OpenAI setup a multi-million deal to buy chips from Altman-backed company

[gwern]

This is a poor plagiarism of a much more detailed Wired article https://www.wired.com/story/openai-buy-ai-chips-startup-sam-... which is also much clearer than OP about what parts would raise concerns: Rain touting the Altman connection heavily despite its minimal results and apparent inability to convince anyone else to so much as write a letter of intent, and the highly unusual divestment orders suggesting some very unsavory connections, which get added to the big pile of other concerns about Altman. (See what _Time_ has reported today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38550240 )

[ChrisArchitect]

And heavily discussed then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38506660

[YPPH]

Do you have any evidence the article was plagiarised from the source, other than the fact they write about the same thing at about the same time? It's a pretty serious allegation.

[bithavoc]

The headline makes it sound like is not entirely ethical, and then I remember reading “Before OpenAI, Altman was asked to leave by his mentor [Paul Graham] at the prominent start-up incubator Y Combinator, part of a pattern of clashes that some attribute to his self-serving approach”[0]

[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/22/sam-alt...

[germandiago]

That said, who knows at this moment more about the topic than Altman?

I say because the headline can induce to a wrong feeling, but, if was not a company related or close to the latest developments of AI, who are more ready than them?

[gamblor956]

It seems the big takeaway tech executives took from WeWork wasn't that it was wrong but that that self-dealing is okay as long as you have enough leverage to get away with it.

It's pretty clear now this is the reason that Altman got fired in the first place.

[HarHarVeryFunny]

Maybe one of the reasons, but not clear to me it's the main or only one. Another potential reason is that he was attempting to individually manipulate board members into trying to support him in getting board member Helen Toner fired. There's also the rumor of the Q* advance which the board apparently heard of via some concerned employee(s), not from Altman.

Maybe there was some final straw that got the board to act, but could have been accumulated grievances about Altman not being candid with them.

[ithkuil]

Why didn't the board say that explicitly?

[bdcravens]

> Altman personally invested $1 million in the company

The company has taken $32.1M total

[lamroger]

Which round matters too

[pashadee]

The setup is a deal or they set something up? Please revise to "set up" if the char limit is OK

[gjvc]

Wouldn't change the meaning at all

[theGnuMe]

Hope the chips are good. They need as many gpus and specialized AI chips as they can get.

[kdwikzncba]

I mean, this guy who has a track record of conflicts of interest, was just shown that it's ok to exploit his conflicts of interest as long as others also get rich.