[ninth_ant]

He was CEO of Y combinator, of which this forum is sponsored and maintained by.

He’s the CEO of OpenAI, which is responsible for the most-discussed advancement in technology for the past year. So it’s not that unusual for this to be discussed on a technology-focused forum.

He’s also the centre of a massive firestorm, where extremely atypical corporate behaviour was very recently taking place. Again, highly relevant topic for a forum that deals with startups.

In short, it’s news, and specifically news of interest to people on this site. No need for cults or obsession.

[coolbreezetft22]

I definitely get the high-level of interest and reason it's a popular topic on here. What I don't get is the intense emotional investment people have in this person. Not so much on HN but definitely elsewhere in social media.

[ninth_ant]

How AI will ultimately affect humanity is uncertain, so the stewardship of an extremely influential company in that field will be of general interest.

The specific reason for the board shenanigans seems to be related to this tension on how AI will or won’t be handled by the management of the tech companies which create and manage them.

All of these feels very relevant to the general public.

[VeejayRampay]

a lot on HN actually, it's basically religion like it was with Steve Jobs