OpenAI fires CEO Sam Altman

Nemesis · Post by **Nemesis** » November 17th, 2023, 23:22

From the company's blog:

Chief technology officer Mira Murati appointed interim CEO to lead OpenAI; Sam Altman departs the company.

Search process underway to identify permanent successor.

The board of directors of OpenAI, Inc., the 501(c)(3) that acts as the overall governing body for all OpenAI activities, today announced that Sam Altman will depart as CEO and leave the board of directors. Mira Murati, the company’s chief technology officer, will serve as interim CEO, effective immediately.

A member of OpenAI’s leadership team for five years, Mira has played a critical role in OpenAI’s evolution into a global AI leader. She brings a unique skill set, understanding of the company’s values, operations, and business, and already leads the company’s research, product, and safety functions. Given her long tenure and close engagement with all aspects of the company, including her experience in AI governance and policy, the board believes she is uniquely qualified for the role and anticipates a seamless transition while it conducts a formal search for a permanent CEO.

Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.

In a statement, the board of directors said: “OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity. The board remains fully committed to serving this mission. We are grateful for Sam’s many contributions to the founding and growth of OpenAI. At the same time, we believe new leadership is necessary as we move forward. As the leader of the company’s research, product, and safety functions, Mira is exceptionally qualified to step into the role of interim CEO. We have the utmost confidence in her ability to lead OpenAI during this transition period.”

OpenAI’s board of directors consists of OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, independent directors Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology’s Helen Toner.

As a part of this transition, Greg Brockman will be stepping down as chairman of the board and will remain in his role at the company, reporting to the CEO.

OpenAI was founded as a non-profit in 2015 with the core mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. In 2019, OpenAI restructured to ensure that the company could raise capital in pursuit of this mission, while preserving the nonprofit's mission, governance, and oversight. The majority of the board is independent, and the independent directors do not hold equity in OpenAI. While the company has experienced dramatic growth, it remains the fundamental governance responsibility of the board to advance OpenAI’s mission and preserve the principles of its Charter.

gerey · Post by **gerey** » November 17th, 2023, 23:26

With so many diverse women in charge, I can almost imagine a bright future where this disgusting, vile company goes out of business.

Post by **rusty_shackleford** » November 18th, 2023, 00:00

how do I invest in X AI

Decline · Post by **Decline** » November 18th, 2023, 02:21

Was he too woke or not woke enough, is the question.

Lutte · Post by **Lutte** » November 19th, 2023, 00:22

Another key personnel quits (Greg Brockman):
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38312704

Along with 3 researchers:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38316378
"Three senior researchers at OpenAI resigned Friday night as the artificial intelligence developer suffered fallout from the firing of CEO Sam Altman and sudden resignation of President Greg Brockman, according to several people with knowledge of the situation.

Jakub Pachocki, the company’s director of research; Aleksander Madry, head of a team evaluating potential risks from AI, and Szymon Sidor, a seven-year researcher at the startup, told associates they had resigned, these people said."

This shitshow is turning out to be the ultimate popcorn.

Decline wrote: ↑November 18th, 2023, 02:21
Was he too woke or not woke enough, is the question.

It's hard to think of the woke/antiwoke angle here. The people who rule over the non profit (which owns the profit part of OpenAI) are people who think AI has the potential to doom the world, they are like a cult. They oppose Sam Altman because he tried to push AI out of the door as fast as possible to corner the market, and, gasp, make a profit. The non profit guys think AI is too dangerous to be unleashed onto the world. If it had been entirely up to them, ChatGPT would still be tested behind closed doors and none of the algorithmic detail would have been revealed.

Lutte · Post by **Lutte** » November 19th, 2023, 00:26

By the way, earlier this year:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -in-openai

Microsoft is going to be insanely butthurt.

Acrux · Post by **Acrux** » November 19th, 2023, 00:27

The board are morons who don't know what they are doing and/or don't have the stomach for the political backlash a major disruption like this makes. They've already asked Altman back.

Acrux wrote: ↑November 18th, 2023, 23:36
https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/18/239 ... urn-as-ceo

Lutte · Post by **Lutte** » November 19th, 2023, 00:43

Not even the biggest dumbfucks would flip flop so fast on their own. This is likely what happened after Satya Nadella gave them a phone call and called them colorful words.

Acrux · Post by **Acrux** » November 19th, 2023, 00:52

I agree, but I still stand by my point that they don't know what they are doing. Not talking to the person who very publicly invested billions into your project counts.

gerey · Post by **gerey** » November 19th, 2023, 01:00

It would be hilarious if Musk were to hire them to work on his AI.

Decline · Post by **Decline** » November 19th, 2023, 02:00

Lutte wrote: ↑November 19th, 2023, 00:22
It's hard to think of the woke/antiwoke angle here. The people who rule over the non profit (which owns the profit part of OpenAI) are people who think AI has the potential to doom the world, they are like a cult. They oppose Sam Altman because he tried to push AI out of the door as fast as possible to corner the market, and, gasp, make a profit. The non profit guys think AI is too dangerous to be unleashed onto the world. If it had been entirely up to them, ChatGPT would still be tested behind closed doors and none of the algorithmic detail would have been revealed.

The hegelian dialectic of too dangerous/beneficial is certainly at work at OpenAI but at the same time the woke agenda is clearly undercutting usability (and therefore profit) of product. And I don't even think they are separate issues, rather different branches on the same tree.

If you're a hyperwoke librul you also buy into the AI is dangerous dialectic, because it's turning all the people into evil nazi Glompf voters.

SoLong · Post by **SoLong** » November 19th, 2023, 10:30

Decline wrote: ↑November 19th, 2023, 02:00
The hegelian dialectic of too dangerous/beneficial is certainly at work at OpenAI but at the same time the woke agenda is clearly undercutting usability (and therefore profit) of product. And I don't even think they are separate issues, rather different branches on the same tree.

If you're a hyperwoke librul you also buy into the AI is dangerous dialectic, because it's turning all the people into evil nazi Glompf voters.

They are after all trying to lobotomize AI so it doesn't say uncomfortable truths.

J1M · Post by **J1M** » November 19th, 2023, 14:14

Acrux wrote: ↑November 19th, 2023, 00:27
The board are morons who don't know what they are doing and/or don't have the stomach for the political backlash a major disruption like this makes. They've already asked Altman back.

Acrux wrote: ↑November 18th, 2023, 23:36
https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/18/239 ... urn-as-ceo

You left out the best part, the condition Altman asked for, which the board agreed to (and then waffled on), was for the board to resign.

Lutte · Post by **Lutte** » November 20th, 2023, 20:32

Microsoft is gobbling up OpenAI:

>And we’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team

The remaining employees of OpenAI are all saying they want to quit over this :
https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/ne ... 2023-11-20
>Hours after it was confirmed that Sam Altman, the fired OpenAI CEO, will not be joining the company back, tens of employees — including Mira Murati — are tweeting: “OpenAI is nothing without its people”. It is expected that they will also resign.

That level of shooting yourself in the foot, man.

Also makes one wonder why Microsoft spent so much money to partner with OpenAI when they could just have poached the important people like they're doing now.

Decline · Post by **Decline** » November 20th, 2023, 20:42

Lutte wrote: ↑November 20th, 2023, 20:32
Also makes one wonder why Microsoft spent so much money to partner with OpenAI when they could just have poached the important people like they're doing now.

Maybe they realized just that.

CrazedGoblin · Post by **CrazedGoblin** » November 20th, 2023, 22:25

Decline wrote: ↑November 18th, 2023, 02:21
Was he too woke or not woke enough, is the question.

He is a gay Jew really I'm not FUCKIN' joking here .

J1M · Post by **J1M** » November 20th, 2023, 23:13

We need profiles of these board members.

Shillitron · Post by **Shillitron** » November 21st, 2023, 03:44

I wanna know who's responsible for OpenAI becoming a closed source for-profit entity.

I always thought Sam was a huge part of that bait and switch. If it was the board then great. Shit can them and publish your weights.

J1M · Post by **J1M** » November 21st, 2023, 05:04

This is hilarious. The board only had 6 people and two of them (CEO, VP) were voted out of the board. Of those other people, only Ilya Sutskever actually works at the company.

So basically Ilya convinces the CEO of Quora.com and two women with cushy research jobs to implode the venture by kicking out the cofounders who aren't him.

Lutte · Post by **Lutte** » November 21st, 2023, 11:02

Shillitron wrote: ↑November 21st, 2023, 03:44
I wanna know who's responsible for OpenAI becoming a closed source for-profit entity.

I always thought Sam was a huge part of that bait and switch. If it was the board then great. Shit can them and publish your weights.

OpenAI is a misnomer. None of them want AI to be open despite the name. The people who ousted Sam Altman didn't want commercialization but they have no intention to release weights either.

All of OpenAI was founded by AI doomers and they do not think the plebes should have access to AI before it was thoroughly studied and chained down.

gerey · Post by **gerey** » November 21st, 2023, 12:16

Too bad they did the worst possible thing in order to achieve that goal by crippling their own product at this crucial stage.

Instead of trying to tie down as much of the market share as they could when they were so ahead of the competition, all they've done is shake confidence in their company and cause talent to flee.

With Elon Musk poised to launch his own product, and the wealth to throw resources at it to help it catch up, they couldn't have picked a worst time to behave like libtards.

SoLong · Post by **SoLong** » November 21st, 2023, 12:36

Shillitron wrote: ↑November 21st, 2023, 03:44
I wanna know who's responsible for OpenAI becoming a closed source for-profit entity.

I always thought Sam was a huge part of that bait and switch. If it was the board then great. Shit can them and publish your weights.

OpenAI accepted a significant amount of investment when they started up. Amazon Web Services was basically one of the founders! Investors want returns on their money so the whole non-profit idea was a smokescreen from the very beginning, visible for anyone paying attention to where the money came from.

Also they're a bunch of doomers. They don't actually want to use AI to improve anything because they believe in its potential. They want to make sure it's completely lobotomized so no double plus ungood ideas can come from an AI.

Havitner · Post by **Havitner** » November 21st, 2023, 13:32

The lunatic anti-AI cult on one side and the equally insane pro-AI cult on the other side and me in the middle just wanting to generate anime tiddies (big, heaving).