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> It started with a rather cryptic and not very pleasant-sounding blog post from the company announcing a leadership transition. Here are the most revealing bit

> It started with a rather cryptic and not very pleasant-sounding blog post from the company announcing a leadership transition. Here are the most revealing bits: That doesn't seem to be the most revealing bits at all. Personally, the last part is what is the most revealing, as it reaffirms the boards commitment to the mission they initially declared: > OpenAI was founded as a non-profit in 2015 with the core mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. In 2019, OpenAI restructured to ensure that the company could raise capital in pursuit of this mission, while preserving the nonprofit's mission, governance, and oversight. The majority of the board is independent, and the independent directors do not hold equity in OpenAI. While the company has experienced dramatic growth, it remains the fundamental governance responsibility of the board to advance OpenAI’s mission and preserve the principles of its Charter. Between the lines, that paragraph is giving us the background to why the firing was necessary.

JoeAltmaier 3y ago
I guess I don't know which lines to read between. Is the board being cautious about irresponsible growth in AI and lack of ethical governance? Is caution the 'mission'? Or is the board blowing off responsible, cautious management in pursuit of runaway profit? Not following the issue nor the characters (not a personality-worshipping silicon-valley-celebrity-watcher) so I have honestly no idea what all the veiled messages are saying.
- Macha 3y ago
  Given OpenAI is a 501c and Sam Altman has a history in the VC world, it seems more plausible to me that Altman was on the pro-"make it a normal business" side.
  - true_religion 3y ago
    To me I am more concerned as to if the board wants faster and more open development of AI. Before he left, Sam had been doom and glooming AI advancement.
    - swatcoder 3y ago
      OpenAI wants to achieve responsible AGI without it being narrowly captured by any one political powerful entity (corporate or political). Their version of open is not “open to regular folks” but “stwewarded to prevent capture and misuse”. That they don’t recognize themselves and their self-importance as a form of capture is its own worrisome irony.
- capableweb 3y ago
  > OpenAI was founded as a non-profit in 2015 with the core mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity This outlines their mission. > In 2019, OpenAI restructured to ensure that the company could raise capital in pursuit of this mission This acknowledges that they had to adjust the current structure in a attempt to in the future continue focusing harder on the mission. > The majority of the board is independent, and the independent directors do not hold equity in OpenAI This tells us that the board is acting not with the goal of maximizing monetary profits. > While the company has experienced dramatic growth, it remains the fundamental governance responsibility of the board to advance OpenAI’s mission and preserve the principles of its Charter This tells us that the company in a traditional sense have been growing, but lately focus from the core mission has been lost, and they're aiming to regain the focus on their mission.
- swatcoder 3y ago
  > Is the board being cautious about irresponsible growth in AI and lack of ethical governance? Is caution the 'mission'? > Or is the board blowing off responsible, cautious management in pursuit of runaway profit? To summarize the context: The chartered mission is to lead the safe pursuit of AGI. The leader of the “coup” is a scientist who feels passionately about that mission. The CEO who was fired was a venture capitalist responsible for the recent product launches and lucrative commercial agreements. Everybody involved is still being vague about the underlying dispute, but (so far) it plausibly reads that a passionate and anxious idealist felt like his opportunity to fulfill a mission critical to the future of humanity was being disrupted by a profit-seeking dealmaker. (Whether the researcher’s purported worry is sound or not is likely irrelevant to explaining the news itself. It’s a closely held private org and so typical internal disagreements can have major practical consequences)

JoeAltmaier 3y ago

I guess I don't know which lines to read between. Is the board being cautious about irresponsible growth in AI and lack of ethical governance? Is caution the 'mission'? Or is the board blowing off responsible, cautious management in pursuit of runaway profit? Not following the issue nor the characters (not a personality-worshipping silicon-valley-celebrity-watcher) so I have honestly no idea what all the veiled messages are saying.

Macha 3y ago
Given OpenAI is a 501c and Sam Altman has a history in the VC world, it seems more plausible to me that Altman was on the pro-"make it a normal business" side.
- true_religion 3y ago
  To me I am more concerned as to if the board wants faster and more open development of AI. Before he left, Sam had been doom and glooming AI advancement.
  - swatcoder 3y ago
    OpenAI wants to achieve responsible AGI without it being narrowly captured by any one political powerful entity (corporate or political). Their version of open is not “open to regular folks” but “stwewarded to prevent capture and misuse”. That they don’t recognize themselves and their self-importance as a form of capture is its own worrisome irony.
capableweb 3y ago
> OpenAI was founded as a non-profit in 2015 with the core mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity This outlines their mission. > In 2019, OpenAI restructured to ensure that the company could raise capital in pursuit of this mission This acknowledges that they had to adjust the current structure in a attempt to in the future continue focusing harder on the mission. > The majority of the board is independent, and the independent directors do not hold equity in OpenAI This tells us that the board is acting not with the goal of maximizing monetary profits. > While the company has experienced dramatic growth, it remains the fundamental governance responsibility of the board to advance OpenAI’s mission and preserve the principles of its Charter This tells us that the company in a traditional sense have been growing, but lately focus from the core mission has been lost, and they're aiming to regain the focus on their mission.
swatcoder 3y ago
> Is the board being cautious about irresponsible growth in AI and lack of ethical governance? Is caution the 'mission'? > Or is the board blowing off responsible, cautious management in pursuit of runaway profit? To summarize the context: The chartered mission is to lead the safe pursuit of AGI. The leader of the “coup” is a scientist who feels passionately about that mission. The CEO who was fired was a venture capitalist responsible for the recent product launches and lucrative commercial agreements. Everybody involved is still being vague about the underlying dispute, but (so far) it plausibly reads that a passionate and anxious idealist felt like his opportunity to fulfill a mission critical to the future of humanity was being disrupted by a profit-seeking dealmaker. (Whether the researcher’s purported worry is sound or not is likely irrelevant to explaining the news itself. It’s a closely held private org and so typical internal disagreements can have major practical consequences)