Harvey’s Post

This is going to be an interesting era for legal and AI.

I am a huge fan of content that Chamath posts as I find it to be of very high quality and with distinct purpose. This video of an interview with Jonathan Ross from @groq was incredible. If you are in this "game" than you simply just appreciate amazing stories. His is one of them and seems he was born to do something very large and meaningful. I loved the architecture discussion and very much reminded me of paradigm shifts in cloud native computing, the application architectures as well as how distributed and fast analytic database systems were born....only this is bigger. The discussion about the flip from training to inference compute dominance was particularly enlightening for me. I have spoken to a bunch of G2K companies with "100s" of use cases in the backlog. Some will work with ROI as it is is too easy. Some won't for good reason and others might get stuck due to cost. I just wonder what having a 10x lower inference cost ultimately will do towards accelerating use cases into production from a purely ROI standpoint. I think it will be huge. Obviously - the inherent advantages here will drive accelerated value for those use cases already with ROI and potentially enable disruption for those with the same uses cases that use this architecture vs those who do not. Will be fun to watch. I watch Chamath's video of how he grow Facebook to 1B users once a year as it is just inspiring on so many levels - even for an "Enterprise" person. His comments on the speed required to engage users and win and measuring under 250-300 ms (or far less) was very enlightening with respect to the parallels for AI applications that want to be in PRODUCTION. #data will still be King and will always be critical but it was interesting to also listen to the part about how speed could ultimately "help" to cut down hallucination. I don't know if that will hold or not but very interesting nonetheless. I have enough "grey hair" having grown up in the #cloudnative world to know how important architecture patterns are. This one seems powerful and as the very famous video of Mr. Ballmer and others showed "Developers, Developers, Developers" are critical to adoption. 75k developers in this playground in the last month is a staggering number. So is the fact that a soverign wealth entity plans to deploy this architecture that will match the scale of the entire Meta footprint (relative to AI, GPU, etc). All of this should not be ignored. Why is this all more important than any other AI news? Well.....maybe it is or maybe it isn't (too much random AI news is a given) but what is important is the path to production. It is the only place ROI happens and this seems like it will be a path well traveled. That is good for all of us in the industry working hard to add value to everyone seeking to deploy these systems at scale and derive the promised economic value. https://lnkd.in/eMcGBFnE

It will be interesting to see how this story develops and the reasons for Sam's departure, but three CEOs in one week is never a good sign. If only there was an unbiased prediction and decision-making tool that could help with succession planning.

Is this the first time you have heard this story? My guess is not. "Inexperienced board terminating the Founder CEO, who was famous for His strong ethical compass and collaborative approach, ensures that decisions are inclusive and representative of the needs and aspirations of stakeholders. Employees are deeply saddened by the board's recent actions, feeling disconnected from the company's vision and a profound impact on our collective morale?" #EmployeeVoice #CompanyCulture OpenAI #founderstories You won't be surprised that the interplay between portfolio companies and their investors often uncovers nuanced challenges in the private equity world. While the expertise of PE firms is undeniable, it's imperative to scrutinize certain overlooked aspects. A key concern is the occasional misalignment of board members (including coverups for their mistakes) with the company's culture and profit-making objectives. It's vital to foster a board culture that aligns with the company's core values and financial goals. Emphasizing transparency and congruence in objectives between all levels can mitigate unwarranted blame on management teams for issues from higher-level decisions. Striving for a harmonious and profit-aligned board culture is a step toward sustainable growth. #PrivateEquity #BoardCulture #ProfitAlignment #CorporateGovernance #EthicalLeadership #InvestmentStrategy #BusinessSustainability #FinancialGoals #CorporateEthics #StrategicAlignment #ManagementDynamics #LeadershipAccountability #BusinessIntegrity #CompanyCulture #GrowthStrategy"

Exile into the wilderness is another journey many founding CEOs must make. While painful, it also hones your skills, focuses your vision and gives you an opportunity to make changes to management approaches as well as corporate strategies and tactics. Altman going back to lead OpenAI is a mistake IMHO. The team and board will be internally distrustful and honest differences of opinion have the potential to open rifts in the organization. Once broken, a vase can never be put back to its pristine state. Altman has spent decades parsing through companies before committing to this one, so the emotional tie is obviously deep. However, Altman and AI and the world would benefit from Sam Altman + $ + Clean Slate. Sam, take the road less traveled! https://lnkd.in/geYQnNdU

During my career, I have had the distinct honor and privilege of serving on several boards. As a Board member, our fiduciary responsibility is always to the members, investors and/or shareholders. An excerpt from this Op/Ed piece in the The Wall Street Journal: — ‘The board’s apparent failure to consult investors before removing Mr. Altman doesn’t build confidence in its oversight. The corporate good-governance crowd hails “independent” boards, but OpenAI shows this isn’t always a virtue… Microsoft has offered Mr. Altman a job, though this could be a negotiating tactic to get the board to bring him back. More than 700 of OpenAI’s 770 employees have threatened to quit unless the board resigns and reinstates Mr. Altman, which underscores how much goodwill he had at the company. What board seeks to destroy its own company? —- Call me crazy, but it appears this Board may have violated their fiduciary responsibility? 🤔💪🏼🇺🇸 #fiduciary #fiduciaryduty #boardleadership OpenAI https://lnkd.in/ge5D4t6R

When management shirks responsibility, it leads to repercussions. Regardless of the challenges within OpenAI, it paints a negative picture for all of us. Handling departures poorly can lead to big issues, and now I have questions about how the Board communicates, the company's connections with its staff and investors, and its overall management. These situations can be damaging and hard to fix, but they offer lessons. #OpenAI #SamAltman

The OpenAI board just hit ‘undo’ on that big decision to fire Sam Altman. Amidst a staff uproar and losing key players, it seems Sam Altman is reseating himself at #OpenAi 🔄 Many believe, the role & concerns around Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) was at the center of all this (but who knows). OpenAI’s pursuit of AGI is a delicate balancing act of technological advancement and ethical considerations. We should brace ourselves for the ripple effects of this event, as it will undoubtedly influence the future of this space. 📅 For Reference here are The Key Events in OpenAI’s Leadership Shakeup: 🤖Nov. 17: OpenAI board dismisses CEO Sam Altman; President Greg Brockman steps down. Mira Murati steps in as interim CEO. 🤖 Nov. 18: Investor Khosla Ventures supports Altman’s potential return or future endeavors. 🤖 Nov. 18: Employee unrest grows; some consider quitting, others eye Altman’s next move. 🤖 Nov. 19: Altman mulls OpenAI return, eyes new AI venture. 🤖 Nov. 20: Microsoft hires Altman, Brockman for new AI research team. 🤖 Nov. 20: Emmett Shear, former Twitch CEO, named OpenAI’s interim CEO; company explores merger with Anthropic. 🤖 Nov. 20: OpenAI staff threatens mass resignation to follow Altman to Microsoft unless board resigns. 🤖 Nov. 20: OpenAI investors begin exploring legal options. 🤖 Nov. 21: Altman agreed to internal investigation & upon his return to OpenAI and won’t be a board director as part of a compromise deal. Brockman also returns. #OpenAI #LeadershipChange #TechNews #AIIndustry 🌐🤖🔄💼

Great article written by my colleague Miriam Capelli highlighting the unified response from OpenAI's employees following the sudden removal of CEO Sam Altman. This remarkable show of loyalty underscores the strong bond between Altman and the organization's mission. However, it prompts reflection on the potential drawbacks of unwavering loyalty, such as the risk of limiting critical thinking and impeding organizational progress. This incident emphasizes the crucial need for alignment between boards and leadership teams, especially in fostering and understanding the organizational culture. Keen to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

Assuming we come to quickly understand the real reason Altman was so unceremoniously booted from OpenAI yesterday, think of the state of their board. With Altman and Brockman gone, I believe the board now has just four members, three of whom are independent directors with no equity in the company along with the chief scientist, Sutskever. Considering the valuation of the company and the speed at which they’re moving, the board is in an incredibly tight spot. Murati as interim CEO makes sense, but watch what the board does. This will be interesting.