6 ms·

> Does anybody know who is currently CEO of OpenAI? Emmett Shear. Altman won't be back. Investors like success and returns but they don't like companies wher

> Does anybody know who is currently CEO of OpenAI? Emmett Shear. Altman won't be back. Investors like success and returns but they don't like companies where all the employees have basically sworn out an oath of fealty to the CEO, as it means they (the investors) have basically no control over anything.

voisin 3y ago
> where all the employees have basically sworn out an oath of fealty to the CEO, as it means they (the investors) have basically no control over anything. Another interpretation: those closest to the internal workings of the business believe that a certain person is best capable of managing the business. Turns out that person is also who the investors believe in. So rather than fealty to a person, they are simply voting (with their feet apparently) against the board.
- 15457345234 3y ago
  > So rather than fealty to a person Have you _seen_ the bizarre behaviour that's occurring on twitter? Retweeing heart emojis, making weird declarations of faith, acting in lockstep? They're 100% swearing fealty and it's incredibly weird.
  - maxdoop 3y ago
    I think it’s wierd the dismissive way many folks in this thread speak about it all. “Sam isn’t important. Employees are weirdos. The board is just fine. Everyone calm down.” That’s more wierd than anything happening on Twitter.
    - 15457345234 3y ago
      It's objectively weird to see staff - almost all of them researchers and head-down types - unite so firmly behind a non-technical CEO. Those staff usually have their private champions within the company - usually technically focussed project managers who can run interference against the commercial side - but nod along with the CEO who they view as the ugly necessity of having to have a 'business guy.'
      - ebalit 3y ago
        This is not how I interpret the messages from the OpenAI team members. They are sending messages of unity, not fealty to Sam Altman. Working together brought them to the top of the world both in term of research and product. This is a dream come true. What would surprise me is that they wouldn't do everything they can to avoid breaking their team.
        15457345234 3y ago
        Does it not seem odd to you that they all just retweet heart emojis and copy/pasted statements, instead of composing their own separately written statements of support? These are meant to be top-tier researchers, you'd think they'd put their thoughts in their own words. That too would avoid uncertainty and make their position easier to understand. Just retweeting a heart emoji because their dear leader (lol) did it is... odd, to me. Unless it's specifically intended to send the message that they'll literally do whatever he tells them to do. Which is about a thousand times weirder.
        ebalit 3y ago
        No, what better way to send a message of unity than to all send the same message?
jacquesm 3y ago
Shear won't last. > Investors like success and returns but they don't like companies where all the employees have basically sworn out an oath of fealty to the CEO, as it means they (the investors) have basically no control over anything. Investors love such companies. I, as an investor would love such a company, as long as I was sure that the CEO would stay. Investors tend to not have control over much of anything anyway unless they have a board seat. Other than that it's a shareholder meeting once per year where you get to sign off on the actions of the execs for the preceding year. But the better interpretation is that the people there have said "we are not loyal to the board" rather than that they are more loyal to Altman, that only goes for those that will follow him wherever he goes. The best time for an investor to influence things is when you come on board. The best way for an investor to continue to be able to influence things is to have a controlling interest or very good relations with enough of the stockholders to effectively have a controlling interest.
- 15457345234 3y ago
  > I, as an investor would love such a company, as long as I was sure that the CEO would stay. As an investor you have no way of obtaining that surety. So, you would not love this company. > But the better interpretation is that the people there have said "we are not loyal to the board" rather than that they are more loyal to Altman Dude they're retweeting heart emojis and carrying water in _the most disturbing_ fashion on twitter. They're 100% declaring that they're his personal army, ride or die. I don't know how you aren't seeing this. It's completely abnormal behaviour for adults.
  - righthand 3y ago
    That will last until Sam gives up and drops them all when he moves on to whatever he’s doing next. They may be dogmatic about it but it’s only because they think they have cards to play.
    - 15457345234 3y ago
      It's giving me real Jim Jones vibes, to be honest. It's incredibly weird behaviour.
foota 3y ago
The investors already have no control!
abi 3y ago
What are you talking about? The OpenAI board isn't made up of investors.
spaceman_2020 3y ago
Employees hate working for companies where they have no voice too. Morale will drop and attrition will skyrocket. New talent won't consider OpenAI, existing talent will leave. The investment goes to zero anyway without talent.
- 15457345234 3y ago
  > New talent won't consider OpenAI I think you can assume that there's a large pool of talent that would love to work at OpenAI, they were just turned off by the ... vibes ... coming from the e/acc locksteppy types. It may be very easy to re-hire talent that's actually a lot smarter, if a bit less 'mission focussed.'
  - phpisthebest 3y ago
    >>they were just turned off by the ... vibes ... So they just need to hire some Gen Z [1], not to actually make AI technology but to make "good vibes" [1] https://nypost.com/2023/11/18/lifestyle/gen-z-workers-say-they-should-be-hired-for-their-personality/ https://nypost.com/2023/11/18/lifestyle/gen-z-workers-say-th... >>I think you can assume that there's a large pool of talent Why would we assume that? Every company in the US currently is complaining endlessly about the lack of talent, in IT especially I see posts from hiring managers being unable to find tech talent, and the fact that several companies are making very aggressive plays at getting OpenAI worker right now tells me there is not infact a "large pool of talent" that will just back fill all of these roles.
    - 15457345234 3y ago
      > in IT especially I see posts from hiring managers being unable to find tech talent Hasn't the sector been aggressively laying off for the past 6 months? I mean, there have been many many many posts about it here.
      - phpisthebest 3y ago
        you have confused "tech company layoffs" with "tech worker layoffs" Alot of Tech companies have been laying off alot of support staff in HR, Recruitment, Sales, and other business functions and yes some Technical roles as well, but dont think because you see "Google Lays of X,000 employees" means they just laid off that many AI Researchers, programmers, etc...
sigmar 3y ago
> all the employees have basically sworn out an oath of fealty to the CEO Objectively not true. Employees were quiet on Friday. It was after Ilya told employees that Altman was fired partly because he tasked two people with the same job, that they then organized.
- 15457345234 3y ago
  Wow, they were played like a fiddle. How old do you have to be to believe that story, 9?
WrongAssumption 3y ago
Emmett is already threatening to resign. https://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/1033862/openai-s-new-ceo-emmett-shear-threatening-to-resign-sam-altman-potentially-in-talks-to-return-the-circus-rages-on-1033862.html https://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/1033862/op...
- 15457345234 3y ago
  This entire thread is full of reddit-tier 'sources'
  - WrongAssumption 3y ago
    https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1727206187077370115 https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1727206187077370115 @OpenAI We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo. We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.

voisin 3y ago

> where all the employees have basically sworn out an oath of fealty to the CEO, as it means they (the investors) have basically no control over anything. Another interpretation: those closest to the internal workings of the business believe that a certain person is best capable of managing the business. Turns out that person is also who the investors believe in. So rather than fealty to a person, they are simply voting (with their feet apparently) against the board.

15457345234 3y ago
> So rather than fealty to a person Have you _seen_ the bizarre behaviour that's occurring on twitter? Retweeing heart emojis, making weird declarations of faith, acting in lockstep? They're 100% swearing fealty and it's incredibly weird.
- maxdoop 3y ago
  I think it’s wierd the dismissive way many folks in this thread speak about it all. “Sam isn’t important. Employees are weirdos. The board is just fine. Everyone calm down.” That’s more wierd than anything happening on Twitter.
  - 15457345234 3y ago
    It's objectively weird to see staff - almost all of them researchers and head-down types - unite so firmly behind a non-technical CEO. Those staff usually have their private champions within the company - usually technically focussed project managers who can run interference against the commercial side - but nod along with the CEO who they view as the ugly necessity of having to have a 'business guy.'
    - ebalit 3y ago
      This is not how I interpret the messages from the OpenAI team members. They are sending messages of unity, not fealty to Sam Altman. Working together brought them to the top of the world both in term of research and product. This is a dream come true. What would surprise me is that they wouldn't do everything they can to avoid breaking their team.
      - 15457345234 3y ago
        Does it not seem odd to you that they all just retweet heart emojis and copy/pasted statements, instead of composing their own separately written statements of support? These are meant to be top-tier researchers, you'd think they'd put their thoughts in their own words. That too would avoid uncertainty and make their position easier to understand. Just retweeting a heart emoji because their dear leader (lol) did it is... odd, to me. Unless it's specifically intended to send the message that they'll literally do whatever he tells them to do. Which is about a thousand times weirder.
        ebalit 3y ago
        No, what better way to send a message of unity than to all send the same message?

jacquesm 3y ago

Shear won't last. > Investors like success and returns but they don't like companies where all the employees have basically sworn out an oath of fealty to the CEO, as it means they (the investors) have basically no control over anything. Investors love such companies. I, as an investor would love such a company, as long as I was sure that the CEO would stay. Investors tend to not have control over much of anything anyway unless they have a board seat. Other than that it's a shareholder meeting once per year where you get to sign off on the actions of the execs for the preceding year. But the better interpretation is that the people there have said "we are not loyal to the board" rather than that they are more loyal to Altman, that only goes for those that will follow him wherever he goes. The best time for an investor to influence things is when you come on board. The best way for an investor to continue to be able to influence things is to have a controlling interest or very good relations with enough of the stockholders to effectively have a controlling interest.

15457345234 3y ago
> I, as an investor would love such a company, as long as I was sure that the CEO would stay. As an investor you have no way of obtaining that surety. So, you would not love this company. > But the better interpretation is that the people there have said "we are not loyal to the board" rather than that they are more loyal to Altman Dude they're retweeting heart emojis and carrying water in _the most disturbing_ fashion on twitter. They're 100% declaring that they're his personal army, ride or die. I don't know how you aren't seeing this. It's completely abnormal behaviour for adults.
- righthand 3y ago
  That will last until Sam gives up and drops them all when he moves on to whatever he’s doing next. They may be dogmatic about it but it’s only because they think they have cards to play.
  - 15457345234 3y ago
    It's giving me real Jim Jones vibes, to be honest. It's incredibly weird behaviour.

foota 3y ago

The investors already have no control!

abi 3y ago

What are you talking about? The OpenAI board isn't made up of investors.

spaceman_2020 3y ago

Employees hate working for companies where they have no voice too. Morale will drop and attrition will skyrocket. New talent won't consider OpenAI, existing talent will leave. The investment goes to zero anyway without talent.

15457345234 3y ago
> New talent won't consider OpenAI I think you can assume that there's a large pool of talent that would love to work at OpenAI, they were just turned off by the ... vibes ... coming from the e/acc locksteppy types. It may be very easy to re-hire talent that's actually a lot smarter, if a bit less 'mission focussed.'
- phpisthebest 3y ago
  >>they were just turned off by the ... vibes ... So they just need to hire some Gen Z [1], not to actually make AI technology but to make "good vibes" [1] https://nypost.com/2023/11/18/lifestyle/gen-z-workers-say-they-should-be-hired-for-their-personality/ https://nypost.com/2023/11/18/lifestyle/gen-z-workers-say-th... >>I think you can assume that there's a large pool of talent Why would we assume that? Every company in the US currently is complaining endlessly about the lack of talent, in IT especially I see posts from hiring managers being unable to find tech talent, and the fact that several companies are making very aggressive plays at getting OpenAI worker right now tells me there is not infact a "large pool of talent" that will just back fill all of these roles.
  - 15457345234 3y ago
    > in IT especially I see posts from hiring managers being unable to find tech talent Hasn't the sector been aggressively laying off for the past 6 months? I mean, there have been many many many posts about it here.
    - phpisthebest 3y ago
      you have confused "tech company layoffs" with "tech worker layoffs" Alot of Tech companies have been laying off alot of support staff in HR, Recruitment, Sales, and other business functions and yes some Technical roles as well, but dont think because you see "Google Lays of X,000 employees" means they just laid off that many AI Researchers, programmers, etc...

sigmar 3y ago

> all the employees have basically sworn out an oath of fealty to the CEO Objectively not true. Employees were quiet on Friday. It was after Ilya told employees that Altman was fired partly because he tasked two people with the same job, that they then organized.

15457345234 3y ago
Wow, they were played like a fiddle. How old do you have to be to believe that story, 9?

WrongAssumption 3y ago

Emmett is already threatening to resign. https://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/1033862/openai-s-new-ceo-emmett-shear-threatening-to-resign-sam-altman-potentially-in-talks-to-return-the-circus-rages-on-1033862.html https://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/1033862/op...

15457345234 3y ago
This entire thread is full of reddit-tier 'sources'
- WrongAssumption 3y ago
  https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1727206187077370115 https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1727206187077370115 @OpenAI We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo. We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.