Source: Quantum Bit

Image source: Generated by Wujie AI

Niu Huluo Ultraman, is not the first time to be "fired"? ?!

Unexpectedly, just as the OpenAI farce had just subsided a bit, the "prequel" came immediately.

The Washington Post learned from informed sources that Ultraman stepped down as president of Y Combinator, not as previously stated, "resigned," but was fired.

YC founder Paul Graham, flew from the UK to San Francisco to personally fire him.

It is worth noting that in 2014, he personally appointed Ultraman as YC president. And over the past few years, he has repeatedly given him positive evaluations.

When the OpenAI farce just happened, Graham also cheered Ultraman on Twitter:

No one in the world is better at handling this situation than Sam.

But beneath the peaceful surface, there were hidden undercurrents.

Netizens could not believe it either, after all, there had been no related news before. The Washington Post also stated that this had never been reported.

And why was he fired?

Liking to skip work, putting personal interests above company interests… these were all listed as "charges".

This seems to echo the recent OpenAI farce. There are reports that the real reason the board removed Ultraman was that Ultraman was unwilling to have his power balanced internally.

This can be proven by his unwillingness to accept a board that "does not favor" him.

Now, with the exposure of the past events of Niu Huluo Ultraman, there is also more information worth referring to as to why Ultraman always ends up in such a situation.

Perfect Negotiator & Unpopular Enemy

Ultraman's earliest interaction with YC occurred in 2005.

At that time, Ultraman dropped out of Stanford University and completed his first entrepreneurial venture, creating a social networking application called Loopt, which immediately received investment from YC. This was also the year YC was officially established, with founders including Paul Graham, among others.

By 2011, Ultraman became a part-time partner at YC.

In 2014, then YC president Graham announced his resignation, and handed over this heavy burden to the young Ultraman.

It is worth noting that at that time, YC had already incubated star startups such as Reddit and Airbnb, with a total valuation of over $65 billion.

But in 2019, it was also Graham who flew from the UK to San Francisco to personally kick his proud disciple out.

The reason exposed was that Graham was worried that Ultraman would put personal interests above the organization.

And the appearance of such concerns is also related to OpenAI.

An informed source stated that the most prioritized part of the so-called "personal interests" was Ultraman's high attention to OpenAI, which he had already regarded as the mission of his life.

It is worth noting that 2019 was a key point for OpenAI to develop into a for-profit company. On March 1 of that year, the OpenAI LP subsidiary was established for profit, and then it received a $1 billion investment from Microsoft.

The news of Ultraman leaving the position of YC president came out on March 9.

In fact, informed sources stated that Ultraman's style had already spread within the industry, and he would skip work. This caused dissatisfaction among colleagues and some startup companies that he should have incubated.

At the same time, Ultraman's distinctive style of doing things also sparked debate within YC.

In an article in The New Yorker, it was written that after taking over, Ultraman began to reorganize YC in a big way, such as launching initiatives to support earlier-stage startups and setting up funds to continue investing in their growth.

Under Ultraman's leadership, YC's goal was no longer to shape hundreds of companies each year, but a thousand, and then ten thousand.

There were even bigger plans — "YC can guide the technological process to some extent." He also wrote a blog post claiming that "science seems to be broken" and called for support for companies in energy, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and eight other fields to apply.

However, this drew concerns from two YC partners (one of whom was Jonathan Levy), who told Ultraman, "Slow down, calm down!"

Ultraman replied, "Yes, you're right!" and then turned to establish YC Research, focusing on exploring revolutionary technological research.

So that's why some people say Ultraman seems like an owl (which is a raptor).

Some say his daily work is like being tied to a time bomb, and all colleagues are forced to speed up, as if they were chipmunks (owls are one of their natural enemies).

He was even once thought to have "Asperger's syndrome" (a part of the autism spectrum disorder (ASD), characterized by intense focus on specific interests, social skills defects, and difficulties in nonverbal communication).

Although his first reaction upon hearing this was "XXX, I don't have Asperger's syndrome!"

But he later admitted that he understood why some people thought so:

My posture is strange, my interests are narrowly focused on technology, and I have no patience for things I'm not interested in, such as parties, and most people.

Having such traits, even in productivity-loving Silicon Valley, Ultraman was considered an outsider.

This also made him look like "polarized".

On the one hand, he is an unparalleled fundraiser, a perfect negotiator, and a powerful leader.

Keith Rabois, a partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund, said:

Ultraman has amazing talents in providing strategic advice, conducting business transaction negotiations, and discovering talent. He can immediately judge who is destined for huge success, and in Silicon Valley, his ability ranks in the top five.

On the other hand, he is also an unpopular "enemy".

Six industry insiders said that Ultraman "was too opportunistic" and alienated some of his closest allies.

It was reported that Ultraman would also personally invest in startup companies discovered by the incubator, which was seen as "a dual investment for personal gain." Other founders had done this before, but it was later restricted by the organization.

Reflecting on Ultraman's dismissal from the OpenAI board, a person familiar with the board meeting procedures revealed that the board did so mainly out of concern that Ultraman was unwilling to have his power in the company balanced. His unwillingness to have any members of the board who were unfavorable to him shows this.

It is said that last weekend, four members of the original board were willing to reinstate Ultraman as CEO, as long as he promised effective oversight of his activities.

Currently, one of the parties involved in the prequel, Graham, has not made any response.

Some netizens commented that when Graham quietly resigned Ultraman, it did not affect his subsequent development.

Liking or disliking is a personal matter… there is no reason to remain enemies after the issue is resolved.

The Spark Q* Project Emerges

At the same time as the "prequel" was exposed, the plot of "The True Prequel" is still continuing.

According to Reuters, before Ultraman was first kicked off the board, several OpenAI researchers warned the board: a breakthrough in AI might threaten humanity.

Insiders said that this was one of the reasons that led to Ultraman's dismissal.

This project is called "Q*" (pronounced Q-Star), and some at OpenAI believe it is a project in the search for AGI.

It is said that this new model can solve certain mathematical problems, but considering the huge computational resource consumption, it has only been tested on elementary level questions.

"But after such testing, researchers are very confident in the development of Q*."

OpenAI has not responded to this news at the moment.

Meanwhile, The Information reported that Ultraman has agreed to an internal investigation into the alleged behavior that led to his dismissal from the board.

Reference links:
[1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/22/sam-altman-fired-y-combinator-paul-graham/
[2]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38378216
[3]https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/altman-firing-openai-520a3a8c?mod=followamazon
[4]https://x.com/apples_jimmy/status/1727470566247215285?s=46&t=iTysI4vQLQqCNJjSmBODPw
[5]https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/sam-altmans-manifest-destiny

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。