million-dollars-private-doorman-Manhattan-penthouse-totally-soundproofed.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2377785/Google-CEO-... But: - 15 million not 30. - The women he had affairs with don't seem to have been prostitutes and a fair bit older than 18 too. - His wife knew about it all and was apparently OK with it. - Penthouses are pretty much the opposite of bunkers if you think about it.
    - yawpitch 3y ago
podnami 3y ago
Doesn’t make any sense. He is ideologically driven - why would he risk a once in a lifetime opportunity for a mere sale? Desperate times calls for desperate measures. This is a swift way for OpenAI to shield the business from something which is a PR disaster, probably something which would make Sam persona non grata in any business context.
- dogcomplex 3y ago
  He claims to be ideologically driven. OpenAI's actions as a company up til now point otherwise
  - enonimal 3y ago
    Worldcoin https://worldcoin.org/ https://worldcoin.org/ deserves a mention
    - latexr 3y ago
      https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1048981/worldcoin-cryptocurrency-biometrics-web3/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1048981/worldcoi... https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/richardnieva/worldcoin-crypto-eyeball-scanning-orb-problems https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/richardnieva/worldcoin-...
      - krick 3y ago
        Hmm, curious, what this is about? I click. > On a sunny morning last December, Iyus Ruswandi, a 35-year-old furniture maker in the village of Gunungguruh, Indonesia, was woken up early by his mother ...Ok, closing that bullshit, let's try the other link. > As Kudzanayi strolled through the mall with friends Jesus fucking Christ I HATE journalists. Like really, really hate them.
        trompetenaccoun 3y ago
        I mean it's Buzzfeed, it shouldn't even be called journalism. That's the outlet that just three days ago sneakily removed an article from their website that lauded a journalist for talking to school kids about his sexuality. After he recently got charged with distributing child pornography. Many of the people working for mass media are their own worst enemy when it comes to the profession's reputation. And then they complain that there's too much distrust in the general public. Anyway,the short regarding that project is that they use biometric data, encrypt it and put a "hash"* of it on their blockchain. That's been controversial from the start for obvious reasons although most of the mainstream criticism is misguided and by people who don't understand the tech. *They call it a hash but I think it's technically not. https://whitepaper.worldcoin.org/technical-implementation https://whitepaper.worldcoin.org/technical-implementation
sainez 3y ago
I agree this is the most likely explanation. Is it possible Sam tried to wrestle power away from the board? He wouldn't even need to sell the whole company, just enough tech for a large company to kill OpenAI.
PDSCodes 3y ago
Turn that on it’s head - was he standing in the way of a commercial sale or agreement with Microsoft! He may not be the villain. But who knows, it feels like an episode of silicon valley!
- DonHopkins 3y ago
  I can do anything I want with her - Silicon Valley S5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29MPk85tMhc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29MPk85tMhc >That guy definitely fucks that robot, right? That "handsy greasy little weirdo" Silicon Valley character Ariel and his robot Fiona were obviously based on Ben Goertzel and Sophia, not Sam Altman, though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Goertzel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Goertzel https://www.reddit.com/r/SiliconValleyHBO/comments/8edbk9/the_character_of_ariel_in_the_current_episode/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SiliconValleyHBO/comments/8edbk9/th... >The character of Ariel in the current episode instantly reminded me of Ben Goertzel, whom i stumbled upon couple of years ago, but did not really paid close attention to his progress. One search later: VIDEO Interview: SingularityNET's Dr Ben Goertzel, robot Sophia and open source AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKbltBLaFeI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKbltBLaFeI
- cooper_ganglia 3y ago
  This was my first thought after seeing a clip of Sam and Satya during OpenAI's DevDay. I wonder if he was standing in the way of a Microsoft acquisition, and Microsoft has just forced in those who would allow the purchase to happen? I don't know, so much wild speculation all over the place, it's all just very interesting.
  - PDSCodes 3y ago
    They are betting so much on Open AI just now. They need to be so much more than a partner. Being open is not in their nature. Sadly it is usually the demise of innovation when they get their hook in.
- jablongo 3y ago
  If you look at who is on the board, how it's structured (they don't have equity right?), it seems like it's actually because he violated the charter. Why would Ilya Sutskever punish Sam for doing the right thing wrt AI safety?
angryasian 3y ago
Could world coin be a part of this ? Its weird he'd use open AI for world coin?
pbadams 3y ago
Altman has claimed before that he doesn't hold equity in OpenAI. He could have some kind of more opaque arrangement that gives him a material stake in the financial success of OpenAI, and downplayed it or didn't disclose it to the board. Who knows, though -- I'm sure we'll find out more in the next few weeks, but it's fun to guess.
- Solvency 3y ago
  What kind of opaque arrangement? What would be better than equity?
  - batman-farts 3y ago
    I could easily see him, or any other insider, setting themselves up administrating a recipient entity for contributions out of those “capped profits” the parent non-profit is supposed to distribute. (If, of course, the company ever becomes profitable at the scale where the cap kicks in.) Seems like it would be a great way to eventually maintain control over your own little empire while also obfuscating its structure and dodging some of the scrutiny that SV executives have attracted during the past decade. Originally meant as a magnanimous PR gesture, but will probably end up being taught as a particularly messy example of corporate governance in business schools.
    - chatmasta 3y ago
      That would be a form of obfuscated profit-sharing, not equity ownership. Equity is something you can sell to someone else.
      - edgyquant 3y ago
        Regardless the lack of equity is often cited as some proof he has no incentive to enshittify and the point is that’s probably not true
        chatmasta 3y ago
jayde2767 3y ago
I have no knowledge of why, but it seems it's always about the money or the power/control. I cannot wait to see what it is...
JohnFen 3y ago
> would have violated the “open” nature of the company What's "open" about OpenAI?
- kazinator 3y ago
  Probably about the same thing as what is open about The Open Group (formed when X/Open merged with The Open Software Foundation), the Open Look graphical interface, and such abuses of "open". OpenGL, OpenMax, ...
- wickedsickeune 3y ago
  The door for a CEO
ignoramous 3y ago
Kara Swisher just tweeted that MSFT knew about it merely minutes before the statement went out: https://twitter.com/karaswisher/status/1725657068575592617 https://twitter.com/karaswisher/status/1725657068575592617 Folks like Schmidt, Levchin, Chesky, Conrad have twitter posts up that weirdly read like obituaries.
- mark_l_watson 3y ago
  Check out Microsoft’s stock price today. Looks like it dropped by almost $50B at one point. EDIT Microsoft is such a huge company, so maybe this is not a big deal?
  - Zanni 3y ago
    This is more likely to be profit-taking as MSFT reached an all-time high yesterday. The stock is still up 40 points from a month ago.
  - nprateem 3y ago
    The ex dividend date just passed
paxys 3y ago
Why do people think it has to be some single big incident? Sam Altman has been the head of OpenAI for many years now, while the company has been in intense public spotlight only in the recent few months. The dynamic today is very different from 2019 or whenever he was hired. He also doesn't have any voting shares, which means he is entirely at the mercy of the board. It's entirely possible that they simply don't like the direction he has been taking the company in, and today was more of some minor straw that broke the camel's back situation.
- sainez 3y ago
  If it was a simple disagreement in direction then (1) the transition wouldn't be so abrupt and (2) they wouldn't publicly call him a liar.
  - paxys 3y ago
    Who says it was abrupt? They could have been planning this for weeks or months for all we know. In fact waiting till late on a Friday just before a holiday week to release the statement is more of a sign that this was deliberately timed.
    - ncallaway 3y ago
      That really seems to skip over point #2, which seems like a much stronger indication that this wasn't just a planned transition.
    - sciolist 3y ago
      Microsoft had no prior knowledge: https://www.axios.com/2023/11/17/microsoft-openai-sam-altman-ouster https://www.axios.com/2023/11/17/microsoft-openai-sam-altman...
    - potatolicious 3y ago
      A planned departure is practically never effective immediately. If your goal is not spook investors and the public and raise doubts your company, the narrative is: "X has decided it is time to step away from the Company, the Board is appointing Y to the position as their successor. X will remain CEO for N period to ensure a smooth transition. X remains committed to the company's mission and will stay on in an advisory role/board seat after the transition. We want to thank X for their contributions to the Company and wish them well in the future." Even if the goal is to be rid of the person you still have them stay on in a mostly made-up advisory role for a year or so, and then they can quietly quit that.
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andrewstuart 3y ago
Prediction: board resignation. Sam Altman returns.
- eshack94 3y ago
  Wild take, but that would sure be a sight to see. I'm not speculating at the moment, since I know nothing about the situation.
- jnaina 3y ago
  Prediction: 1/ Sam goes on to create NeXTAI and starts wearing mostly turtleneck sweaters and jeans 2/ OpenAI buys NeXTAI 3/ OpenAI board appoints Sam Altman as Interim CEO
  - andrewstuart 3y ago
    Love it.
  - anticensor 3y ago
    You mean like Steve Jobs and Apple?
kashyapc 3y ago
On lying: There's a great irony here. Altman apparently accepted[1] "Hawking Fellowship Award on behalf of OpenAI" at the University of Cambridge. I kid you not, sitting in a fancy seat, Altman is talking about "Platonic ideals". See the penultimate question on whether AI should be prescriptive or descriptive about human rights (around 1h 35sec mark). I'll let you decide what to make of it. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjpNG0CJRMM&t=3632s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjpNG0CJRMM&t=3632s
- ohbleek 3y ago
  Am I misunderstanding his answer, or does he not essentially say it should be "descriptive"? In which case, I misunderstood what your comment is implying.
  - kashyapc 3y ago
    Sorry for being vague. I was not at all referring to his answer per se. But rather his high-brow reference to Plato. If he has truly read and digested Plato (and not just skimmed a summary video), he would not be in this ditch to begin with. That's the irony I was referring to.
tompetry 3y ago
Not so sure about that. It reads to me like there is a personal scandal on the horizon that has come to the board's attention, and the board feels their hands are tied. Hard for me to believe its business decision related; Sam is elite in this regard, and is not really incentivized to violate their charter. Bummer in any situation... the progress in this domain is truly exciting, and OpenAI was executing so well. This will slow things down considerably.
pyuser583 3y ago
How would that work? Does a non profit have shares?
robbie-c 3y ago
> Cant be a personal scandal, press release would be worded much more differently I'm not sure, I agree with your point re wording but the situation with his sister that really got resolved, so I can't help but wonder if it's related. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman-s-sister-annie-altman-claims-sam-has-severely https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...
- cedarseagull 3y ago
  It seems like if it was the Annie Altman accusations, they could have just paid her off. If they wanted him around and he was a creep, there are ways to make this stuff go away. AFAIK a lot of the sister's accusations were accompanied by being excluded from the father's will. Not saying she made it up, but it seems like if those grievances are bundled, there's a easy way to make that problem go away.
  - heavyset_go 3y ago
    Having talked with Annie, she's not willing to be bought off, as Sam has tried to do before in the past with her.
P_I_Staker 3y ago
It is a personal scandal and I thought it was obvious from the press release. Prior to the Reddit comments, I thought this might be the case, but perhaps I was somehow influenced. Actually, I thought it would be something inappropriate in the workplace. His sister says he molested her when he was a teenager. The way these things break, I’m not surprised it went down that way. Here’s what I thought reading the release: “They had to fire him before deciding on what to actually say eg. to formally accuse him” It seemed like signaling that this is someone firing him kinda desperately. When you discover a diddler theres some weird shit when people panic and suddenly drop catapult them out of their lives… they just start leaping out of moving cars and shit to get away. Keep in mind there could be ongoing investigations, definitely strategies being formed. They can get to a point in an investigation where they’re virtually 100% he molested his sister, but can’t really prove it yet. What they do have is irrefutable evidence of lying about something incredibly serious. Gets him out of the building and powers stripped today.
- jsksjfjksmekfiz 3y ago
  [flagged]
- SamAltmanRapist 3y ago
  I'm virtually 100% sure he did it after just looking into it today so I can see exactly what you're saying about people backflipping out of cars and stuff to get away from it.
  - P_I_Staker 3y ago
    Yeah, idk news this morning seems to point otherwise. I would still be very careful with this dude. It really felt like a shoe was going to drop. This seemed like a REALLY negative dismissal.
- whynotminot 3y ago
  The sister has been making these accusations for months and nothing happened. What changed today?
paulddraper 3y ago
> Cant be a personal scandal And Brockman (Chairman of the board) has resigned. https://twitter.com/gdb/status/1725667410387378559 https://twitter.com/gdb/status/1725667410387378559
- neilkk 3y ago
  That doesn't mean it's not a personal scandal. If Brockman disagreed with the board about the advisability of firing him for whatever personal scandal it was, this is how you'd expect things to play out.
adrr 3y ago
Who owns the equity and who has dedicated seats on the board? Altman can easily just boot the board if he gets majority of the equity to back him.

km3r 3y ago

Tbh surprised some of the personal stuff hasn't come to light. Nothing horrendous, but enough to push him out of any CEO role.

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thequadehunter 3y ago
Like what?
- km3r 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - TechBro8615 3y ago
    The anti-snitching culture within this community seems to rival that of even the mafia. Perhaps that's why it's been called "the gay mafia" in the past...
    - km3r 3y ago
      More so just irresponsible to share 2nd hand rumors without evidence. If someone else had first hand experience that would be one thing, but its far enough away from me to confidently share.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- chx 3y ago
  https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman-s-sister-annie-altman-claims-sam-has-severely https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...
  - OJFord 3y ago
    On the 'why is it being removed from HN' point, because incredible as dang is.. a lot is 'the algorithm' (christ) - if a few people flag it, I don't know how many, maybe it depends on other variables, then it's going to disappear. This thread (that SA fired) wasn't visible an hour or two ago, on pages 1, 2, or 3, when I looked confused that it wasn't here. (Only related topic was his tweet in response at the bottom of page 1 with <100 points.) And now here it is in pole position with almost 3500 points - the automated flagging and vouching and necessary moderator intervention must go crazy on posts like this. Can't jump to conspiracy cover-up on the basis of content that's not only user-generated but also user 'visibility-controlled' in terms of voting, flagging, vouching...
dizzydes 3y ago
Like what?
- WillPostForFood 3y ago
  This is his sister's Twitter: https://twitter.com/phuckfilosophy https://twitter.com/phuckfilosophy
  - zymhan 3y ago
    Oh...
  - saintradon 3y ago
    Wasn't she dismissed as a uncredible witness / grifter or something?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- chx 3y ago
  https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman-s-sister-annie-altman-claims-sam-has-severely https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...
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jsksjfjksmekfiz 3y ago
That is no exaggeration absolutely a horrendous thing and is likely going to get him killed one way or another as it comes out. I've finally found a plausible explanation for his deranged savior of humanity shtick (thats the only way he can live with himself I'm sure). If that is indeed his sister (which I believe is established beyond a reasonable doubt by what I just read), I would not vote to convict anyone that strangled him or to death in public, and every single person that knew but did not say anything ought to be expelled from society so thoroughly that they die of exposure and never earn another cent from anybody. Including each and every one of you motherfucking pieces of shit on this site that knew about this and weren't shouting it from the rooftops.

SheinhardtWigCo 3y ago

Or, not commercial, but military/gov.

smolder 3y ago
Yeah. OpenAI is valuable not just commercially, but to the worlds governments, some of which can probably find ways to force out leadership they don't get along with.
- colordrops 3y ago
  Your comment is reasonable. Perhaps hitting close to the truth considering the downvotes. Everything in this thread is speculation.

DiogoSnows 3y ago

It could also be related to a conflict of interests (or unreasonable use of OpenAI resources) with his other Ventures and investments which he failed to disclose?

jameyk 3y ago
This is the most likely. Also considering Humane recently announced their AI Pin and Sam has a large stake in that company.

romanhn 3y ago

Or rejected a sale without the board knowing.

givemeethekeys 3y ago
Are non-profit businesses allowed to sell? Who gets the money?
- rjblackman 3y ago
  they transitioned to for-profit in 2019
- s1artibartfast 3y ago
  The can. The non-profit org gets the money
- hilux 3y ago
  Weirdly, they can find ways to do it, e.g. the sale of Open edX to 2U (an absolute private-sector shark) for $800 million.
- komadori 3y ago
  Presumably, they could sell their business operations and the associated assets, and the non-profit entity would be left with the proceeds of the sale. I guess that could happen if the non-profit thought they could fulfill their purpose better with a big pile of cash to spend on something else rather than the original going concern.
- tw04 3y ago
  Why not? They could take all the profit from the sale and distribute it to the executives and remain non-profit. Even If that didn’t work, it would just mean paying taxes on the revenue from the sale. There’s no retroactive penalty for switching from a non-profit to a for-profit (or more likely being merged into a for-profit entity). I am not an accountant or lawyer and this isn’t legal advice.
  - 3y ago

hackerlight 3y ago

Eric Schmidt calling Sam a hero also makes me think it isn't a personal scandal.

aliston 3y ago
[flagged]
- thepasswordis 3y ago
  That's a pretty wild accusation that I feel like needs some substantiating.
  - hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
    Parent commenter is wildly embellishing/lying, but some of the details of Schmidt's open marriage have been widely reported: https://www.mic.com/articles/56553/eric-schmidt-has-15-million-extramarital-sex-pad-and-his-wife-is-ok-with-it https://www.mic.com/articles/56553/eric-schmidt-has-15-milli...
  - atdrummond 3y ago
    The cost is probably an exaggeration but this is not some secret: https://gothamist.com/news/google-boss-has-amazing-15-million-sex-fortress https://gothamist.com/news/google-boss-has-amazing-15-millio...
  - WJW 3y ago
    Best I could find was this: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2377785/Google-CEO-serial-womanizer-Eric-Schmidt-spends-15-million-dollars-private-doorman-Manhattan-penthouse-totally-soundproofed.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2377785/Google-CEO-... But: - 15 million not 30. - The women he had affairs with don't seem to have been prostitutes and a fair bit older than 18 too. - His wife knew about it all and was apparently OK with it. - Penthouses are pretty much the opposite of bunkers if you think about it.
  - yawpitch 3y ago

podnami 3y ago

Doesn’t make any sense. He is ideologically driven - why would he risk a once in a lifetime opportunity for a mere sale? Desperate times calls for desperate measures. This is a swift way for OpenAI to shield the business from something which is a PR disaster, probably something which would make Sam persona non grata in any business context.

dogcomplex 3y ago
He claims to be ideologically driven. OpenAI's actions as a company up til now point otherwise
- enonimal 3y ago
  Worldcoin https://worldcoin.org/ https://worldcoin.org/ deserves a mention
  - latexr 3y ago
    https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1048981/worldcoin-cryptocurrency-biometrics-web3/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1048981/worldcoi... https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/richardnieva/worldcoin-crypto-eyeball-scanning-orb-problems https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/richardnieva/worldcoin-...
    - krick 3y ago
      Hmm, curious, what this is about? I click. > On a sunny morning last December, Iyus Ruswandi, a 35-year-old furniture maker in the village of Gunungguruh, Indonesia, was woken up early by his mother ...Ok, closing that bullshit, let's try the other link. > As Kudzanayi strolled through the mall with friends Jesus fucking Christ I HATE journalists. Like really, really hate them.
      - trompetenaccoun 3y ago
        I mean it's Buzzfeed, it shouldn't even be called journalism. That's the outlet that just three days ago sneakily removed an article from their website that lauded a journalist for talking to school kids about his sexuality. After he recently got charged with distributing child pornography. Many of the people working for mass media are their own worst enemy when it comes to the profession's reputation. And then they complain that there's too much distrust in the general public. Anyway,the short regarding that project is that they use biometric data, encrypt it and put a "hash"* of it on their blockchain. That's been controversial from the start for obvious reasons although most of the mainstream criticism is misguided and by people who don't understand the tech. *They call it a hash but I think it's technically not. https://whitepaper.worldcoin.org/technical-implementation https://whitepaper.worldcoin.org/technical-implementation

sainez 3y ago

I agree this is the most likely explanation. Is it possible Sam tried to wrestle power away from the board? He wouldn't even need to sell the whole company, just enough tech for a large company to kill OpenAI.

PDSCodes 3y ago

Turn that on it’s head - was he standing in the way of a commercial sale or agreement with Microsoft! He may not be the villain. But who knows, it feels like an episode of silicon valley!

DonHopkins 3y ago
I can do anything I want with her - Silicon Valley S5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29MPk85tMhc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29MPk85tMhc >That guy definitely fucks that robot, right? That "handsy greasy little weirdo" Silicon Valley character Ariel and his robot Fiona were obviously based on Ben Goertzel and Sophia, not Sam Altman, though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Goertzel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Goertzel https://www.reddit.com/r/SiliconValleyHBO/comments/8edbk9/the_character_of_ariel_in_the_current_episode/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SiliconValleyHBO/comments/8edbk9/th... >The character of Ariel in the current episode instantly reminded me of Ben Goertzel, whom i stumbled upon couple of years ago, but did not really paid close attention to his progress. One search later: VIDEO Interview: SingularityNET's Dr Ben Goertzel, robot Sophia and open source AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKbltBLaFeI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKbltBLaFeI
cooper_ganglia 3y ago
This was my first thought after seeing a clip of Sam and Satya during OpenAI's DevDay. I wonder if he was standing in the way of a Microsoft acquisition, and Microsoft has just forced in those who would allow the purchase to happen? I don't know, so much wild speculation all over the place, it's all just very interesting.
- PDSCodes 3y ago
  They are betting so much on Open AI just now. They need to be so much more than a partner. Being open is not in their nature. Sadly it is usually the demise of innovation when they get their hook in.
jablongo 3y ago
If you look at who is on the board, how it's structured (they don't have equity right?), it seems like it's actually because he violated the charter. Why would Ilya Sutskever punish Sam for doing the right thing wrt AI safety?

angryasian 3y ago

Could world coin be a part of this ? Its weird he'd use open AI for world coin?

pbadams 3y ago

Altman has claimed before that he doesn't hold equity in OpenAI. He could have some kind of more opaque arrangement that gives him a material stake in the financial success of OpenAI, and downplayed it or didn't disclose it to the board. Who knows, though -- I'm sure we'll find out more in the next few weeks, but it's fun to guess.

Solvency 3y ago
What kind of opaque arrangement? What would be better than equity?
- batman-farts 3y ago
  I could easily see him, or any other insider, setting themselves up administrating a recipient entity for contributions out of those “capped profits” the parent non-profit is supposed to distribute. (If, of course, the company ever becomes profitable at the scale where the cap kicks in.) Seems like it would be a great way to eventually maintain control over your own little empire while also obfuscating its structure and dodging some of the scrutiny that SV executives have attracted during the past decade. Originally meant as a magnanimous PR gesture, but will probably end up being taught as a particularly messy example of corporate governance in business schools.
  - chatmasta 3y ago
    That would be a form of obfuscated profit-sharing, not equity ownership. Equity is something you can sell to someone else.
    - edgyquant 3y ago
      Regardless the lack of equity is often cited as some proof he has no incentive to enshittify and the point is that’s probably not true
      - chatmasta 3y ago

jayde2767 3y ago

I have no knowledge of why, but it seems it's always about the money or the power/control. I cannot wait to see what it is...

JohnFen 3y ago

> would have violated the “open” nature of the company What's "open" about OpenAI?

kazinator 3y ago
Probably about the same thing as what is open about The Open Group (formed when X/Open merged with The Open Software Foundation), the Open Look graphical interface, and such abuses of "open". OpenGL, OpenMax, ...
wickedsickeune 3y ago
The door for a CEO

ignoramous 3y ago

Kara Swisher just tweeted that MSFT knew about it merely minutes before the statement went out: https://twitter.com/karaswisher/status/1725657068575592617 https://twitter.com/karaswisher/status/1725657068575592617 Folks like Schmidt, Levchin, Chesky, Conrad have twitter posts up that weirdly read like obituaries.

mark_l_watson 3y ago
Check out Microsoft’s stock price today. Looks like it dropped by almost $50B at one point. EDIT Microsoft is such a huge company, so maybe this is not a big deal?
- Zanni 3y ago
  This is more likely to be profit-taking as MSFT reached an all-time high yesterday. The stock is still up 40 points from a month ago.
- nprateem 3y ago
  The ex dividend date just passed

paxys 3y ago

Why do people think it has to be some single big incident? Sam Altman has been the head of OpenAI for many years now, while the company has been in intense public spotlight only in the recent few months. The dynamic today is very different from 2019 or whenever he was hired. He also doesn't have any voting shares, which means he is entirely at the mercy of the board. It's entirely possible that they simply don't like the direction he has been taking the company in, and today was more of some minor straw that broke the camel's back situation.

sainez 3y ago
If it was a simple disagreement in direction then (1) the transition wouldn't be so abrupt and (2) they wouldn't publicly call him a liar.
- paxys 3y ago
  Who says it was abrupt? They could have been planning this for weeks or months for all we know. In fact waiting till late on a Friday just before a holiday week to release the statement is more of a sign that this was deliberately timed.
  - ncallaway 3y ago
    That really seems to skip over point #2, which seems like a much stronger indication that this wasn't just a planned transition.
  - sciolist 3y ago
    Microsoft had no prior knowledge: https://www.axios.com/2023/11/17/microsoft-openai-sam-altman-ouster https://www.axios.com/2023/11/17/microsoft-openai-sam-altman...
  - potatolicious 3y ago
    A planned departure is practically never effective immediately. If your goal is not spook investors and the public and raise doubts your company, the narrative is: "X has decided it is time to step away from the Company, the Board is appointing Y to the position as their successor. X will remain CEO for N period to ensure a smooth transition. X remains committed to the company's mission and will stay on in an advisory role/board seat after the transition. We want to thank X for their contributions to the Company and wish them well in the future." Even if the goal is to be rid of the person you still have them stay on in a mostly made-up advisory role for a year or so, and then they can quietly quit that.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

andrewstuart 3y ago

Prediction: board resignation. Sam Altman returns.

eshack94 3y ago
Wild take, but that would sure be a sight to see. I'm not speculating at the moment, since I know nothing about the situation.
jnaina 3y ago
Prediction: 1/ Sam goes on to create NeXTAI and starts wearing mostly turtleneck sweaters and jeans 2/ OpenAI buys NeXTAI 3/ OpenAI board appoints Sam Altman as Interim CEO
- andrewstuart 3y ago
  Love it.
- anticensor 3y ago
  You mean like Steve Jobs and Apple?

kashyapc 3y ago

On lying: There's a great irony here. Altman apparently accepted[1] "Hawking Fellowship Award on behalf of OpenAI" at the University of Cambridge. I kid you not, sitting in a fancy seat, Altman is talking about "Platonic ideals". See the penultimate question on whether AI should be prescriptive or descriptive about human rights (around 1h 35sec mark). I'll let you decide what to make of it. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjpNG0CJRMM&t=3632s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjpNG0CJRMM&t=3632s

ohbleek 3y ago
Am I misunderstanding his answer, or does he not essentially say it should be "descriptive"? In which case, I misunderstood what your comment is implying.
- kashyapc 3y ago
  Sorry for being vague. I was not at all referring to his answer per se. But rather his high-brow reference to Plato. If he has truly read and digested Plato (and not just skimmed a summary video), he would not be in this ditch to begin with. That's the irony I was referring to.

tompetry 3y ago

Not so sure about that. It reads to me like there is a personal scandal on the horizon that has come to the board's attention, and the board feels their hands are tied. Hard for me to believe its business decision related; Sam is elite in this regard, and is not really incentivized to violate their charter. Bummer in any situation... the progress in this domain is truly exciting, and OpenAI was executing so well. This will slow things down considerably.

pyuser583 3y ago

How would that work? Does a non profit have shares?

robbie-c 3y ago

> Cant be a personal scandal, press release would be worded much more differently I'm not sure, I agree with your point re wording but the situation with his sister that really got resolved, so I can't help but wonder if it's related. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman-s-sister-annie-altman-claims-sam-has-severely https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...

cedarseagull 3y ago
It seems like if it was the Annie Altman accusations, they could have just paid her off. If they wanted him around and he was a creep, there are ways to make this stuff go away. AFAIK a lot of the sister's accusations were accompanied by being excluded from the father's will. Not saying she made it up, but it seems like if those grievances are bundled, there's a easy way to make that problem go away.
- heavyset_go 3y ago
  Having talked with Annie, she's not willing to be bought off, as Sam has tried to do before in the past with her.

P_I_Staker 3y ago

It is a personal scandal and I thought it was obvious from the press release. Prior to the Reddit comments, I thought this might be the case, but perhaps I was somehow influenced. Actually, I thought it would be something inappropriate in the workplace. His sister says he molested her when he was a teenager. The way these things break, I’m not surprised it went down that way. Here’s what I thought reading the release: “They had to fire him before deciding on what to actually say eg. to formally accuse him” It seemed like signaling that this is someone firing him kinda desperately. When you discover a diddler theres some weird shit when people panic and suddenly drop catapult them out of their lives… they just start leaping out of moving cars and shit to get away. Keep in mind there could be ongoing investigations, definitely strategies being formed. They can get to a point in an investigation where they’re virtually 100% he molested his sister, but can’t really prove it yet. What they do have is irrefutable evidence of lying about something incredibly serious. Gets him out of the building and powers stripped today.

jsksjfjksmekfiz 3y ago
[flagged]
SamAltmanRapist 3y ago
I'm virtually 100% sure he did it after just looking into it today so I can see exactly what you're saying about people backflipping out of cars and stuff to get away from it.
- P_I_Staker 3y ago
  Yeah, idk news this morning seems to point otherwise. I would still be very careful with this dude. It really felt like a shoe was going to drop. This seemed like a REALLY negative dismissal.
whynotminot 3y ago
The sister has been making these accusations for months and nothing happened. What changed today?

paulddraper 3y ago

> Cant be a personal scandal And Brockman (Chairman of the board) has resigned. https://twitter.com/gdb/status/1725667410387378559 https://twitter.com/gdb/status/1725667410387378559

neilkk 3y ago
That doesn't mean it's not a personal scandal. If Brockman disagreed with the board about the advisability of firing him for whatever personal scandal it was, this is how you'd expect things to play out.

adrr 3y ago

Who owns the equity and who has dedicated seats on the board? Altman can easily just boot the board if he gets majority of the equity to back him.