[prepend]

Sounds more like some strategic difference of opinion.

My guess is that either they’re financially super hosed. Or one group wants to build skynet and one doesn’t.

A scandal would probably be something along the lines of either “we love him and wish him the best” (hidden) or “he doesn’t represent the values of our org and we love XYz” (embraced)

[jurgenaut23]

No, this passage tells me that the board wants to cover their ass: "he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board [...]. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI."

It's not just a "hey, we don't really agree on x or y so let's part ways". It's more "hey, this guy did something that could get us in jail if we don't cut tie immediately".

[HlessClaudesman]

Someone at the company did a bad thing, and everything is securities fraud.

[janejeon]

Oh boy, Matt Levine is going to have a busy weekend!

[AnimalMuppet]

> "hey, this guy did something that could get us in jail if we don't cut tie immediately".

"And lied to us about it."

[Ancapistani]

Alternatively: "We were implicitly aware of what he was doing, but he knew from the beginning that if it didn't work out, we'd publicly disavow knowledge of it. It didn't work out."

I have zero knowledge of the internals of OpenAI - just thinking out loud about what could have spurred such a statement.

[andomiz2]

Yeah I don't think the distancing is going to work in this case, you don't sign up to go make robots with eyeball scanner crypto boy and get to pretend you aren't willing to do stuff most people would consider incredibly shady.

[threatofrain]

Would you call your CEO a liar just because of a strategic difference in opinion?

[svachalek]

Right. We all know the template for differences of opinion. "Sam just really wanted to spend more time with his family. Hugs, Sam!"

[FateOfNations]

If you started executing your strategy and hid it from the board and told them you were doing what they told you to do, yes.

[wslh]

I doubt they are financially hosed.

I don't know about the Skynet because it has happened 26 years before [1] but I imagine NSA, the Military, and other government agencies approached the company.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_2:_Judgment_Day