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Everything I've read about this situation indicates that the board acted appropriately within their authority as the the leaders of OpenAI, the non-profit. Sam

Everything I've read about this situation indicates that the board acted appropriately within their authority as the the leaders of OpenAI, the non-profit. Sam Altman and co. have veered off into wild delusions of grandeur over the last year with their talk of how they're "building God" (out of scraped reddit comments and blog posts) and comparing ChatGPT to the invention of fire. The board has shown that there are still adults in the room in AI development who aren't high off their own fumes, and also aren't interested in becoming lapdogs for M$FT. Thank God.

MacsHeadroom 3y ago
All around a bad take. But FYI OpenAI's explicit mission has always been to build godlike AI which eclipses humanity in its ability to autonomously perform the majority of economically valuable work.
- segasaturn 3y ago
  ChatGPT ain't that. GPT-4 isn't that either, or GPT-5, or 6, or 7, or any of them. LLMs are a fun gimmick, but regurgitated text from comment sections and blogs isn't even one tenth of one percent of what's needed for "Godlike AI". Consider the self driving taxis in San Fransisco that are defeated by a humble traffic cone. Sam Altman's hype machine is hurting AI research, not helping it, by leading people down flights of fancy and easy dollar signs (like his plan of building a "GPT App Store") instead of the real methodological research that's needed to create AGI.
ianbutler 3y ago
If that's your take away I genuinely fear for the future of AI. This has been the biggest shit show. Yes, they acted within their hard power, but clearly never read the room. Announcing a 6 month transition plan while finding the new CEO and saying Sam wants to spend time with friends and family would have been the adult thing to do. Not shoot from your hip, and accuse him of lying and potentially burning your entire work to the ground, commercial or not. You kind of need to have a plan for something like this, which they clearly did not. I don't care so much if Sam goes back, I literally have no vested interest. It worries me the people left in the room just generally seem incompetent at running a large organization for something that's potentially pretty important.
hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
It's hard for me to imagine a worse take. Even if you only assume the best of intentions of the board (which I think is a huge assumption), their actions have been so mind-bogglingly stupid that basically all they may end up doing is transferring all of OpenAI to Microsoft, basically for free, where there will be 0 oversight and MSFT's only duty is to its shareholders. If you really wanted to create "AGI for the benefit of all humanity", I can't imagine a better way to cut off your nose and then remove your brain to spite your face.
- didibus 3y ago
  Could you have really predicted this aftermath? I mean, it could have just been that Sam is gone, a new CEO joins, and things move on. For example, as a paying user of OpenAI, I don't really care, as long as they continue to produce some of the best performing models, I'll keep paying. It's pretty surprising what Microsoft did as well, like their deal with OpenAI is not invalidated by a CEO change. It's a pretty bold move of them to take that opportunity to poach the defunct CEO and the entire staff of OpenAI, and try and steal their intellectual property along the way. I find it very likely they just didn't expect that to happen at all.
  - crazygringo 3y ago
    > Could you have really predicted this aftermath? Yes, literally anyone with sufficient professional corporate experience would have. This was instantly front-page news everywhere. > I mean, it could have just been that Sam is gone, a new CEO joins, and things move on. This isn't about replacing a CEO. This is about 4 members secretly getting rid of 2 other board members, including the chair and CEO, in a secret board meeting, with zero transparency and zero public justification backed by evidence. None of that is business as normal, things move on. This is as disruptive and shocking as things get. > I find it very likely they just didn't expect that to happen at all. Which is precisely what's so troubling -- it shows their extreme incompetence. This isn't a toy $1M company for amateurs to play with, it's an ~$80B company. This is the big leagues. The board is expected to be able to understand the consequences of its actions.

MacsHeadroom 3y ago

All around a bad take. But FYI OpenAI's explicit mission has always been to build godlike AI which eclipses humanity in its ability to autonomously perform the majority of economically valuable work.

segasaturn 3y ago
ChatGPT ain't that. GPT-4 isn't that either, or GPT-5, or 6, or 7, or any of them. LLMs are a fun gimmick, but regurgitated text from comment sections and blogs isn't even one tenth of one percent of what's needed for "Godlike AI". Consider the self driving taxis in San Fransisco that are defeated by a humble traffic cone. Sam Altman's hype machine is hurting AI research, not helping it, by leading people down flights of fancy and easy dollar signs (like his plan of building a "GPT App Store") instead of the real methodological research that's needed to create AGI.

ianbutler 3y ago

If that's your take away I genuinely fear for the future of AI. This has been the biggest shit show. Yes, they acted within their hard power, but clearly never read the room. Announcing a 6 month transition plan while finding the new CEO and saying Sam wants to spend time with friends and family would have been the adult thing to do. Not shoot from your hip, and accuse him of lying and potentially burning your entire work to the ground, commercial or not. You kind of need to have a plan for something like this, which they clearly did not. I don't care so much if Sam goes back, I literally have no vested interest. It worries me the people left in the room just generally seem incompetent at running a large organization for something that's potentially pretty important.

hn_throwaway_99 3y ago

It's hard for me to imagine a worse take. Even if you only assume the best of intentions of the board (which I think is a huge assumption), their actions have been so mind-bogglingly stupid that basically all they may end up doing is transferring all of OpenAI to Microsoft, basically for free, where there will be 0 oversight and MSFT's only duty is to its shareholders. If you really wanted to create "AGI for the benefit of all humanity", I can't imagine a better way to cut off your nose and then remove your brain to spite your face.

didibus 3y ago
Could you have really predicted this aftermath? I mean, it could have just been that Sam is gone, a new CEO joins, and things move on. For example, as a paying user of OpenAI, I don't really care, as long as they continue to produce some of the best performing models, I'll keep paying. It's pretty surprising what Microsoft did as well, like their deal with OpenAI is not invalidated by a CEO change. It's a pretty bold move of them to take that opportunity to poach the defunct CEO and the entire staff of OpenAI, and try and steal their intellectual property along the way. I find it very likely they just didn't expect that to happen at all.
- crazygringo 3y ago
  > Could you have really predicted this aftermath? Yes, literally anyone with sufficient professional corporate experience would have. This was instantly front-page news everywhere. > I mean, it could have just been that Sam is gone, a new CEO joins, and things move on. This isn't about replacing a CEO. This is about 4 members secretly getting rid of 2 other board members, including the chair and CEO, in a secret board meeting, with zero transparency and zero public justification backed by evidence. None of that is business as normal, things move on. This is as disruptive and shocking as things get. > I find it very likely they just didn't expect that to happen at all. Which is precisely what's so troubling -- it shows their extreme incompetence. This isn't a toy $1M company for amateurs to play with, it's an ~$80B company. This is the big leagues. The board is expected to be able to understand the consequences of its actions.