“Amongst the myriad of opinions, one voice stands out as a rational and impartial advocate: Gary Marcus.” —Candice Clark

Over 28,000 subscribers

As the OpenAI World Turns: 4 vital questions

Nov 19, 2023

Per The Verge, investors have asked the board to resign and want Sam Altman back in.

They may well get their way.

4 vital questions:

👉Will the nonprofit continue to exist?

👉What checks and balances will there be?

👉Where will this leave OpenAI with respect to safety?

👉Where will this leave humanity?

We pretty obviously don’t have a say.

Gary Marcus can’t wait for this all to settle down.

14 Comments

Nov 19Liked by Gary Marcus

Are folks talking about this scenario:

1) in the latest funding round Altman proposes majority control of OpenAI shifts from nonprofit to investors

2) board asks Altman who denies it

3) board investigates and gets proof - they have to act quickly before Altman signs away their ability to govern.

Maybe this is not what went down, but it would explain why it was sudden and why the board didn’t reach out to investors.

Expand full comment

OpenAI needs 2 crucial things.

1). Microsofts compute

2). The loyalty of the engineering team

The board have neither, and so they have no real power regardless of what any legal contracts might state.

Sam Altman recruited the team, and Ilya is finding out how real power works in the real world. The kind of dynamics that Putin understands so well.

Real power is not legal power, it’s command of resources.