5 ms·
How incredibly unsurprising. This is why it is pointless to make moral stands as employees when you do not ultimately have power over the companies decisions.
by caidan 7mo ago
How incredibly unsurprising. This is why it is pointless to make moral stands as employees when you do not ultimately have power over the companies decisions. The only power you have is to quit.
I wonder how many will do so, and how many will simply accept Sam’s AI written rationalization as this own and keep collecting their obscene pay packages…
- randlet 7mo ago> The only power you have is to quit. This is an incredible power when exercised en-masse.
- heliumtera 7mo agoI am sure openAI will struggle to find replacement for the lost headcount
- thundergolfer 7mo agoAt some point, yes, they absolutely would struggle.
- xvector 7mo agoTop researchers are more valuable than datacenters
- 1121redblackgo 7mo agoAnd behind the quitting decision is very little safety net and usually substantial financial obligations keeping people handcuffed. Something has to give. The power employees had during covid was the way it should be, or something more closely approximating that.
- wonnage 7mo agoIronically this ends up with Chinese H1Bs remaining loyal while Americans have to fall on their sword
- Buttons840 7mo agoFor now. We should change the immigration laws.
- solenoid0937 7mo agoI guarantee you that most OAI employees have well into the multiple millions at this point. There is no "financial safety net" they need to care about. That is just an excuse.
- derwiki 7mo agoHaven’t most been hired in the last year?
- gentleman11 7mo ago--and then, all the decent people no longer work there, and it's like certain other careers populated entirely with psychopaths
- xvector 7mo agoPsychopaths tend to be dumb (but not always), and the smartest researchers that actually care about getting humanity to AGI tend to be safety conscious. This has been a huge talent advertisement for Anthropic. Their recruiting just got easier for the next 6 months.
- randlet 7mo agoWouldn't staying feel like implicitly condoning the actions of the "psychopaths"?
- einpoklum 7mo ago> The only power you have is to quit. Employees often have the power to oust the owner and take over the company; and more often than that have the power to have business grind to a halt. It does take a strong union and a culture of solidarity and sticking together of course, which I doubt we would find in a place like OpenAI.
- dispersed 7mo agoIt's perhaps too late in this case, but this is what unions are for. Sam Altman + a handful of scabs can't keep the lights on at OpenAI if a critical mass of engineers refuse to work until this decision is reversed (or, even better, not made at all, since the union would be part of that process).
- layer8 7mo agoThe OpenAI employees had the power to have Sam Altman reinstated when he was ousted by the board two years ago.