OpenAI Message to Board

[xena]

I'm the mirrorer of that gist, how do you disable comments on a gist?

[minimaxir]

If you're wondering why the comments are a trainwreck, it's because Elon tweeted it: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1727096607752282485

[m_ke]

Some anonymous dissenting views I've come across from OpenAI employees:

- https://www.teamblind.com/post/OpenAI-employees-did-you-sign...

- https://www.reddit.com/user/Anxious_Bandicoot126

[reissbaker]

95+% of the company disagrees as made obvious by publicly signing with their own real names documents saying that they'll quit unless Sam returns. I don't see much evidence this "OpenAI" message actually represents the views of people at OpenAI; it may not have even been written by employees.

[m_ke]

See https://www.teamblind.com/post/OpenAI-employees-did-you-sign...

Not signing the letter might mean the company falls apart, and most of these employees have millions worth of shares that they were about to have an option to sell in a new funding round.

[dinvlad]

Well, that only shows that those 95% of folks are truly either religious fanatics or are just in it all for money [1]. No fucks given about moral principles.

(although there's or course a third possibility of them just being bright but too naive to STILL not see the sham that Sam has played for years and manipulated [2] them into believing it)

[1] https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/look-at-scientology-to-...

[2] https://twitter.com/geoffreyirving/status/172675427022402397...

[ignoramous]

Dirty laundry is dirty.

There's no way the current episode doesn't damage reputation of everyone involved. On the flip side, there's nothing more revealing about powerful people in just how they defend (or attack) other powerful people, while useful idiots scurry around.

We are those useful idiots.

[zepton]

Previous (flagged) discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38369570

[SushiHippie]

why are both posts now flagged?

[tiziano88]

permanent (and verifiable) mirror:

https://static.space/sha2-256:a53e64b47b45972c3086e0300a8bb0...

(including its digest in the URL -- even if the content is moved elsewhere, we can know for sure whether it was modified)

[reactordev]

I have issues with language like ”…As you have now witnessed what happens when you dare stand up to Sam Altman.”

This is worded like they are following a messiah and anything said after that is now tainted with worship speak. I get that they have concerns but this isn’t the way.

[oddevan]

I'm a little confused by your comment. The line in question isn't saying "Now you have angered our messiah," it's saying "Now you see what we've had to deal with for years; sucks, right?"

[chipgap98]

I don’t think an unnamed and unspecified group of employees should get to have a loud voice in this conversation.

This isn’t to say it’s not fair to criticize Sam and Greg but none of these sound like issues that would lead to them being fired.

[MicolashKyoka]

If they strongly believe in what they're saying, they should come forward. If you hide behind an pseudonym, credibility takes a big hit. It's not like we're under a dictatorship and they're going to disappear if they do so.

You have almost every single employee vouching for Sam, people outside the company vouching for him, an anon letter is paper thin as far credibility goes.

And ofc, any employee that got pushed out is going to have an axe to grind. Losing out on 900k+/year has to sting. At that compensation and in a startup, performance, disagreeing and comitting are key to the success of the venture. You should expect attrition to be high (though how did author of the letter get to 50%? who knows)

The board is hiding, one of which has a direct competitor to a recently launched product so obv. conflict of interest, the employees are calling bs, Ilya himself turned, etc. This is just stupid.

Some others have put this perfectly, given what has transpired so far, how do they expect to align an agi? You'd expect resignations based on that alone.

[mvdtnz]

Sounds like a bunch of complaining from the usual cadre of difficult employees we all wish would just be gotten rid of sooner. There's always a few.

[mannewalis]

Butthurt gonna butthurt.

[cdchn]

Gist gone.

[dang]

This is something it's natural for people to worry about, and even to assume, but (a) no we don't do that, (b) I've explained this hundreds of times over the last decade:

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

and (c) it's in the FAQ:

  Q: Are negative stories about YC suppressed on HN?

  A: No, we moderate less, not more, when YC or a YC startup is the topic. The good will of the community is worth more than any story.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

Btw, your question about story rank is also in the FAQ:

  Q: Why is A ranked below B even though A has more points and is newer?

  A: You can't derive rank from votes and time alone. See "How are stories ranked?" above.

Moderators haven't touched this post. All you've been seeing is just the regular tug of war between upvotes and flags, as handled by HN's software. No need for sinister speculation, other than for entertainment I suppose.

[upwardbound]

Right after I posted this comment, the story suspiciously jumped straight to spot #5 on the front page, skipping all the #10s and #20s that a story normally has to climb up to - like it was being artificially suppressed and then it immediately shot up when someone removed the suppression bool after seeing my comment. Then, my comment went up to 3 points, likely from real users upvoting it. Now, it is down to 1 point, possibly from manipulation, and I expect it to fall into negative points soon.

I have screenshots of every single step in this story's suppressed rise to the HN frontpage, and of my comment's scores over time. If YC is ever investigated for stock manipulation, journalists may contact me for access to these screenshots which may be valuable evidence.

[tallytarik]

It's currently #9 on the front page.

[upwardbound]

As of right now 3:29pm it's gone from the front page again!!!!!!