this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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[–] ribboo@lemm.ee 326 points 11 months ago (10 children)

It’s rather interesting here that the board, consisting of a fairly strong scientific presence, and not so much a commercial one, is getting such hate.

People are quick to jump on for profit companies that do everything in their power to earn a buck. Well, here you have a company that fires their CEO for going too much in the direction of earning money.

Yet every one is all up in arms over it. We can’t have the cake and eat it folks.

[–] TurtleJoe@lemmy.world 103 points 11 months ago (3 children)

It's my opinion that every single person in the upper levels is this organization is a maniac. They are all a bunch of so-called "rationalist" tech-right AnCaps that justify their immense incomes through the lens of Effective Altruism, the same ideology that Sam Bankman-fried used to justify his theft of billions from his customers.

Anybody with the urge to pick a "side" here ought to think about taking a step back and reconsider; they are all bad people.

[–] LeroyJenkins@lemmy.world 37 points 11 months ago

even outside the upper tiers, high paid tech workers do mental gymnastics to rationalize the shittiness they do via their companies while calling themselves liberal. motherfuckers will union bust for their company for a larger TC next year then go on LinkedIn or Facebook and spin it like "I successfully destroyed a small town's economy, killed a union forming in the division I manage, and absolutely threw my coworkers under the bus this year. My poor father swept countless floors until his hands bled so I can be here today and that's why I support the small working man and will never forget where I came from #boss"

[–] darth_helmet@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago

Yep these fucks are all doom cultists, and I bet more than a few of them are nonironically Roko’s simps

[–] rookie@lemmy.world 58 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Well, here you have a company that fires their CEO for going too much in the direction of earning money.

Yeah, honestly, that's music to my ears. Imagine a world where organizations weren't in the business of pursuing capital at any cost.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 11 months ago

I think what a lot of people object to is the speed and level of complete disorganization that this was done with. Why did Microsoft only get a 60 second warning.

[–] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 56 points 11 months ago

Sounds like the workers all want to end up with highly valued stocks when it goes IPO. Which is, and I'm just guessing here, the only reason anyone is doing AI right now.

[–] justawittyusername@lemmy.world 32 points 11 months ago

I immediately thought that the board was bad, then read the context…

so are the employees backing Altman because it means more money for the company/them? Or is there another reason?

[–] archomrade@midwest.social 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Well, here you have a company that fires their CEO for going too much in the direction of earning money.

I think this is very much in question by the people who are up in arms

[–] ribboo@lemm.ee 37 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Altman went to Microsoft within 48 hours, does anything else really need to be said? Add to that, the fact that basically every news outlet has reported - with difference sources - that he was pushing in exactly in that way. There’s very little to support the fact that reality is different.

[–] foofy@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

The board has given no real reasoning for why they fired him. Until they do, there's no reason anyone should consider this anything other than an internal power struggle that resulted in a coup.

And Sam didn't have a job anymore. Why shouldn't he go work for Microsoft? He was pushed out of OpenAI, is he contractually bound to never do something different?

[–] archomrade@midwest.social 4 points 11 months ago

I'm not the one contesting it, but there's a strong contingent of people who believe Altman's interest is in developing AGI and little else. To them, him taking that position could be explained him positioning himself to affect broader influence.

That's not my personal interpretation, but it is at least a little surprising that the rift is between him and his BOD. Presumably they would all have the same financial incentive to monetize their project, not just Altman.

Personally, I think people being quick to draw any conclusion from this are putting the cart before the horse. It's not clear to me at all what the competing interests are, if it's not just completely political posturing to begin with.

[–] obinice@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

Is that actually the case? I've not seen any actual information yet about what happened or why they did what they did.

If they've actually stated that the guy was fired because the company was going too far down the focus on money making route, that would be huge news I'd be really interested in hearing.

[–] Rooskie91@discuss.online 7 points 11 months ago

I'm sure some amount of the negative press is propaganda from corporations who would like to profit from using AI and are prevented from doing so by OpenAI's model some how.

[–] knotthatone@lemmy.one 5 points 11 months ago

What we have here, is a company that fired its CEO for vague and cryptic reasons and a whole lot of speculation on what the real issue was. These are their own words:

https://openai.com/blog/openai-announces-leadership-transition

I'm not trying to defend Altman or the altruism of Microsoft. Although I would like to understand why this firing happened and why it was done in such an abrupt and dramatic manner.

[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

Even if I agree with the decision that doesn't mean I agree with how the decision was carried out.

[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world -5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

From the outside, this story plays out like a bunch of snivelling family members of a lottery winner who plotted to steal all his money and throw him out, because he's "not candid".

The rest of the family, who also lived with the guy, clearly don't agree and are now demanding that the thieves turn themselves in.

I mean, sure they may even have real reasons to kick him out, but man did they fuck this one up...