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Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/sam-altmans-business-dealings-under-gop-scrutiny-ahead-of-openais-ipo-52c1cc4d
66•1vuio0pswjnm7•2h ago

Comments

jqpabc123•1h ago
This can easily be resolved by a sustantial purchase of Trump family crypto.
swader999•41m ago
With worldcoin lol.
smallmancontrov•25m ago
The Khan demands 10,000 eyeballs as tribute!
SkipperCat•1h ago
I can't help but think that this is due to Musk putting pressure on the current administration to help him win his lawsuit and punish Altman.
avaer•1h ago
Personal vendettas between the world's most powerful psychopaths playing out in the stock market while everyone else suffers does seem like the current meta. So it makes sense.
MrBuddyCasino•39m ago
How does everyone else suffer? We’re getting subsidized compute.
mrhottakes•27m ago
Look around at the country right now
boringg•20m ago
Nothing to do with Altman v Musk. That would be an AI boom that would be going full steam ahead without either of them.
Arainach•7m ago
Almost no one in the country is feeling a boom. Everyone is feeling the consequences of their greed and recklessness.
threethirtytwo•14m ago
God why do people frame things in such extremes? Neither person is a psychopath. If anyone is closer to a psychopath it’s Altman, but he doesn’t completely fit the monicker.
skeeter2020•1m ago
When you're arguing the degree to which such powerful people fit the definition of psychopath, you're at extremes. You've just been in the warming pot too long to see it.
ms_anal_tam•59m ago
Demand his AI chat history be made public!
voakbasda•54m ago
Does anyone really believe this is more than performative? Increasingly the most likely outcome of such scrutiny is… nothing. He hasn’t stolen enough from the rich to earn any sort of punishment, and he’s not doing anything too different from the Congress critters that are “investigating” him.
boringg•23m ago
"hasn’t stolen enough from the rich to earn any sort of punishment". Do you truly believe this is how the world works?
bluefirebrand•17m ago
Its definitely how America works right now
JumpCrisscross•14m ago
> Do you truly believe this is how the world works?

It’s a popular meme in Silicon Valley. Hence all the stealing.

baggachipz•13m ago
When his company goes tits-up and connected investors lose billions, he'll suddenly face punishment.
pj_mukh•48m ago
So, the protection racket is not working? [1] Maybe some folks need to re-think whether this administration is worth "donating" to?

[1]: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/openai-exec-becomes-top-trump...

laurels-marts•45m ago
Are you complaining that government is not corrupt enough?
miltonlost•37m ago
He's saying "hey, maybe stop donating to Republicans expecting them to help you out when in reality they will screw over anyone but themselves and especially don't donate to them when the GOP is aggressively homophobic and wants to get rid of your existence entirely"
tinfoilhatter•15m ago
I didn't see anything related to homophobia in the comment or any replies except yours...
mrhottakes•28m ago
That seems like a fairly obvious misreading of the comment.
dmix•27m ago
This story is about congressmen and state attorneys calling for an SEC investigation, not the executive

Which was motivated by a WSJ investigation into Sam’s personal dealings https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chatgpt-openai-ipo-altman-029ae6...

pj_mukh•20m ago
and famously this executive doesn't over-reach to protect "its own"?
dmix•8m ago
Your original comment implied that this is a signal that Sam’s influence over the admin hasn’t protected his interests, when that’s still to be seen. The protection racket could still very well benefit him.
throwaway5752•9m ago
Blackmailers and protection rackets aren't known for being satisfied after a single payment, after they've established someone is willing to pay.

That is why public corruption is such as plague and one of the reasons the US dollar was seen as a safe store of value once.

fred_is_fred•36m ago
Is this why Claude recommended that I use a Trump phone when I use it?
trwhite•32m ago
https://archive.ph/oqVDm
graemep•24m ago
> The moves follow an April article in The Wall Street Journal that detailed Altman’s efforts to have OpenAI back companies he personally invested in.

Sounds a bit like Wework.

baggachipz•14m ago
Everything about OpenAI sounds like WeWork. Can't wait to see that S1, I'll need a truckload of popcorn.
bombcar•4m ago
To be fair, a big part of being in Y Combinator itself is being "heavily encouraged" to use products from other Y Combinators. You just have to do it openly.
IG_Semmelweiss•23m ago
The thesis is as follows:

OpenAI receives funds as a non-profit.

Some of those funds are redirected to for profit ventures.

Critically, the GM (Altman) of the nonprofit owns shares of the for-profit ventures, that OpenAI funds were redirected into.

A regular company could and does invest in any company even when there's a conflict, as long as the conflict is disclosed and the Board votes in favor of it. There's no criminal element there.

The problem is introduced in Altman's case if

(a) there was no disclosure (red flag) and/or

(b) nonprofit that received the funds, is putting money into things not aligned with the 501(c)(3) mission.

I'm not sure if either (a) or (b) are criminal, but they don't pass the smell test, which is why Altman is being sued in civil court, unrelated to the congressional investigation talked about in the article

boringg•17m ago
Doesn't Sam Altman famously not own OpenAI? His whole arrangement is so shady.
meowface•9m ago
Is there a more benign explanation for these things? Altman is undeniably famously cagey and political but despite most of the tech and non-tech worlds at this point seeing him as some kind of con artist, I still kind of want to try to believe he's not.

No doubt some of OpenAI's founding principles like "stop + assist if a competitor gets to AGI first" are likely flying out the window, perhaps in part due to him and also as one might anticipate of initial lofty ideals and promises, but even with the recent New Yorker and other articles he seems like someone who maybe regularly placates people to avoid personal problems and lies to get out of trouble rather than a Machiavellian tech baron.

randerson•11m ago
Even if the board votes in favor, wouldn't it be tax evasion to fund a for-profit corporation using a 503(c)(3) - which is tax deductible for donors?
fauigerzigerk•8m ago
>The problem is introduced in Altman's case if (a) there was no disclosure (red flag)

The article says there was a disclosure:

"OpenAI board chairman Bret Taylor defended Altman in a court hearing Monday, testifying that Altman had been “forthright” and “proactive and transparent” about his involvements in other companies. Altman recused himself from recent discussions about a deal between OpenAI and Helion as well, The Wall Street Journal reported."

cyanydeez•6m ago
no, the thesis is: can the fascists control sam altman.
rvnx•19m ago
It's the other way around that is interesting too, not just how OpenAI invested, but how some investors were convinced to invest. Maybe Wikipedia knows.

Sometimes very very close relationships really count.

noelsusman•7m ago
The notion that this GOP Oversight Committee sincerely cares about corruption is obviously laughable, so I can only assume this is all being done at Elon's behest.
skeeter2020•3m ago
The Internet is borked.

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metalliqaz•3m ago
Altman is a consummate liar and insatiably greedy. The GOP will welcome him in. The downfall will hurt many.

In the words of Hitchens, "Do not imagine that you can escape judgment if you rob people with a false prospectus rather than with a knife."

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