OpenAI's board has fired Sam Altman

Abstraction: Hacker News thread on OpenAI board firing Altman

Key points:

• Nov 17, 2023 HN megathread reacting to OpenAI's board firing CEO Sam Altman; the server was under heavy load ("smoke coming out its ears").
• Greg Brockman (board chairman) said he and Altman had no warning; Altman was pulled into a noon video meeting Friday and immediately fired, then Brockman was told minutes later and removed as chairman.
• Reported cause: a cultural clash — Altman and Brockman focused on commercialization vs. Ilya Sutskever and allies focused on OpenAI's original non-profit mission.
• The non-profit board totally controls the for-profit; employees/investors sign an operating agreement stating the for-profit has no duty to generate profit, only to fulfill the charter.
• Wide-ranging comment debate on AI regulation, US-vs-China AI race, "utopian ideology," and whether LLMs had "hit a wall."

Connections: Openai · Sam Altman · Greg Brockman · Ilya Sutskever · AI Safety · Corporate Governance

Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38309611