by iamthirsty on 6/3/24, 7:33 PM with 118 comments
by vasco on 6/3/24, 10:03 PM
> “A growing number of Altman’s startups do business with OpenAI itself, either as customers or major business partners. The arrangement puts Altman on both sides of deals, creating a mounting list of potential conflicts in which he could personally benefit from OpenAI’s work.”
If nothing else this idea that a person that is positioned to lead such a company is willing to do it for just $65k for altruistic reasons, backfired. Clearly the person has many incentives to go find profits somewhere else.
edit: added second quote to clarify
by iamthirsty on 6/3/24, 10:42 PM
The post is not a “hit-piece” on Sam, nor am I calling him a bad person or anything of the like.
It’s a discussion of the direct contradiction between publicly stating someone is without financial biases and the hard facts of clear financial entanglements.
I’m happy to hear any criticism on how I could’ve written it better to explain my position! :)
by stephc_int13 on 6/3/24, 10:05 PM
Like the other Sam, his bank account has not been inflating by accident, and him insisting that he is not that much interested by money should be taken, at least, with a reasonably sized pinch of salt.
by shamino on 6/3/24, 9:55 PM
Can we believe that Sam could actually be a good person? Today, Kara Swisher in her podcast on Pivot said, "Every time I tell people I actually like Sam, they become widely offended".
by ajross on 6/3/24, 10:07 PM
by ricardobeat on 6/3/24, 9:58 PM
by danielmarkbruce on 6/3/24, 10:14 PM
Having conflicts doesn't make someone bad.
by philwelch on 6/3/24, 11:47 PM
The emphasized phrase doesn’t make sense. At the time, Altman was YCombinator leadership. Graham had retired to England by then; it’s hardly unusual or surprising that he wasn’t keeping track of every single YC investment.
by gizmo on 6/3/24, 10:01 PM
by ml-anon on 6/3/24, 10:26 PM
Trying to hand wave away a 10M stake in OpenAI taken when they were valued at <1Bn and then trying to weasel out by saying profit is capped. Why yes it is Paul, at 100x initially with the cap raising by 20% a year. And then trying to claim that the PPUs aren’t liquid despite regular liquidity events being the entire reason we know OpenAIs current valuation.
Didn’t think I’d see the founder of YC try the “I’m a moron who doesn’t understand how investments work” defense.
by SkyMarshal on 6/4/24, 12:59 AM
Helion is a fusion startup, not fission. That's what makes it particularly interesting. Getting a simple but obvious detail like that wrong is odd.
by Havoc on 6/4/24, 12:05 AM
He’s allowed to make money. Musk bezo etc all did and nobody whined
There is plenty to attack him on legitimately…yet people seem obsessed with this angle
by stephc_int13 on 6/3/24, 9:54 PM
by eigenvalue on 6/3/24, 10:13 PM
Ultimately, I ask myself, is my life better because Sam was born and did what he did? And the answer is 1,000 times "yes!" because the introduction of ChatGPT changed so much and enabled so much creation and learning for me personally. And I have a strong suspicion that if the Helen Toners of the world had their way, it never would have been released at all. And without all that money and prestige floating around OpenAI, I doubt they would have been able to create such a dream team that allowed the thing to happen in the first place. And I think all of that comes down at least in large part to Sam's vision and scrappiness and willingness to just do stuff and not get stuck in institutional morass.