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Members of the OpenAI board had found Altman an unnervingly slippery operator
- wolverine876 3y agoIt's a screenshot of an excerpt from a New Yorker story. Perhaps we should link to the original story?
- SuperNinKenDo 3y agoNothing even slightly surprising here to anyone who can read between the lines. Guy's obviously very succesful in building "consensus" out of nowhere.
- extr 3y agoYes, this perfectly maps to what's been released about the board's reasoning and why they wouldn't be able to pinpoint any specific lie. There wasn't one, in that he probably very carefully chooses his language such that he's never caught outright lying. But I wouldn't doubt he's a manipulator.
- Analemma_ 3y agoIf Altman was dismissed from YC for similar reasons this would be an excellent time for YC to speak up about it. I understand that for professional courtesy reasons they've been very "smile and say nothing" about Altman's departure but IMO that's increasingly untenable as these stakes go higher.
- wmf 3y agoPG seems to absolutely love him. It's really hard to reconcile the parts of this story.
- hackerlight 3y ago> PG seems to absolutely love him It doesn't serve PG's interests to say otherwise. Sam Altman is part of the YC brand so his reputation is valuable to YC and to PG's net worth. And he's no longer running YC.
- gwern 3y agoIt's unclear to what extent those statements & tweets you read as 'absolutely loving him' really are 'loving him' (as opposed to very British sardonic commentaries & backhanded compliments of the sort that exuberant Yanks routinely misread); see the prior discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38383641 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38383641
- gwern 3y agohttps://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/22/sam-altman-fired-y-combinator-paul-graham/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/22/sam-alt... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38378216 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38378216
- lechatpito1 3y agoLink to the article https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/11/the-inside-story-of-microsofts-partnership-with-openai https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/11/the-inside-sto... Also discussed in this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38486394 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38486394
- camgunz 3y agoI'm broadly not that supportive of these kind of character assessments or psychological evaluations from afar. They're at best salacious clickbait. I despise Trump and I was even uncomfortable with all the same things around him. But, I think we might need to start reckoning with the fact that the people who amass a lot of power in our society almost never do it because of their moral fortitude, but rather because they have less than most. If we actually think you should have to be a bona fide good person to be president or run OpenAI, we should probably figure out wtf that means, how we would assess that, and how we'd develop that in potential leaders. Thinkpieces and tweets about it after the fact are frankly pathetic. Maybe come out swinging a little earlier.
- janc_ 3y agoOne problem there is that if you come out swinging before most people see it too, you will be accused of being jealous, not qualified, etc. And you will be fired instead...
- camgunz 3y agoFair, I mostly mean the media here though. Like we're gonna spend decades lauding Ray Dalio and only when he retires are we suddenly gonna pop the hood and check what's going on in his hedge fund? It's just the meekest clickbait I can imagine and nobody's being the slightest bit bold here.
- 8f2ab37a-ed6c 3y agoStill curious how much EA people pulling the strings behind the scenes and jockeying for power played part into the recent drama. Toner and CSET being bankrolled by EA and all.
- EPWN3D 3y agoThe board keep stepping on a rake, getting smacked in the face, and saying, "The Altman sure is good."