Source: Zhuomo Shi

Image source: Generated by Wujie AI

Seeing the news that Sam Altman is returning to OpenAI, this temporarily puts an end to this big show. But this matter is definitely enough to be recorded in the history of AI development, so let's interpret it from a different perspective.

When Ideals Become Material for Conspiracy

It's not easy to gather classmates for a meal, let alone dismiss the top two figures of a company. So this must be a strong organizational matter, and if a strong organization does not have a visible structure, it must have a hidden organization and hidden leadership. (Not a hindsight, see previous text)

And in terms of specific methods, the 6-person board of directors, with Chief Scientist Ilya being crucial, because it is a true primary stakeholder. It should have firmly stood on the side that is beneficial to the company, and as long as it does not turn against Sam Altman, he cannot be dismissed. But unfortunately, this brother seems more like a pure idealist, not only wanting to defend his own ideals, but also taking active action under what he believes to be right. His actions to defend the purity of his ideals have almost shattered the carrier of the ideals (OpenAI).

This is the first dark side: when you radicalize your ideals and beliefs, you may become the biggest threat to achieving them. Especially when there are ambitious people.

Sometimes I wonder if genius scientists should not do what CEOs or politicians do, as these two things are too comprehensive and too pure, with a huge difference.

Secret Room Planning That Never Misses

Perhaps in the end, we may not really understand how the other three directors united, but it is clear that their responsibilities are not as sunny as they claim. They claim their mission is to be responsible for humanity, but in reality, they are probably considering factors that cannot be easily spoken of, and may not even be responsible for OpenAI.

In the end, the choice of OpenAI's employees actually reflects that Sam Altman did not really betray his ideals. But at such a time, operating in secret, conspiring, and bringing down Sam Altman, no matter how it is embellished, is the behavior of an ambitious person, not only detrimental to Sam Altman, but also to the entire organization. Is this what the board of directors should do?

The way they acted was obviously secretive, even Greg Brockman was suddenly informed and left puzzled. Isn't this a sudden conspiracy! For a core team that has been struggling for more than seven years, and is still in a precarious situation, such a sudden move is very similar to the historical event in China when Liu Bang captured Han Xin, very much alike.

This is another dark side: there are always noble reasons to embellish certain actions, but when the means are dark enough, it is difficult to justify the purpose. Even if it is justified, onlookers certainly cannot believe it (obviously, Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever believed it and even helped to cheer and support).

Those who have started a business probably know that the human brain's bandwidth is almost always full. So Sam Altman may not have been unaware that the board of directors was a bit problematic, but he certainly did not anticipate the sudden action, nor Ilya's betrayal.

Being bold in planning, with no time to plan for oneself, almost led to a disaster. This is similar to the protagonists in the story who were full of ambition, conquering the world, and then suddenly being assassinated.

If we really want to investigate, the motives are actually limited. In the past, conflicts of interest far outweighed conflicts of ideas, and perhaps this ratio will change as we become more prosperous, but not yet.

Self-Correction Mechanism

Sam Altman's return seems to be thanks to the employees of OpenAI.

The board of directors appointing CTO Mira Murati as CEO should be a crucial part of the pre-considered smooth transition plan, at least the first step.

According to the normal routine, if this lady had turned against them and then assisted in resolving the situation internally, perhaps there would have been potential, but interestingly, everyone unanimously did not buy it (over 90% of the employees voluntarily took a stand). The attitude is very clear: we don't accept your tactics, there's no room for negotiation, either we part ways, or we correct the situation.

Greg Brockman's refusal is the prelude, but he indeed had enough motivation to do so, and the subsequent events are relatively rare. Especially CTO Mira Murati, this is the legendary promotion and raise, but she refused. This time, the conspiracy was no match for the ideals.

Going deeper, what is this concept?

This means that in a situation where the correction mechanism at the board level has failed (with legal rights to ensure), those who originally had no voice united and became an important force.

The unity of these more than 700 people would not have been possible without a certain level of common understanding and foundation. It is probably more difficult to get these more than 700 people to act in unison than to manage a city, so we have reason to believe that this is a bottom-up approach.

This mechanism will be very crucial, especially as GPT-5 continues to iterate.

This will indeed become the biggest dark side of AI.

AI "Sword Bearers"

The absurdity of this matter lies in the fact that this is something done by a board of directors that claims to be responsible for humanity.

As mentioned earlier, this board of directors does not seem to be responsible for humanity, and may not even be responsible for OpenAI. (Equivalent to over 90% of the people voting against it)

If this absurd behavior is traced back, the motives are definitely not good.

So carbon-based intelligent entities are really not reliable.

As it develops, when AI becomes powerful enough, there will always be a small group of people chosen as the sword bearers. Is this reliable? If it's not reliable, then this is the biggest dark side.

(Of course, the most basic part is certainly the regulations, but the time flow in physical space and digital space is actually different, and the problem of using slowness to control speed will become more and more exposed.)

So in the end, new mechanisms and checks and balances will indeed be needed, such as open source, transparency, and so on.

Follow-up

What will happen next is actually relatively clear. If Sam Altman does return to OpenAI, then the probability of its complete rise is high. The balance between commercial and technological ideals is definitely not a major obstacle in this example. Jobs, Musk, and others have made these two mutually reinforcing, rather than opposing.

Why do I say this? Because to a certain extent, this setback can be seen as the suffering part of brilliance in adversity. After this, the power structure will definitely be restructured and rebalanced, but more importantly, it will become a super team, with over 700 people who were originally diverse and had their own opinions, completely united, working together, plus abundant funds and the previous first-mover advantage, they will probably leave everyone else in the dust.

It's not over yet. In the usual old story, the character of Sam Altman would usually become a bit darker, and the result of this darkening is that he would not trust those around him as much, becoming more centralized, which if excessive, would be very similar to an emperor in his later years, and would actually cause greater harm to the organization. But this guy doesn't seem to have that style.

Hopefully not, after all, the world still needs a leading AI team. After all, at this point in time, AI is not too strong, but still weak, and there is still some distance from the balance point for the entire industry.

Conclusion

What does the final result depend on? It seems to depend on the value structure at the origin. The values gathered from mountains, rivers, and cultural history. The more digital and intelligent, the more subjective this becomes, the more important it is.

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