4 ms·

Ousted OpenAI CEO Altman planning new AI venture, sources say

65 points by mfiguiere 3y ago

slavetologic 3y ago
Finally some real entrepreneurs innovating. Please take down big tech
mckee1 3y ago
I suppose if the new 'venture' is for-profit it might give credence to the view that Altman and the board diverged because of his desire to turn OpenAI toward exactly that.
HHC-Hunter 3y ago
Terribly misleading headline. Afaik the only venture seemingly in the works is a hardware venture.
- jkaplowitz 3y ago
  What’s misleading about calling an AI hardware venture an AI venture?
- brucethemoose2 3y ago
  > Sam Altman, the recently ousted CEO of OpenAI, has been working on a new artificial intelligence venture he is planning to launch, sources briefed on the plan said on Saturday. Doesn't seem misleading to me. Maybe Reuters's can't disclose or doesn't know what the venture is, but its reasonable to cite a previous, seemingly relevant report from another outlet.
  - itsoktocry 3y ago
    >has been working on a new artificial intelligence venture he is planning to launch What does "has been working on" mean? He's been fired for a day. When was he working on it?
    - lebean 3y ago
      [dead]
    - DeIlliad 3y ago
      This goes back to what the original commenter was saying. The rumor is that Altman was planning to launch an AI chip startup to take on Nvidia before his ejection from OpenAI.
    - mrandish 3y ago
      Unattributed sources quoted by some media outlets say that Altman has recently been fund-raising for a possible new venture with potential investors. Given the context, I assume this was probably presented to the board, at least initially, as a personal side project outside of his duties as OpenAI CEO. If so, then the "not consistently candid" in the board's statement might be related to aspects of that, perhaps in terms of degree, focus, timing or even potential fund-raising or recruiting. Speculating, I can imagine a scenario where Altman was working with the board to orchestrate his eventual exit to start the new endeavor or perhaps a dual role. If so, the board may have concluded Altman's outside activities were more extensive than he had disclosed and crossed the fuzzy line between discussion and exploration to execution - which could obviously create untenable conflicts of interest for Altman which the board might be required act on. I like this hypothesis because it's consistent with the statements and actions so far as well as seeming reasonable given the massive opportunity and Altman's entrepreneurial nature. Recall that GPUs have been OpenAI's largest costs and limiting factor. In fact, as OpenAI's CEO, Altman could have argued to the board that OAI needed to vertically integrate 'down the stack' to designing it's own hardware, especially since their largest competitors already have. If the board balked at this direction as inconsistent with the non-profit's charter (and potentially even adverse to the mission of "safe AI"), Altman may have asked the board for permission to personally explore the opportunity. Assuming the board agreed, there would likely have been specific disclosure requirements of Altman as well as limits on certain activities. Such a fast-moving, dynamic environment, seems like it could lead to miscommunication and at least the appearance of material omission or even misrepresentation. Such a breakdown in trust might result in a situation where Altman could reasonably think he's still working with the board toward a negotiated and stage-managed exit but the board could reasonably conclude the situation had gotten out of control and exceeded their agreement with Altman - requiring board action to remain in compliance with the organization's charter and their legal duties as board directors.
- tempsy 3y ago
  That was something to do with a VC fund he was raising. This is news that he plans to start a new company following his firing. Not sure what is misleading about this at all.
brucethemoose2 3y ago
If its truly a hardware venture... good luck. They'll need it. Big-die silicon is hard, like unimaginably hard, even with a bottomless pit of capital.
- pornel 3y ago
  OTOH everyone right now is fighting for Nvidia's GPUs, and I bet (ex)OpenAI people know exactly what hardware they'd like that would be best suited for their task.
  - brucethemoose2 3y ago
    > know exactly what hardware they'd like that would be best suited for their task. Thats the fun thing about AI hardware. By the time you develop it (which takes years and billions), the workload you're targeting is already changed or obsolete. Nvidia is the exception because if you are an AI scholar, you are building your research around whatever capabilies Nvidia GPUs have. Thats why AMD and Intel have quite literally chosen the "emulate Nvidia" path and axed more specialized accelerators.
- ttyprintk 3y ago
  This month, Microsoft is expected to announce an AI chip.
siliconc0w 3y ago
In the long term this is probably a good thing, more competition in this landscape is better for everyone.
neonate 3y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20231118210909/https://www.reuters.com/technology/openai-co-founder-altman-planning-new-venture-information-2023-11-18/ https://web.archive.org/web/20231118210909/https://www.reute...
reilly3000 3y ago
From a phenomenal demo day to this revelation Sam has managed to get out from under the limits of heading a nonprofit to something that could be immensely profitable, all while engendering sympathy. I’m not saying it was orchestrated with this intent, but if it was it was a masterful bit of reputation engineering.
- lebean 3y ago
  [dead]
panarky 3y ago
Until last night, Microsoft seemed to have a lock on the world's most advanced AI. Now if the top talent follows Altman to his new company, Microsoft's investment could be stranded. We should start a pool on which Microsoft competitor will overpay the most to freeze them out of the new company.
- luke-stanley 3y ago
  Surely OpenAI still have a lot of amazing people, tech, IP, and can keep improving on it, so long as the books are balanced?
  - brucethemoose2 3y ago
    And even more importantly, a mountain of conversations/responses to train on.
    - metadat 3y ago
      Yeah, good luck legally obtaining all that training data in a timely manner for the new venture..
    - userinanother 3y ago
      And probably a shit ton of copyrighted works that were stolen and misused as training data
  - polski-g 3y ago
    The people? They'd leave at the drop of a hat for a chance for equity at a for-profit venture.
timeon 3y ago
Should not this be news when it is actually done or announced at least?
aeurielesn 3y ago
An AI hardware venture from scratch? I can't believe it. Perhaps there is an AI hardware start-up out there Altman wants to buy.
ksec 3y ago
Well Steve started a new company called Next Computer when he was fired from Apple. May be Sam could start NextAI ?

65 points by mfiguiere 3y ago

Finally some real entrepreneurs innovating. Please take down big tech

I suppose if the new 'venture' is for-profit it might give credence to the view that Altman and the board diverged because of his desire to turn OpenAI toward exactly that.

HHC-Hunter 3y ago

Terribly misleading headline. Afaik the only venture seemingly in the works is a hardware venture.

jkaplowitz 3y ago
What’s misleading about calling an AI hardware venture an AI venture?
brucethemoose2 3y ago
> Sam Altman, the recently ousted CEO of OpenAI, has been working on a new artificial intelligence venture he is planning to launch, sources briefed on the plan said on Saturday. Doesn't seem misleading to me. Maybe Reuters's can't disclose or doesn't know what the venture is, but its reasonable to cite a previous, seemingly relevant report from another outlet.
- itsoktocry 3y ago
  >has been working on a new artificial intelligence venture he is planning to launch What does "has been working on" mean? He's been fired for a day. When was he working on it?
  - lebean 3y ago
    [dead]
  - DeIlliad 3y ago
    This goes back to what the original commenter was saying. The rumor is that Altman was planning to launch an AI chip startup to take on Nvidia before his ejection from OpenAI.
  - mrandish 3y ago
    Unattributed sources quoted by some media outlets say that Altman has recently been fund-raising for a possible new venture with potential investors. Given the context, I assume this was probably presented to the board, at least initially, as a personal side project outside of his duties as OpenAI CEO. If so, then the "not consistently candid" in the board's statement might be related to aspects of that, perhaps in terms of degree, focus, timing or even potential fund-raising or recruiting. Speculating, I can imagine a scenario where Altman was working with the board to orchestrate his eventual exit to start the new endeavor or perhaps a dual role. If so, the board may have concluded Altman's outside activities were more extensive than he had disclosed and crossed the fuzzy line between discussion and exploration to execution - which could obviously create untenable conflicts of interest for Altman which the board might be required act on. I like this hypothesis because it's consistent with the statements and actions so far as well as seeming reasonable given the massive opportunity and Altman's entrepreneurial nature. Recall that GPUs have been OpenAI's largest costs and limiting factor. In fact, as OpenAI's CEO, Altman could have argued to the board that OAI needed to vertically integrate 'down the stack' to designing it's own hardware, especially since their largest competitors already have. If the board balked at this direction as inconsistent with the non-profit's charter (and potentially even adverse to the mission of "safe AI"), Altman may have asked the board for permission to personally explore the opportunity. Assuming the board agreed, there would likely have been specific disclosure requirements of Altman as well as limits on certain activities. Such a fast-moving, dynamic environment, seems like it could lead to miscommunication and at least the appearance of material omission or even misrepresentation. Such a breakdown in trust might result in a situation where Altman could reasonably think he's still working with the board toward a negotiated and stage-managed exit but the board could reasonably conclude the situation had gotten out of control and exceeded their agreement with Altman - requiring board action to remain in compliance with the organization's charter and their legal duties as board directors.
tempsy 3y ago
That was something to do with a VC fund he was raising. This is news that he plans to start a new company following his firing. Not sure what is misleading about this at all.

brucethemoose2 3y ago

If its truly a hardware venture... good luck. They'll need it. Big-die silicon is hard, like unimaginably hard, even with a bottomless pit of capital.

pornel 3y ago
OTOH everyone right now is fighting for Nvidia's GPUs, and I bet (ex)OpenAI people know exactly what hardware they'd like that would be best suited for their task.
- brucethemoose2 3y ago
  > know exactly what hardware they'd like that would be best suited for their task. Thats the fun thing about AI hardware. By the time you develop it (which takes years and billions), the workload you're targeting is already changed or obsolete. Nvidia is the exception because if you are an AI scholar, you are building your research around whatever capabilies Nvidia GPUs have. Thats why AMD and Intel have quite literally chosen the "emulate Nvidia" path and axed more specialized accelerators.
ttyprintk 3y ago
This month, Microsoft is expected to announce an AI chip.

siliconc0w 3y ago

In the long term this is probably a good thing, more competition in this landscape is better for everyone.

neonate 3y ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20231118210909/https://www.reuters.com/technology/openai-co-founder-altman-planning-new-venture-information-2023-11-18/ https://web.archive.org/web/20231118210909/https://www.reute...

reilly3000 3y ago

From a phenomenal demo day to this revelation Sam has managed to get out from under the limits of heading a nonprofit to something that could be immensely profitable, all while engendering sympathy. I’m not saying it was orchestrated with this intent, but if it was it was a masterful bit of reputation engineering.

lebean 3y ago
[dead]

panarky 3y ago

Until last night, Microsoft seemed to have a lock on the world's most advanced AI. Now if the top talent follows Altman to his new company, Microsoft's investment could be stranded. We should start a pool on which Microsoft competitor will overpay the most to freeze them out of the new company.

luke-stanley 3y ago
Surely OpenAI still have a lot of amazing people, tech, IP, and can keep improving on it, so long as the books are balanced?
- brucethemoose2 3y ago
  And even more importantly, a mountain of conversations/responses to train on.
  - metadat 3y ago
    Yeah, good luck legally obtaining all that training data in a timely manner for the new venture..
  - userinanother 3y ago
    And probably a shit ton of copyrighted works that were stolen and misused as training data
- polski-g 3y ago
  The people? They'd leave at the drop of a hat for a chance for equity at a for-profit venture.

timeon 3y ago

Should not this be news when it is actually done or announced at least?

aeurielesn 3y ago

An AI hardware venture from scratch? I can't believe it. Perhaps there is an AI hardware start-up out there Altman wants to buy.

ksec 3y ago

Well Steve started a new company called Next Computer when he was fired from Apple. May be Sam could start NextAI ?