The initial naive blunder was putting Sam Altman in CEO position to begin with. It seems like it was predictable-in-advance (from e. g. Paul Graham’s comments from years and years ago) that he’s not the sort of person to accept being fired, rather than mounting a realpolitik-based counteroffensive, and that he would be really good at the counteroffensive. Deciding to hire him essentially predestined everything that just happened; it was inviting the fox into the henhouse. OpenAI governance controls might have worked if the person subjected to them was not specifically the sort of person Sam is.
How was the decision to hire him made, and under what circumstances?
What needs to happen for this sort of mistake not to be repeated?
The initial naive blunder was putting Sam Altman in CEO position to begin with. It seems like it was predictable-in-advance (from e. g. Paul Graham’s comments from years and years ago) that he’s not the sort of person to accept being fired, rather than mounting a realpolitik-based counteroffensive, and that he would be really good at the counteroffensive. Deciding to hire him essentially predestined everything that just happened; it was inviting the fox into the henhouse. OpenAI governance controls might have worked if the person subjected to them was not specifically the sort of person Sam is.
How was the decision to hire him made, and under what circumstances?
What needs to happen for this sort of mistake not to be repeated?