zlacker

>>davidb+(OP)
Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google has this to say:

https://x.com/ericschmidt/status/1725625144519909648?s=20

Sam Altman is a hero of mine. He built a company from nothing to $90 Billion in value, and changed our collective world forever. I can't wait to see what he does next. I, and billions of people, will benefit from his future work- it's going to be simply incredible. Thank you @sama for all you have done for all of us.

Making such a statement before knowing what happened, or, maybe he does know what happened, make this seem it might not be as bad as we think?

>>gzer0+nk
It's possible for our heroes to fall from grace. There's nothing wrong with Eric saying this without knowing the full story.

>>spuz+6m
idk, it seems a lot smarter to me to keep one's mouth shut or express a general level of surprise without making a public endorsement until facts become clearer.

>>anigbr+mE
Why? If something bad comes out about Sam Altman, no one is going to criticise Eric Schmidt for not having foresight of it.

>>spuz+4N
Because getting fired like this (both so abruptly, and with the unusually frank statement from OpenAI) suggests some sort of ethical issue. There's plenty of amicable divorces in the business world where teams just diverge on vision, goals, or methods, but they're the sort of thing people generally see coming. This HN post has collected thousands of votes precisely because it's such an unusual and surprising development, so it seems to me there's at least a 50% probability that it is something bad.

I don't expect Eric Schmidt to have general foresight about Sam Altman, but as a former CEO himself he must understand its not a decision a board would make lightly.