- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.zip
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.zip
They considered it, consulted a lawyer, and then stopped considering it, because what the board did was stupid (INCREDIBLY stupid) but it wasn’t illegal.
From what I know of the US justice system something being illegal doesn’t really matter in civil court. It could probably be argued that the board didn’t do what was best for the investors, which is what they exist to do. Instead they potentially cost the investors millions of dollars.
It could probably be argued that the board didn’t do what was best for the investors, which is what they exist to do.
Incorrect. OpenAI LLC (the traded company) does not have a board of directors. The board of directors actually belong to the parent company, simply “OpenAI”, which is a nonprofit organization – the only thing that they’re beholden to is the OpenAI company charter.
Here’s a simplified breakdown:
Board of Directors =[controls]=> OpenAI (non-profit) =[controls]=> OpenAI LLC =[employs]=> OpenAI CEO
OpenAI LLC is obligated to act in the best financial interest of their shareholders, but OpenAI LLC does not actually have control over who sits in the CEO chair. That power goes to the non-profit “OpenAI” parent company – a company beholden to their board, not shareholders.
Aah! That’s more than I knew. Thanks for the lesson! Then it definitely makes sense that they wouldn’t have a case.
WOAH buddy. That’s the American Way™. Are you saying that ‘at-will’ employment is not a good thing??
At big companies there is genuinely a process and conditions that must be met for random(random like in RAM not random like a dice) firing.
I was wondering, too, what’s going to happen to the billions that M$ (and others) have sponsored.
It is serious money in the hands of - as we learned now - “incompetent and ill-meaning” board inmates.
I don’t get people who say things like this. The board in question isn’t part of the “for profit” part of OpenAI - they don’t have any obligations at all to make the company profitable or to protect the investors money. They’re the board of a non-profit who spun of a part of the company explicitly for the purpose of raising money without being accountable to investors.
Microsoft and all the other investors knew that before they gave them their money.
The board is very very stubborn because they apparently would rather see OpenAI shutdown rather than let Altman run it, but they’re not ill meaning. They’re following their corporate charter.
but they’re not ill meaning.
I don’t know that. I’ve been quoting from the letter from nearly all their employees that we all could read here.
How do you know better? :-)
If all goes well, Microsoft will essentially get all the brains from OpenAI for $0 while still maintaining their investment in OpenAI, which means when OpenAI folds Microsoft can probably grab all their data (source code, model weights, training data, etc).