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Microsoft owns 50%, other investors own 20-30% presumably(?), 10% employee pool, that means all the other OpenAI founders/etc basically get nothing compared to

Microsoft owns 50%, other investors own 20-30% presumably(?), 10% employee pool, that means all the other OpenAI founders/etc basically get nothing compared to Altman...

bbor 2y ago
Well, tbf, he’s one of the only ones left. There’s so much ethical/political/cultural attrition at these companies that even the company founded by attrition (Anthropic) looks like Theseus’ ghost ship these days. And Altman is, somehow, seen as an indispensable mascot for the general public and/or politicians worldwide. After all, what are the engineers gonna do? Quit? They’d be replaced in a month, I’m sure every open position OAI posts gets thousands of qualified applicants from people dreaming of FIRE and/or terrified of automation. And obviously they’re way too proud to consider unionization.
- ethbr1 2y ago
  > And Altman is, somehow, seen as an indispensable mascot for the general public and/or politicians worldwide. It's not rocket science. He figures out what people want to hear, tells them that, then does whatever he thinks is best regardless of what he said. When put that way, it does sound a bit sociopathic though...
  - whyenot 2y ago
    His sincerity and seriousness are so over the top, it comes off looking like an act, even if it is not.
    - mnk47 2y ago
      Sincerity? I don't know. He seems to really believe in AGI and the singularity and all that, but everything else seems to be lie after lie. This article [0] on the New York Magazine paints him as an incredibly insencere manipulator, which lines up with accusations made by Helen Toner and others. Things he repeatedly says (not caring about money, caring a lot about safety) are often at odds with his actions. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/sam-altman-artificial-intelligence-openai-profile.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/sam-altman-artificia...
      - deepfriedchokes 2y ago
        “He’s smart, like for a flyover-state community college,” said a Bay Area VC. “Do you watch Succession? You could make a Tom analogy.” Wow.
- ein0p 2y ago
  I guess we’ll see soon enough who gets the most credit for OpenAIs success and who’s disposable/replaceable. Sutskever in particular has quite a bit of mythology about him. Let’s see if he can fulfill all that.

Microsoft owns 50%, other investors own 20-30% presumably(?), 10% employee pool, that means all the other OpenAI founders/etc basically get nothing compared to Altman...

bbor 2y ago

Well, tbf, he’s one of the only ones left. There’s so much ethical/political/cultural attrition at these companies that even the company founded by attrition (Anthropic) looks like Theseus’ ghost ship these days. And Altman is, somehow, seen as an indispensable mascot for the general public and/or politicians worldwide. After all, what are the engineers gonna do? Quit? They’d be replaced in a month, I’m sure every open position OAI posts gets thousands of qualified applicants from people dreaming of FIRE and/or terrified of automation. And obviously they’re way too proud to consider unionization.

ethbr1 2y ago
> And Altman is, somehow, seen as an indispensable mascot for the general public and/or politicians worldwide. It's not rocket science. He figures out what people want to hear, tells them that, then does whatever he thinks is best regardless of what he said. When put that way, it does sound a bit sociopathic though...
- whyenot 2y ago
  His sincerity and seriousness are so over the top, it comes off looking like an act, even if it is not.
  - mnk47 2y ago
    Sincerity? I don't know. He seems to really believe in AGI and the singularity and all that, but everything else seems to be lie after lie. This article [0] on the New York Magazine paints him as an incredibly insencere manipulator, which lines up with accusations made by Helen Toner and others. Things he repeatedly says (not caring about money, caring a lot about safety) are often at odds with his actions. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/sam-altman-artificial-intelligence-openai-profile.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/sam-altman-artificia...
    - deepfriedchokes 2y ago
      “He’s smart, like for a flyover-state community college,” said a Bay Area VC. “Do you watch Succession? You could make a Tom analogy.” Wow.
ein0p 2y ago
I guess we’ll see soon enough who gets the most credit for OpenAIs success and who’s disposable/replaceable. Sutskever in particular has quite a bit of mythology about him. Let’s see if he can fulfill all that.