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Yes, and wins with an inferior product. Hooray /s If the company's 'Chief Scientist' is this unhappy about the direction the CEO is taking the company, maybe t

Yes, and wins with an inferior product. Hooray /s If the company's 'Chief Scientist' is this unhappy about the direction the CEO is taking the company, maybe there's something to it.

dmix 3y ago
You're putting a lot of trust in the power of one man, who easily could have the power to influence the three other board members. It's hard to know if this amounts more than a personal feud that escalated and then got wrapped in a pretty bow of "AI safety" and "non-profit vs profits".
paulddraper 3y ago
Maybe. But Altman has a great track record as CEO. Hard to imagine he suddenly became a bad CEO. Possible. But unlikely.
- csomar 3y ago
  Where is this coming from? Sam does not have a "great" record as a CEO. In fact, he barely has any records. His fame came from working in YC and then the sky-rocketing of open AI. He is great at fundraising though.
  - paulddraper 3y ago
    wat the guy founded and was CEO of a company at 19 that sold for $43m
    - csomar 3y ago
      > As CEO, Altman raised more than $30 million in venture capital for the company; however, Loopt failed to gain traction with enough users. It is easy to sell a company for $43 if you raised at least $43. Granted, we don't know the total amount raised but it certainly it's not the big success you are describing. That and I already mentioned that he is good in corporate sales.
      - paulddraper 3y ago
        > he is good in corporate sales Which is a big part of being a great CEO
        csomar 3y ago
        It is a big part of start-up culture and getting seed liquidity. It doesn't make you a great long-term CEO, however.
        croes 3y ago
        A CEO should lead a company not sell it.
      - plingamp 3y ago
        According to Crunchbase, Loopt raised $39.1M.
        grumple 3y ago
        How many years did it take to go from 39 million to 43 million in value? Would've been better off in bonds, perhaps. This isn't a success story, it's a redistribution of wealth from investors to the founders.
        hamburglar 3y ago
        Ah, the much-sought-after 1.1X return that VCs really salivate over.
      - gardenhedge 3y ago
        > It is easy to sell a company for $43 if you raised at least $43 I'm curious - how is this easy?
    - comte7092 3y ago
      Ah yes the legendary social networking giant loopt
    - epolanski 3y ago
      Loopt was not a successful company, it sold for more or less the same capital it raised.
- malthaus 3y ago
  or alternatively: altman has the ability to leverage his network to fail upwards let's see if he can pull it off again or goes all-in on his data privacy nightmare / shitcoin double-wammy
  - 6510 3y ago
    Train a LLM exclusively on HN and make it into a serial killer app generator.
    - aku286 3y ago
      This. I would like my serial killer to say some profound shit before he kills me.
      - fyokdrigd 3y ago
        "should have rewritten it in rust" bang
- baq 3y ago
  Worldcoin is a great success for sure…! The dude is quite good at selling dystopian ideas as a path to utopia.
lll-o-lll 3y ago
Because the Chief Scientist let ideology overrule pragmatism. There is always a tension between technical and commercial. That’s a battle that should be fought daily, but never completely won. This looks like a terrible decision, but I suppose we must wait and see.
- satvikpendem 3y ago
  As long as truly "open" AI wins, as in fully open-source AI, then I'm fine with such a "leadership transition."
  - aidaman 3y ago
    this absolutely will not happen, Ilya is against it
    - baq 3y ago
      Yeah if you think a misused AGI is like a misused nuclear weapon, you might think it’s a bad idea to share the recipe for either.
- ytoawwhra92 3y ago
  OpenAI is a non-profit research organisation. It's for-profit (capped-profit) subsidiary exists solely to be able to enable competitive compensation to its researchers to ensure they don't have to worry about the opportunity costs of working at a non-profit. They have a mutually beneficial relationship with a deep-pocketed partner who can perpetually fund their research in exchange for exclusive rights to commercialize any ground-breaking technology they develop and choose to allow to be commercialized. Aggressive commercialization is at odds with their raison d'être and they have no need for it to fund their research. For as long as they continue to push forward the state of the art in AI and build ground-breaking technology they can let Microsoft worry about commercialization and product development. If a CEO is not just distracting but actively hampering an organisation's ability to fulfill its mission then their dismissal is entirely warranted.
adrr 3y ago
Inferior product is better than an unreleased product.
- hk__2 3y ago
  Does ChatGPT look unreleased to you?
quickthrower2 3y ago
You can’t win with an inferior product here. Not yet anyway. The utility is in the usefulness of the AI, and we’ve only just got to useful enough to start really being useful for daily workflows. This isn’t a ERP type thing where you outsell your rivals on sales prowess alone. This is more like the iPhone3 just got released.

Yes, and wins with an inferior product. Hooray /s If the company's 'Chief Scientist' is this unhappy about the direction the CEO is taking the company, maybe there's something to it.

dmix 3y ago

You're putting a lot of trust in the power of one man, who easily could have the power to influence the three other board members. It's hard to know if this amounts more than a personal feud that escalated and then got wrapped in a pretty bow of "AI safety" and "non-profit vs profits".

paulddraper 3y ago

Maybe. But Altman has a great track record as CEO. Hard to imagine he suddenly became a bad CEO. Possible. But unlikely.

csomar 3y ago
Where is this coming from? Sam does not have a "great" record as a CEO. In fact, he barely has any records. His fame came from working in YC and then the sky-rocketing of open AI. He is great at fundraising though.
- paulddraper 3y ago
  wat the guy founded and was CEO of a company at 19 that sold for $43m
  - csomar 3y ago
    > As CEO, Altman raised more than $30 million in venture capital for the company; however, Loopt failed to gain traction with enough users. It is easy to sell a company for $43 if you raised at least $43. Granted, we don't know the total amount raised but it certainly it's not the big success you are describing. That and I already mentioned that he is good in corporate sales.
    - paulddraper 3y ago
      > he is good in corporate sales Which is a big part of being a great CEO
      - csomar 3y ago
        It is a big part of start-up culture and getting seed liquidity. It doesn't make you a great long-term CEO, however.
      - croes 3y ago
        A CEO should lead a company not sell it.
    - plingamp 3y ago
      According to Crunchbase, Loopt raised $39.1M.
      - grumple 3y ago
        How many years did it take to go from 39 million to 43 million in value? Would've been better off in bonds, perhaps. This isn't a success story, it's a redistribution of wealth from investors to the founders.
        hamburglar 3y ago
        Ah, the much-sought-after 1.1X return that VCs really salivate over.
    - gardenhedge 3y ago
      > It is easy to sell a company for $43 if you raised at least $43 I'm curious - how is this easy?
  - comte7092 3y ago
    Ah yes the legendary social networking giant loopt
  - epolanski 3y ago
    Loopt was not a successful company, it sold for more or less the same capital it raised.
malthaus 3y ago
or alternatively: altman has the ability to leverage his network to fail upwards let's see if he can pull it off again or goes all-in on his data privacy nightmare / shitcoin double-wammy
- 6510 3y ago
  Train a LLM exclusively on HN and make it into a serial killer app generator.
  - aku286 3y ago
    This. I would like my serial killer to say some profound shit before he kills me.
    - fyokdrigd 3y ago
      "should have rewritten it in rust" bang
baq 3y ago
Worldcoin is a great success for sure…! The dude is quite good at selling dystopian ideas as a path to utopia.

lll-o-lll 3y ago

Because the Chief Scientist let ideology overrule pragmatism. There is always a tension between technical and commercial. That’s a battle that should be fought daily, but never completely won. This looks like a terrible decision, but I suppose we must wait and see.

satvikpendem 3y ago
As long as truly "open" AI wins, as in fully open-source AI, then I'm fine with such a "leadership transition."
- aidaman 3y ago
  this absolutely will not happen, Ilya is against it
  - baq 3y ago
    Yeah if you think a misused AGI is like a misused nuclear weapon, you might think it’s a bad idea to share the recipe for either.
ytoawwhra92 3y ago
OpenAI is a non-profit research organisation. It's for-profit (capped-profit) subsidiary exists solely to be able to enable competitive compensation to its researchers to ensure they don't have to worry about the opportunity costs of working at a non-profit. They have a mutually beneficial relationship with a deep-pocketed partner who can perpetually fund their research in exchange for exclusive rights to commercialize any ground-breaking technology they develop and choose to allow to be commercialized. Aggressive commercialization is at odds with their raison d'être and they have no need for it to fund their research. For as long as they continue to push forward the state of the art in AI and build ground-breaking technology they can let Microsoft worry about commercialization and product development. If a CEO is not just distracting but actively hampering an organisation's ability to fulfill its mission then their dismissal is entirely warranted.

adrr 3y ago

Inferior product is better than an unreleased product.

hk__2 3y ago
Does ChatGPT look unreleased to you?

quickthrower2 3y ago

You can’t win with an inferior product here. Not yet anyway. The utility is in the usefulness of the AI, and we’ve only just got to useful enough to start really being useful for daily workflows. This isn’t a ERP type thing where you outsell your rivals on sales prowess alone. This is more like the iPhone3 just got released.