OpenAI News & Discussions

[spryfusion]

Sam and I are shocked and saddened by what the board did today.

Let us first say thank you to all the incredible people who we have worked with at OpenAI, our customers, our investors, and all of those who have been reaching out.

We too are still trying to figure out exactly what happened. Here is what we know:

- Last night, Sam got a text from Ilya asking to talk at noon Friday. Sam joined a Google Meet and the whole board, except Greg, was there. Ilya told Sam he was being fired and that the news was going out very soon.

- At 12:19pm, Greg got a text from Ilya asking for a quick call. At 12:23pm, Ilya sent a Google Meet link. Greg was told that he was being removed from the board (but was vital to the company and would retain his role) and that Sam had been fired. Around the same time, OpenAI published a blog post.

- As far as we know, the management team was made aware of this shortly after, other than Mira who found out the night prior.

The outpouring of support has been really nice; thank you, but please don’t spend any time being concerned. We will be fine. Greater things coming soon.

[waitingforthe2030s]

Just marking my place in the thread (and history) to say: absolutely crazy shit. Let's hope that at least some good comes out of this.

[wjfox]

[Powers]

OpenAI announces leadership transition

...

And we all know who won in the end.

They will move to X

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

‘Earthquake’ at ChatGPT developer as senior staff quit after sacking of boss Sam Altman

Sat 18 Nov 2023 18.16 GMT

The crisis at artificial intelligence firm OpenAI deepened this weekend amid a reported exodus of senior staff in the wake of boss Sam Altman’s mystery firing.

OpenAI, the company behind the ChatGPT bot, abruptly ousted Altman on Friday for allegedly misleading the board. In a statement, it said it had lost confidence in its 38-year-old co-founder after “a deliberative review process” concluded he had not been “consistently candid in his communications”, without specifying how.

Shortly afterwards, Greg Brockman, the company’s president, announced he had resigned. “Sam and I are shocked and saddened by what the board did today… We too are still trying to figure out exactly what happened,” he wrote on X.

The departures stunned the tech world and have sent rumours swirling, with some speculating that internal divisions over AI safety could be to blame. On Saturday evening, the reasons for the turmoil remained unclear, but the drama took another twist as three other senior staff members at OpenAI were reported to have left. The Information, a US tech publication, reported that Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI’s director of research, Aleksander Madry, head of a team evaluating potential risks from AI, and Szymon Sidor, a researcher, had told associates they had resigned.

None of the three could be contacted for comment on Saturday. OpenAI, which is now being led by interim CEO Mira Murati, also did not respond to requests for a comment.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... sam-altman

[waitingforthe2030s]

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/18/239 ... urn-as-ceo

They want Altman back in. What the hell is going on in there?

[Cyber_Rebel]

What the actual f*ck? I'm not even going to pretend like I know what is going on anymore. This is like watching a corpo themed Cyberpunk drama.

OpenAI Investors Plot Last-Minute Push With Microsoft To Reinstate Sam Altman As CEO
With the ousted OpenAI CEO actively discussing a new artificial intelligence venture, investors in his previous company are trying to bring him back using Microsoft and key employees as leverage.

(Forbes)

A day after OpenAI’s board of directors fired former CEO Sam Altman in a shock development, investors in the company are plotting how to restore him in what would amount to an even more surprising counter-coup.

Venture capital firms holding positions in OpenAI’s for-profit entity have discussed working with Microsoft and senior employees at the company to bring back Altman, even as he has signaled to some that he intends to launch a new startup, four sources told Forbes.

Whether the companies would be able to exert enough pressure to pull off such a move — and do it fast enough to keep Altman interested — is unclear.

The playbook, a source told Forbes would be straightforward: make OpenAI’s new management, under acting CEO Mira Murati and the remaining board, accept that their situation was untenable through a combination of mass revolt by senior researchers, withheld cloud computing credits from Microsoft, and a potential lawsuit from investors. Facing such a combination, the thinking is that management would have to accept Altman back, likely leading to the subsequent departure of those believed to have pushed for Altman’s removal, including cofounder Ilya Sutskever and board director Adam D’Angelo, the CEO of Quora.

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This wouldn't be a good move; Ilya is irreplaceable and would be more damaging to developing AGI than losing Altman would.

[firestar464]

The coup was only the beginning.

THE OPENAI CIVIL WAR HAS BEGUN

[Powers]

What the actual f*ck? I'm not even going to pretend like I know what is going on anymore. This is like watching a corpo themed Cyberpunk drama.

There will be a movie (or something similar) in the future about this.