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Comment by ot | Hacker News Reader

But how would that benefit OpenAI? It would be a "fuck you" move that faintly inconveniences Microsoft and destroys OpenAI.

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> and destroys OpenAI

You mean destroy the rubble that's currently left in the offices of the company formerly known as OpenAI? If 500-750 key employees have departed to a competitor, what's left to protect?

Yeah, it would 80% be a "fuck you" move, but the other 20% would represent a pivot to an "open source" model like the name once implied

> the other 20% would represent a pivot to an "open source" model like the name once implied

Or they would be triggering a billion-dollar lawsuit that would surely bankrupt the company.

On what grounds exactly? They are still the owners

I don't have any insider knowledge that the linked post is true, but it seems plausible.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38349969

Even if there isn't anything explicit, there may be an implicit promise that a strategic partner won't share all the company secrets with the partner's competitors.

Not seeing they have anything to lose at this point.

Have 500-750 key employees departed? Or even threatened to depart? OpenAI has (well, had) 770 employees, you think Microsoft will lure away 70-97% of them?

It's literally the top article on the front page right now https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38347868

See also https://twitter.com/karaswisher/status/1726598360277356775 which was merged into that discussion above

Signing a petition is not the same as quitting, but that is something (and I hadn't seen it).

It would benefit OpenAI by suddenly actually being an open source project that everyone can contribute to and improve on. It'd be a win for OpenAI the project even if it means that individuals at OpenAI would lose potential personal wealth and power.

Presumably they still have billions of dollars of pledged compute remaining from Microsoft, opening up and letting open source contributors move the project forward is the best path forward. And doing this is the first step on that path.

Wouldn't Microsoft just cancel the credits (or bloxk usage) and let it go to the courts? Would take a long legal battle even if OpenAI did ultimately win it would probably be too late to matter.

That's even worse. Breaching the contract would presumably mean they would lose access to the GPT4 IP. That would set Microsoft back months in the race. Unthinkable.

If they already have the IP, what access do they have to lose?

They don't own the IP. They are licensed the IP by OpenAI.

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