5 ms·
The whole thing starts to look like a coup orchestrated by Microsoft
by tarruda 3y ago
The whole thing starts to look like a coup orchestrated by Microsoft
- raphman 3y agoSomehow reminds me of Nokia... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7645482 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7645482 frik on April 25, 2014: > The Nokia fate will be remembered as hostile takeover. Everything worked out in the favor of Microsoft in the end. Though Windows Phone/Tablet have low market share, a lot lower than expected. > * Stephen Elop the former Microsoft employee (head of the Business Division) and later Nokia CEO with his infamous "Burning Platform" memo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Elop#CEO_of_Nokia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Elop#CEO_of_Nokia > * Some former Nokia employees called it "Elop = hostile takeover of a company for a minimum price through CEO infiltration": https://gizmodo.com/how-nokia-employees-are-reacting-to-the-microsoft-takeo-1243832372 https://gizmodo.com/how-nokia-employees-are-reacting-to-the-... For the record: I don't actually believe that there is an evil Microsoft master plan. I just find it sad that Microsoft takes over cool stuff and inevitably turns it into Microsoft™ stuff or abandons it.
- spiralpolitik 3y agoIn many ways the analysis by Elop was right, Nokia was in trouble. However his solution wasn't the right one, and Nokia paid for it.
- lxgr 3y agoSeeing that a company is in trouble is not really the highest bar for a CEO candidate...
- alephnerd 3y agoIt was for a company as top heavy and dysfunctional at Nokia. This has been well documented by Nokia members at the time. I had a post on HN digging specifically into this. Read "Transforming Nokia" sometime. It's a pretty decent overview of Nokia during that time period
- davisr 3y ago> I don't actually believe that there is an evil Microsoft master plan. What planet are you living on?
- Jensson 3y agoYeah, this was a fight between the non-profit and the for-profit branches of OpenAI, and the for-profit won. So now the non-profit OpenAI is essentially dead, the takeover is complete.
- mcv 3y agoIs it? Who are the non-profit and for-profit sides? Sutskever initially got blames for ousting Altman, but now seemed to want him back. Is he changing sides only because he realises how many employees support Altman? Or were he and Altman always on the same side? And in that case, who is on the other side?
- Jensson 3y ago> Who are the non-profit and for-profit sides? The only part left of the non-profit was the board, all the employees and operations are in the for-profit entity. Since employees now demand the board should resign there will be nothing left of the non-profit after this. Puppets that are aligned with for-profit interests will be installed instead and the for-profit can act like a regular for-profit without being tied to the old ideals.
- mcv 3y agoDidn't they receive their original funding as donations? All those donations will now turn out to have been made to a for-profit entity.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- unyttigfjelltol 3y agoThe nonprofit side of the venture actually was in worse shape before, because it was completely overwhelmed by for-profit operations. A better way to view this is the nonprofit side rebelled, has a much smaller footprint than the for-profit venture, and we're about to see if during the ascendency of the for-profit activities the nonprofit side retained enough rights to continue to be relevant in the AI conversation. As for employees end masse acting publicly disloyal to their employer, usually not a good career move.
- jhh 3y agoReasoning based on cui bono is a hallmark of conspiracy theories.
- paganel 3y agoThe alternative is "these guys don't know what they're doing, even if tens of billions of dollars are at stake". Which is to say, what's your alternative for a better explanation? (other than the "cui bono?" one, that is).
- flerchin 3y agoYour alternative explanation along with giant egos is pretty plausible.
- airstrike 3y ago> these guys don't know what they're doing, even if tens of billions of dollars are at stake also known as "never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence", which to my gut sounds at least as likely as a cui bono explanation tbh (which is not to be seen as an endorsement of the view that cui bono = conspiracy...)
- financltravsty 3y agoEveryone always forgets there's two parts to Hanlon's razor: > Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity (1), but don't rule out malice. (2)
- freedomben 3y agoI don't actually think (2) is part of the razor[1]. If it is, then it doesn't make sense because (1) is an absolute (i.e. "never") which is always evaluated boolean "true", therefore statement (2) is never actually executed and is dead code. Nevertheless I agree with you and think (2) is wise to always keep in mind. I love Hanlon's Razor but people definitely should take it literally as written and/or as law. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor
- hospitalJail 3y agoA few weeks ago my 4yr old Minecraft gamer was playing pretend and said "I'm fighting the biggest boss. THE MICROSOFT BOSS!" Yeah M$ hasnt had a good reputation. I finally left Windows this year because I'm afraid of them after Win11. 2023/4 will be the year of the Linux Desktop in retrospect. (or at least my family's religion deemed it)
- mcv 3y agoI also finally left Windows behind. Tired of their shenanigans, tired of them trying to force me into their Microsoft account system (both for Windows and Minecraft). The idea that Microsoft is going to control OpenAI does not exactly fill me with confidence.
- CyanLite2 3y agoI was wondering how many lines I'd have to scroll down in the comments to see a "M$" reference here on HackerNews. They're a $2+ trillion dollar company. They're doing something right.
- davoneus 3y agoIf you shove a bunch of $100 dollar bills on a thorn tree, it doesn't make it any less dangerous or change it's fundamental nature.
- UncleOxidant 3y agoNow do oil companies and big pharma.
- gosub100 3y agothey violated free market principles (years ago) that left their users captive. Not home users, every business in the country for the past 30+ years. They are profiting from doing many things wrong, anti-competitive, and illegal. In some alternative universe, there's an earth where you can switch just the OS (and keep all your apps, data, and functionality) and MSFT went bankrupt. Another far-away-galaxy has an earth where MSFT's board got decade prison sentences for breaking antitrust law, another where MSFT paid each victim of spyware $1000 in damages due to faulty product design. We don't live in those realities where bad guys pay.
- beowulfey 3y agoIt does feel like Microsoft wanted this to happen, doesn’t it? Like the systems for this were already in place. So fascinating, and a little scary.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]