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It feels weird to be defending Altman, but those of us who go hard on the legitimately serious shit are held to a high standard on being fair and while multiple sources have independently corroborated e.g. the plainly unethical and dubiously legal NDA shit Vox just reported on, his links to this incident seem thinly substantiated.

I’m not writing the guy a pass, he’s already been fired for what amount to ethics breaches in the last 12 months alone. Bad actor any way you look at it.

But I spent enough time in BigCo land to know stuff like this happens without the CEO’s signature.

I’d say focus on the stuff with clear documentary evidence and or credible first-hand evidence, there’s no shortage of that.

I get the sense this is part of an ambient backlash now that the damn is clearly breaking.

Of all the people who stand to be harmed by that leadership team, I think Ms. Johansson (of who I am a fan) is more than capable of seeing her rights and privileges defended without any help from this community.

>>benree+(OP)
You’re allegedly “not writing the guy a pass” but then you go on to do so anyways. If Johansson isn't lying and Altman did personally reach out to her, I really don’t see how you can even attempt to argue this is some middle manager gunning for a promotion. In the same way you’re complaining that she needs no help from the community in defending herself, Altman needs no help from you reaching this hard. Like how can you not see that hypocrisy?

>>benree+(OP)
If this isn't the thing that makes your blood boil, that's fine. The world could probably do with less boiling blood, and it is still early, more evidence may come out. However, she indicated in her statement that Altman asked her, not OpenAI. It seems credible that he would want to be involved.

Both sides of the story feel like we're slowly being brought to a boil: Sutskever's leaving feels like it was just a matter of time. His leaving causing a mess seems predictable. Perhaps I am numb to that story.

But stealing a large part of someone's identity after being explicitly told not to? This one act is not the end of the world, but feels like an acceleration down a path that I would rather avoid.

>>benree+(OP)
There’s more evidence of Altman being personally involved in this incident than in him being personally involved in the OpenAI exit agreement, and he has denied the latter. I’m not sure I believe his denial in the latter case.

Having an NDA in exit terms you don’t get to see until you are leaving that claim ability to claw back your vested equity if you don’t agree seems more severely unethical, to be sure. But that doesn’t mean there’s more reason to blame it on Altman specifically. Or perhaps you take the stance that it reflects on OpenAI and their ethics whether or not Altman was personally involved, but then the same applies to the voice situation.

>>benree+(OP)
Scarlet Johansson literally mentioned that Sam personally reached out to her team.

The CTO was on stage presenting the thing and the CEO was tweeting about it.

Please explain for us which part of this is happening without the CEO's signature.

Of everyone who has been harmed and had their work stolen or copyright infringed by Sam's team, Scarlett Johansson is the one person (so far) who can actually force the issue and a change, and so the community is right to rally behind her because if they're so brazen about this, it paints a very clear picture of the disdain they hold the rest of us in.

>>benree+(OP)
I retract my remarks trying to give the benefit of the doubt on this, it’s now covered thoroughly by the credible mainstream press and I apologize to both the siblings and Ms. Johansson for being skeptical.

There is value in OpenAI, there are (a steadily shrinking number of) ethical pros there guilty of nothing worse than wanting to make a good living. Groups including but not limited to the voice group have done excellent, socially positive work.

But the leadership team is a menace (as I’ve been saying for years) and it’s just time for a clean sweep at the senior leadership level.

I’ve been such a vocal critic for so long that I’m always looking for an opportunity to present a balanced view whenever there’s a reasonable doubt.

Wrong again, me.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/opena...