https://www.reuters.com/technology/openai-ceo-sam-altman-step-down-2023-11-17/
Sam is out, what happened?
“ChatGPT, should we fire Sam Altman”?
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The plot thickens. Altman to Microsoft, Shear (of Twitch fame) to OpenAI. Philosophically, Shear believes in going slower and having AI be more altruistic, Altman and Microsoft want to make money. But Shear says that Altman totally wasn’t fired over AI safety concerns. Definitely not.
I have been having trouble following this story because it seems to change by the hour.
I am sure a movie will be in the works because this all sounds like a boardroom soap opera.
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Remarkably, the letter’s signees include Ilya Sutskever, the company’s chief scientist and a member of its board, who has been blamed for coordinating the boardroom coup against Altman in the first place.
wut
He is gone.
MS pulled a fast one and hired him to run a new AI division.
Huge coup for Nadella.
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… and MS ended up with control of both sides.
This was some costly nerd drama.
Have seen a few “theories” floating around that have piqued my interest.
MS could not absorb OpenAI (pre-issues) due to competition rules (regulatory ones).
So effectively, could this have been a backdoor way of “buying up” OpenAI without any regulatory blowback?
I am not super familiar with the rules in the US regarding mergers of this type so no idea if that “theory” holds.
I agree, this seems to be a sort of acquisition without having to pay anything, as MSFT can basically just hire all the OpenAI employees 
Also, I know only a bit about Effective Altruism thanks to reading Lewis’ book about Sam Bankman-Fried, but these guys are full of it. Started out trying to help people, then decide it’s more correct to help the infinite future people than the currently living ones.
That would be my goal if I was Nadella.
What really makes it a sad story is in the last year or so you could really see OpenAI pulling away from the pack. Now all that lead is being squandered on boardroom drama. This is drama from just 6 people.
This is like the nerd version of new coke
Seriously getting a case of whiplash at this point.
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A number of seasons of succession in a few days.
I find the whole “guardians of AI” thing to be stupidly pretentious and this whole drama shows that even these people aren’t immune to being dumb.
Seems like maybe a bad idea to tell the news the name of your world ending algorithm.