Microsoft Hires Sam Altman Hours After OpenAI Rejects His Return (www.nytimes.com)
from L4s@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 16:00
https://lemmy.world/post/8523172

Microsoft Hires Sam Altman Hours After OpenAI Rejects His Return::The announcement capped a tumultuous weekend for OpenAI, after Mr. Altman made a push to reclaim his job as C.E.O. of the artificial intelligence company.

#technology

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autotldr@lemmings.world on 20 Nov 2023 16:00 next collapse

This is the best summary I could come up with:


The board of directors of OpenAI, the high-flying artificial intelligence start-up, said in a note to employees on Sunday night that its former chief, Sam Altman, would not be returning to his job, while naming his second interim replacement in two days.

The board said Mr. Shear has a “unique mix of skills, expertise and relationships that will drive OpenAI forward,” according to the memo viewed by The New York Times.

Microsoft, which has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI, only learned of Mr. Altman’s exit one minute before it was announced, while other investors discovered that he had been forced out via social media.

“The board firmly stands by its decision as the only path to advance and defend the mission of OpenAI,” said the memo on Sunday, referring to Mr. Altman’s removal from the company on Friday.

Since OpenAI released its hit ChatGPT chatbot almost a year ago, artificial intelligence has captured the public’s imagination, with hopes that it could be used for important work like drug research or to help teach children.

On Monday, as OpenAI employees signed the letter saying they might leave to join Mr. Altman’s new project at Microsoft, one name stood out: Mr. Sutskever.


The original article contains 1,262 words, the summary contains 202 words. Saved 84%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

sour@feddit.de on 20 Nov 2023 17:07 collapse

Even autotldr uses cliffhangers now, damn.

singularity@lemmy.ml on 20 Nov 2023 16:18 next collapse

And 500 more OpenAI employees might follow: neowin.net/…/over-half-of-openais-employees-may-q…

drmoose@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 16:24 next collapse

I really don’t get the employee position. They want to work at Microsoft? Literally the opposite of everything _open_ai claimed to stand for?

What a joke this whole “non-profit” owning “for-profit” structure turned out to be. For profit structure is like a virus and we see again and again it doesn’t integrate with other systems.

hamsterkill@lemmy.sdf.org on 20 Nov 2023 16:32 next collapse

Altman and Brockman were the founding leadership of the company/organization and many of these employees are “rockstar” researchers. They wanted to be a part of what they were leading — so it makes sense they still would even if it’s under Microsoft.

Eheran@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 16:49 next collapse

Microsoft is not the pile of shit it used to be. See the past 10 years

southsamurai@sh.itjust.works on 20 Nov 2023 16:52 next collapse

Do you mean internally? Because in terms of doing exactly what the worst possible thing is for people, they’re a giant, steaming, fly ridden pile of shit

Eheran@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 17:03 collapse

Go ahead and explain how they are so incredibly terrible.

Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com on 20 Nov 2023 17:30 collapse

theverge.com/…/microsoft-ethics-society-team-resp…

I mean… Here’s a start that’s not even off the main topic yet.

But I mean… Have you looked at your windows install lately? Open some things and count how many ads or applications are there that you didn’t install. Remember that Windows is paid software… And it isn’t cheap either.

The EU is making laws to force Microsoft to stop being user hostile FFS… This is brand new news this month… Are you a fanboy or something?

I mean shit… Wikipedia has an article on this specific topic too. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft

TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 16:52 next collapse

Their products sure don’t seem to be anything other than steaming piles of shit. Seems like a distinction without a difference.

weedwhacking@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 17:11 next collapse

In what way? Their product lineup is the worst it’s ever been expect maybe xbox, especially software like windows and office. Even Xbox is loosing to Sony and Nintendo despite being a decent product.

In the windows 98-7 era I was die hard. It was a pretty good OS. By modern standards, it’s just awful. Mac and Linux for me.

Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com on 20 Nov 2023 17:34 next collapse

I run Linux basically everywhere as a sysadmin, I’m comfortable on linux… But my main desktop was always Windows (Games mainly). About every year I try to main Linux… and usually get by a few weeks or maybe a month before I cave. This year… I’ve swapped over and it’s been a long time. I think that windows got so bad at this point that I no longer find the “downfalls” or negatives of linux as worse anymore…

weedwhacking@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 17:51 next collapse

I was in the same boat as you, ended up deciding to give up the mouse and keyboard and went all in on console gaming to give up my PC. So glad I did

Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com on 20 Nov 2023 19:10 next collapse

I dunno proton has been really good for me. Only game I don’t have installed is Siege and CoD… Baldur’s gate and all the other ones I had installed prior seem to run just fine now.

console gaming

Sorry, but I can’t. The 7950x3d, and 7900xtx just make games so pretty.

YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 21:29 collapse

That’s why I love my steam deck. Can play any of my PC libraries (Steam, Epic, emulation, etc) with additional games at great prices more often than not. Touchpads are really nice too.

ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml on 21 Nov 2023 15:54 collapse

Plus Linux gaming is really catching up to Windows, especially if you aren’t huge into competitive multiplayer games with invasive system-level anticheats.

Seraphin@pawb.social on 20 Nov 2023 18:28 collapse

Even Xbox is loosing to Sony and Nintendo despite being a decent product.

Xbox and Windows are both by Microsoft but they can’t even get that right.

I got a free trial for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate that I’ve been using to play Starfield and a handful of other games on PC. But half the time I go to play it I either get a license error, which usually needs a full PC restart and signing in and out a few times to fix, or it constantly has to sync with the cloud. I can save my game, close it, not even switch off or restart my PC or even close the Xbox app, and later on when I go to play again it has to slowly synchronise my cloud save again. Why?! And if I want to make sure my save can be used on another device, I have to keep the app open for at least 10-15 mins after exiting the game so that the save can sloooowly upload to the cloud. I can upload things to YouTube, Google Drive, etc at 15+ Mbps but Xbox gaming services chugs along at 0.5 Mbps max. It’s infuriating.

Honestly, game pass is a pretty good value proposition (lack of game ownership aside), but with the issues I’ve been having I won’t be keeping it after my free time expires. If Steam has been able to handle license verification and cloud saves for years without problems, why can’t Microsoft get this shit right? /rant

Sorry, I really needed to vent about this.

ABCDE@lemmy.world on 21 Nov 2023 01:01 collapse

They keep bothering me about feedback, and that my trial is going to end in X amount of days. Like… Yes? I know… stop bothering me about it.

li10@feddit.uk on 20 Nov 2023 17:47 collapse

How so?

Is it a new, revamped pile of shit?

knotthatone@lemmy.one on 20 Nov 2023 18:19 next collapse

If OpenAI doesn’t have stable, rational and deliberative leadership, none of what they claim to stand for matters. The board did an end-run around the chair and summarily fired Altman Friday afternoon without consulting with any other stakeholders beforehand. They still haven’t offered a coherent explanation for why they did what they did.

drmoose@lemmy.world on 21 Nov 2023 03:59 collapse

There’s no “other stakeholders” tho. It’s a non profit board with a profit capped company that they control. The whole goal of the structure was to resist monetary capture and yet here we are

Augustiner@lemmy.world on 21 Nov 2023 09:52 collapse

A stakeholder is something different than a stockholder. A stakeholder could be an employee, investor, customer, someone selling equipment to them or even the community they work in.

Basically anyone who’s affected by their actions.

crystal@feddit.de on 21 Nov 2023 12:36 collapse

What makes you assume the employees ever cared about whether OpenAI is non-profit or not?

[deleted] on 20 Nov 2023 17:42 collapse

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reddig33@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 16:48 next collapse

Does OpenAI own the related intellectual property? Is there a non compete contract that he signed? This could be interesting.

hamsterkill@lemmy.sdf.org on 20 Nov 2023 17:19 next collapse

Non-competes aren’t a thing in California. OpenAI obviously own the IP, but that doesn’t mean an investor like MS wouldn’t have enough rights to effectively take it and build from it.

ABCDE@lemmy.world on 21 Nov 2023 01:02 collapse

They got rid of him.

KinNectar@kbin.run on 20 Nov 2023 17:20 next collapse

This is devolving into the worst way this could have gone. If he had spun of a new startup at least it would have provided real competition to GPT, building out in-house Microsoft models when they already have OpenAI license is ick.

AlmightySnoo@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 18:23 next collapse

So Microsoft has no issues with Sam Altman being a rapist?

themarysue.com/annie-altmans-abuse-allegations-ag…

CryptidBestiary@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 18:33 next collapse

Are you really surprised by what corporations will do in the pursuit of profit?

bassomitron@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 18:47 next collapse

Eh? So far the only allegation is from his little sister who has provided zero evidence. She also mentions in her interview with Weil how she has gotten angry at her brother over money on more than one occasion… I don’t know, I don’t want to completely dismiss her out of hand, but to just blindly hop on the train of him being a bonefide rapist is also wreckless. He’s also quite openly gay… So him raping his little sister doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but who knows.

I think I’ll let people qualified to get to the bottom of these allegations sort it out, given the very “he said/she said” nature of it.

AlmightySnoo@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 19:30 collapse

She still deserves all of our attention and her voice needs to be heard. She struggles for survival and probably can’t even afford good lawyers to sue him.

He’s also quite openly gay… So him raping his little sister doesn’t make a whole lot of sense

Sexual orientation or even desire are quite irrelevant, as that would apply to pedophiles too otherwise.

She also mentions in her interview with Weil how she has gotten angry at her brother over money on more than one occasion

How could she not be with how she was, according to her, pushed into sex work? Having one of your siblings resort to sex work for survival while your own net worth is more than half a billion dollars definitely means you’re the bad guy no matter whose version is correct and no matter how you look at it.

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/64169491-dd7c-4c3d-8999-22fdd5fb491d.png"> <img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/3af87669-eddc-4e1c-9d28-af745510f5db.png"> <img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/0f715a7a-85a5-438f-b88f-666d1975df30.png"> <img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/a508908f-8188-4306-9f8d-a14e0e6ead9d.png"> <img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e3462fdf-1228-482f-a7ac-37f48feb6749.png">

Traister101@lemmy.today on 20 Nov 2023 19:37 next collapse

Sheesh they didn’t completely shut down the possibility. They just said they think it’s unlikely, and I agree with them. Whenever I’ve seen people suddenly jump out like this to make extreme claims it’s been somewhat sketchy at best.

ExLisper@linux.community on 20 Nov 2023 20:13 next collapse

She looks like a very troubled person. I definitely wouldn’t deny someone a job only because of her allegations.

bassomitron@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 20:38 next collapse

Look, I’m not saying she doesn’t deserve to be heard. I stated as much in my first comment. But it’s literally just her word versus his at this point. She even says her other siblings abused her, so do her other siblings deserve to be fired from their jobs just because she claims they abused her?

Bring proof or don’t bother grabbing your pitchfork and leave it up to expert investigators to get to the bottom of the matter. Much of the internet is way too eager to start a witch-hunt simply because it fits in with their biases.

ABCDE@lemmy.world on 21 Nov 2023 01:06 collapse

He doesn’t owe her anything, but even looking at those images it says he offered to help.

Lmaydev@programming.dev on 20 Nov 2023 19:07 next collapse

Unfortunately those claims are not backed up by anything. You can’t really state them as fact like that.

ABCDE@lemmy.world on 21 Nov 2023 01:07 next collapse

Such a statement is not confirmed, so why have you stated it like that?

palal@lemmy.ml on 21 Nov 2023 01:27 collapse

Those statements are very rarely confirmed tbh

AlmightySnoo@lemmy.world on 21 Nov 2023 01:38 collapse

Your “rarely” seems to be contradicted by the statistics:

When methodologically rigorous research is conducted based on this definition, estimates for the percentage of false reports converge around 2-8%.

  • For example, Dr. David Lisak and colleagues analyzed sexual assaults reported to a major Northeastern university over a 10-year period to determine the rate of false reporting. Of the 136 reports taken during that period of time, 8 reports, or 5.9% were found to be false (Lisak, Gardinier, Nicksa, & Cote, 2010).

  • In a study of sexual assault cases reported to the Los Angeles Police Department in 2008, researchers found that rate of false reports was 4.5% (Spohn, White, & Tellis, 2014).

  • In a multi-site study of 8 US communities involved in the “Making a Difference” (MAD) Project conducted by EVAWI, data were collected by law enforcement agencies for all sexual assault reports received in an 18-24 month period. Of the 2,059 cases that were included in the study, 140 (7%) were classified as false.

  • Statistics even appear to converge internationally. In an analysis of 2,643 sexual assault cases reported to British police, 8% were classified by the police department as false reports. Yet when researchers applied the official criteria for establishing a false allegation, this figure dropped to 2%. These criteria specified that there must be either “a clear and credible admission by the complainant” or “strong evidential grounds” (Kelly, Lovett, & Regan, 2005).

Source: evawintl.org/…/false-reports-percentage/

So if anything, instead of trying to discredit her or mob-downvote every comment mentioning her story to bury her voice, you might probably want to reweight the odds and start to consider the fact that it’s highly likely she’s not lying.

blahsay@lemmy.world on 21 Nov 2023 02:01 collapse

All important stats. Keep in mind though that this isn’t a typical case. I imagine that in cases where the accused has mountains of money or third parties have a reason to discredit them that the % of false claims would go from 5%(ish) to far higher.

gmtom@lemmy.world on 21 Nov 2023 11:45 collapse

Not taking unsubstantiated claims from someone with a grudge seriously especially when they are pushed by an anime pfp with an Israeli flag.

kyle@lemm.ee on 20 Nov 2023 19:35 next collapse

I had read that Altman was “ambivalent” to re-joining OpenAI and the board wanted him back after regretting their decision? (presumably after the backlash)

[deleted] on 20 Nov 2023 19:59 collapse

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Tygr@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 21:33 next collapse

Well, I’m micro-protesting all of this craziness. Cancelled my renewal of CGPT4 next month. I don’t support the board, Sam going to Microsoft, and a majority of employees leaving to Microsoft.

Go use Microsoft’s version of CGPT4. You’ll see why.

crystal@feddit.de on 21 Nov 2023 12:38 collapse

Wasn’t he basically working for Microsoft already while being employed by OpenAI?

tsonfeir@lemm.ee on 21 Nov 2023 04:44 next collapse

Wonder how much MS paid the board.

ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml on 23 Nov 2023 00:41 collapse

I guess this didn’t age well.