It’s been so incredibly depressing to see HN rally behind Altman and pretend he is some kind of god. Really giving me Elon vibes. Almost more depressing is the slavish devotion to profit above all else (implicitly or explicitly). People here talk as if it’s a forgone conclusion that the investors are in the right when it’s clear they only care for the money.
A lot of “rich people say it was a bad idea to fire him so it must be a bad idea”-type comments that turn my stomach a bit.
And through it all a minority, it seems, of people standing behind the board and the idea that pushing ahead as fast as possible or focusing solely on profits isn’t the right move. That’s especially galling given how many snide (correct but snide) comments I’ve seen over the months about how OpenAI isn’t “open”.
Sam Altman has issues, but you're misreading the entire situation because you got some details wrong. Investors can't be "in it for the money" when it's a not-for-profit. There's no mechanism for those investors to get money out.
Not a direct one. Sam Altman has been trying to get some other projects going, which OpenAI could make payments to, and this should be looked at.
However, OpenAI's revenue itself is not up for grabs. It'll go to OpenAI where it can be reinvested for developing AI projects. Which kind of is the point, and not something to fight.
People don't seem to understand "not-for-profit" doesn't mean "must-not-have-revenue". It makes no sense. How are you gonna pay your employees? Or the hardware they use? Or the data they need and especially processing it so it's suitable for a given model? Is any of this free? No.
I think you’re misreading the situation. Nobody thinks Sam’s a god. A lot of people now rely on OpenAI for parts of their livelihoods and would like a steady hand. The board’s actions don’t seem fit to govern an HOA, much less an important company.
> A lot of people now rely on OpenAI for parts of their livelihoods and would like a steady hand.
Well that, in a word, is foolish. How often does HN have to harp on “don’t build on someone else’s platform without knowing the risks”? OpenAI is not the only game in town nor does this change mean the existing products are going to change. If they built on someone else’s platform and bet the farm on future enhancements to make their businesses sustainable then they are all the more foolish. Also there is nothing at all to say things are going to drastically change for those building atop it, we know literally nothing at this point and people act as if the sky is falling.
> The board’s actions don’t seem fit to govern an HOA, much less an important company.
An opinion based in absolutely nothing. Honestly I can’t believe the number of people willing to jump down the board’s throats knowing absolutely nothing about the situation past rumor. Also just say what you really mean, the board _potentially_ got in the way of profit, the horror…
Even in this post, your anti Altman post is top rated.
Also I don't know for profit vs not for profit discussion came from? We don't know if Altman is for profit or the board is not for profit. If there is any source for this I would like to know.
And I am with you. Board shouldn't have backed down on this.
I have not done any kind of statistical analysis on the comments but I’ve been reading pretty much every thread here on HN and while there are anti-Altman comments I’ve just seen so many pro-Altman, “the board is full of Morons”, “MS is big mad”, etc comments that were depressing to read from a crowd of people I largely respect (not the individuals posting necessarily, but the community is a whole). That coupled with people willing to defend the for-profit motives as a bad reason for ousting Altman (which, yes they are just rumors) and the investors hawking them was sad to see.
But again why is it depressing to read pro Altman threads? Let the board defend themselves publically with their side of facts if they have any point. Every argument against Altman is just a rumour(would be happy to be proven wrong though), so yeah we should tread carefully.
Not to mention how people blame the board going "woke" whatever that term means and that the board is a diversity hire LOL
Also now that execs are being fired then people (including employees at other companies whom this doesn't affect even a single iota) are mad!!
Idk who formed the board of openai but if MSFT & G can layoff thousands despite esrning billions in revenue every quarter then the openai board also can fire the CEO if they think he is going against the charter.
What's more depressing is that people don't know that the non profit firm controls the for profit entity and they make things up to defend the fires CEO
It's all a weird thing. We can't have an opinion because we just don't know. We can just guess.
Something happened and Hn strayed away from contrarian thinking. Worse, it moved away from critical thinking. This obsession with one company and the cult of personality is burring the many legitimate ai and ml efforts made by genuine hackers.
A lot of “rich people say it was a bad idea to fire him so it must be a bad idea”-type comments that turn my stomach a bit.
And through it all a minority, it seems, of people standing behind the board and the idea that pushing ahead as fast as possible or focusing solely on profits isn’t the right move. That’s especially galling given how many snide (correct but snide) comments I’ve seen over the months about how OpenAI isn’t “open”.