It doesn’t seem to me like e/acc has contributed a whole lot to this beyond commentary. The rallying of OpenAI employees behind Altman is quite plausibly his general popularity + ability to gain control of a situation.
At least that seems likely if Paul Graham’s assessment of him as a master persuader is to be believed (and why wouldn’t it?).
I mean, the employees could be motivated by a more straightforward sense that the firing is arbitrary and threatens the functioning of OpenAI and thus their immediate livelihood. I’d be curious to understand how much of this is calculated self-interest and how much indeed personal loyalty to Sam Altman, which would make this incident very much a crossing of the Rubicon.
I do find it quite surprising that so many who work at OpenAI are so eager to follow Altman to Microsoft—I guess I assumed the folks at OpenAI valued not working for big tech (that’s more(?) likely to disregard safety) more than it appears they actually did.
My guess is they feel that Sam and Greg (and maybe even Ilya) will provide enough of a safety net (compared to a randomized Board overlord) but also a large dose of self-interest once it gains steam and you know many of your coworkers will leave
It doesn’t seem to me like e/acc has contributed a whole lot to this beyond commentary. The rallying of OpenAI employees behind Altman is quite plausibly his general popularity + ability to gain control of a situation.
At least that seems likely if Paul Graham’s assessment of him as a master persuader is to be believed (and why wouldn’t it?).
I mean, the employees could be motivated by a more straightforward sense that the firing is arbitrary and threatens the functioning of OpenAI and thus their immediate livelihood. I’d be curious to understand how much of this is calculated self-interest and how much indeed personal loyalty to Sam Altman, which would make this incident very much a crossing of the Rubicon.
I do find it quite surprising that so many who work at OpenAI are so eager to follow Altman to Microsoft—I guess I assumed the folks at OpenAI valued not working for big tech (that’s more(?) likely to disregard safety) more than it appears they actually did.
My guess is they feel that Sam and Greg (and maybe even Ilya) will provide enough of a safety net (compared to a randomized Board overlord) but also a large dose of self-interest once it gains steam and you know many of your coworkers will leave