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Notes -
I agree. The big takeaway from this weekend was that humanity as a species is in deep trouble because, when the chips are down, people will care more about money than principles.
I also think the criticism of the board is bizarre. They took their shot. They lost, ultimately because the employees didn't want to lose their huge salaries and bonuses. But what is power if you don't try to use it? This wasn't a strategic blunder, it was merely a board that never had any power in the first place.
Had they not taken action, they would have been swept aside anyway.
Perhaps their action will have some residual value in revealing previously hidden information. If anyone had any illusions about OpenAI before, they shouldn't now. We know what OpenAI is - a company that seeks power and money above all else. The news of research breakthroughs coming from OpenAI is deeply troubling.
The board badly fucked up their shot. I think they had a chance at persuading at least a fraction of OpenAI that sam did some things wrong, if indeed he had. A number of OpenAI employees care about AI safety, and some even expressed online that, initially after Altman's firing, they were open to the possibility that it was deserved. But when the board said nothing for days, even to the first and second interim CEOs, that left the employees with nothing to think about but concerns about their future income and whatever Sam told them.
They also could've spent the preceding months building up a case against sam, maybe picking a replacement CEO who the openai team would be amenable to, etc. But they didn't!
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