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
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