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Comment by lotsofpulp | Hacker News Reader

What is wrong with what the board did? Looks like routine business to me.

The problem is that they tried to take down the king and missed. They didn't achieve their goals

Did they miss? Legally, the board majority controls both the non profit 501 and the ‘owned’ commercial for profit entity. Those 4 board members only lose if they resign, otherwise there is no way to get rid of them.

I must admit that my opinion/perspective has changed on this issue in the last 35 hours. I believe that when AGI is achieved it can help with serious societal, scientific, and environmental problems, so I am by nature ‘full speed ahead.’

However, I now think that the board performed its legal fiduciary responsibilities and acted correctly. I changed my mind late Friday night after reviewing the 501 charter. It is the board’s obligation to act.

I am also a big fan of Sam Altman and I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Have you seen heart storm that happened yesterday? There is no point in controlling legal entity if the talent, resources and leadership isn't there.

Support of the staff for Sam Altman is impressive and well deserved. But legally, the board does not have to cave in. I am really curious what will happen this week!

Who cares about legally? Legally theres no obligation for them to not collapse tommorow because everyone quits. Failure isn't illegal.

> Did they miss?

isn't the board pretty much hat-in-hand asking Sam to come back?

I don’t know. There is some spin that indicates that.

There's a lot of speculation that Sam Altman will return to OpenAI. There are publicly disgruntled employees and high level employees resigning. The executives of the company are reportedly meeting with the board about reinstating Sam Altman. I definitely don't think that's ideal for the board.

This story was obviously seeded someone in Altman's faction, or at least sympathetic to him. Their bluff got called at 5pm and nothing has been heard since except crickets.

Given the recent updates, yep they definitely missed lol. That's a lot of "openai is nothing without its people" tweets, including from the interim CEO...

Miss what? They retain full legal ownership and control.

You can try a case in the court of public opinion but they have no actual influence here.

The only question is what Microsoft will do and how the board will respond.

Full legal ownership of what? How many will jump ship by the end of next week if Sam isn't rehired? What are the prospects of them receiving next funding round? Have you considered how much more difficult attracting target would be? Yes, they have leading tech now, but will they be that much ahead in a foreseeable future, when B100, MI400 and TPUv6 come online by millions, and they wouldn't have enough money to afford that?

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