"Very painful": Altman relives his Muskian reaction to losing control over OpenAI.
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Altman forced to confront claims at OpenAI trial that he’s a prolific liar
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Multiple things can be true:
Altman is dishonest
Musk is dishonest
Musk is still more in the wrong here
Altman is dishonest
Musk is dishonest
Musk is still more in the wrong here
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I have never, ever met a serial liar who doesn’t get angry when someone calls them out on it.
He’s not even always lying, he just has a strange relationship with the truth. All his bullshit claims about AI are just bullshit in the classical sense, Altman doesn’t know if some of them are true (because he’s not technical) but it is irrelevant. He says whatever he thinks will keep his grift going. Whether it is true or not isn’t his concern.
In some ways, this is more dangerous than a scheme liar. Altman, among too many of his peers, is a sociopath.
I hope the Golden Age of Fraud, which Altman is a big benefactor of, ends soon.
He’s not even always lying, he just has a strange relationship with the truth. All his bullshit claims about AI are just bullshit in the classical sense, Altman doesn’t know if some of them are true (because he’s not technical) but it is irrelevant. He says whatever he thinks will keep his grift going. Whether it is true or not isn’t his concern.
In some ways, this is more dangerous than a scheme liar. Altman, among too many of his peers, is a sociopath.
I hope the Golden Age of Fraud, which Altman is a big benefactor of, ends soon.
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It's neither. It's about the morality and legality of defrauding a charity and the people who donated to it.
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Furthermore, anyone who actually had that thought needs to get their head checked.
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Saved some time in the court system by jumping right to a conclusion, very efficient!
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It's interesting that they keep using the word 'charity', when OpenAI is a 'non-profit'. Two completely different things. I wonder why that is? Maybe they think it sounds better.
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My biggest takeaway from this is that one of society's biggest ills is our need for mythical human demigods whom we can worship as universal geniuses who have all the answers for us. The truth is that these people don't actually exist outside of comic books and other fiction. The demand for such personalities in leadership roles only encourages and empowers dancing clowns such as Altman and Musk to hijack the world to serve their endless, narcissistic vanity and greed.
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Well, it looks like the OpenAI non profit has IRS 501(c)(3) exemption - which is commonly called the Charity exemption. Technically it's a list of things:
(3)
Corporations, and any community chest, fund, or foundation, organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes, or to foster national or international amateur sports competition (but only if no part of its activities involve the provision of athletic facilities or equipment), or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals,
But most people consider all those categories to be "charity" - that is, to benefit other people without profit.
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Undiagnosed and untreated personality disorders and psychological pathologies will be our collective ruin.
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The original OpenAI and the current OpenAI foundation are still both 501(c)(3) non-profits operating as "charities" although AFAIK the open AI foundation is not soliciting tax deductable donations and is operating more like a private foundation. So while it's generally described as a non-profit, legally it is a charity.
This is different from a lot of other types of non-profits which are not charities, like industrial trade organizations, social clubs, and credit unions.
OpenAI the company is a public benefit corproation (PBC) which is partly owned and controlled by the foundation, and a fractions of whose profits (should there ever be any) fund the foundation.
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Altman finds being called a liar very painful? I understand, it's not something I'd want to be called either. Perhaps he should stop lying all the time then. This... alt man.
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I would love to know what could possibly force you to buy xAI (or any LLM for that matter).
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I think that IBM had it right in 1979...
"Sam Altman can never be held accountable, therefore Sam Altman must never make a management decision."
(Or something like that.)
"Sam Altman can never be held accountable, therefore Sam Altman must never make a management decision."
(Or something like that.)
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No matter who wins the only guaranteed loser will be the rest of the world.
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So, Musk sued the for-profit subsidiary & plans to donate any winnings to the non-profit entity which controls it?
Wouldn't it be simpler to sell off a few billion in Tesla shares, then donate that to the law firms involved?
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Agreed on all counts. The best outcome for some battles is for both sides to lose disastrously. I wish that were possible here.
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I know we aren’t supposed to make threats in the comments but is it ok to wish for them both to be ejected into space? Because I do.
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markratledge
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
Vary good article:
"Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? New interviews and closely guarded documents shed light on the persistent doubts about the head of OpenAI."
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted
"Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? New interviews and closely guarded documents shed light on the persistent doubts about the head of OpenAI."
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted
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It depends on how many more people he can sucker into giving cash to OpenAI in SOME way.
Almost all, if not all, of the deals that were done with other companies have unraveled. There's no indication that OpenAI has deviated from a timeline that will see them bankrupt by the middle of next year (if not sooner). They have insufficient funding coming in and so they operate at a monthly deficit requiring investment revenue to cover the difference. That's how they predict when they'll go bankrupt, assuming spending and income revenue remains the same. It's UNLIKELY they'll get more VC funding, unless they show a profit on what they have, and they can't do that. At least not so far, so I'd imagine if they COULD, they would have by now and THAT would have been shouted from the mountain tops with the universe's biggest loudspeakers.
THAT lack of news means they're going to go bankrupt. It's just a question of when, and whether civilization is still standing when it does (which has nothing to do with OpenAI, but it's a valid consideration at this point, given this reality).
From what I've read, they're not getting VC funding in any numbers that will prolong the agony for them. Most investors think they should be getting returns by now (which OpenAI can't provide without going bankrupt faster) and it appears the shiny part has worn off enough to not attract any more large scale investments (which was why they had all those side deals with hardware companies, which benefited most of the hardware companies that insisted on cash up front for discounts on goods and services).
So the upshot is that the Golden Age of Fraud will very likely end within the year. Once OpenAI goes, the rest of AI will probably follow, since none of them are making any money. Whatever services remain that are not tied to them will probably continue, but without any improvements in what they do. Whether those business that run their shit in-house survive or not remains to be seen.
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"which Musk intends to donate to OpenAI’s nonprofit"
I'm not really sure we should be reporting that as a fact.... Does anybody really think he will do exactly that?
I'm not really sure we should be reporting that as a fact.... Does anybody really think he will do exactly that?
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I have been wondering how much 401k and pension money is inflating the AI bubble, and the stock market generally?
The stock market seems to be behaving weirdly the last few years, and my theory is that more people than ever before have money automatically deducted from their paychecks into 401k and pension funds every week or two weeks, whatever, depending on their employer, and this constant massive flow of money into the markets is keeping the market from ever correcting.
Because the automatic payroll deductions are the biggest fool backstopping the entire market.
Although even this would correct eventually, because if valuations keep growing parabolically, eventually it will be growing so fast that even the firehose of apd money won't be able to keep up.
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Well, if he gets control of the nonprofit, he can donate to the non-profit, and then scam the non-profit. . . like his buddy Donald Trump was found guilty by a judge of doing.
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IMO launching someone in to space doesn't count. It's not a credible threat unless your name is Bezos or Branson.
Plus, picturing Elon strapped to the top of a Starship module gets me through my bad days.
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Just because the law world claims it is legal, does not make it moral. Same with Charities, just because the government classifies it as 501(c)(3) does not mean it helps anyone......
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Statistical
Ars Legatus Legionis
The charity owns $130B* of Open AI Inc stock. It makes it one of the most valuable charities in the world. In fact it has so much wealth I have no idea what an AI charity would do with all that but it would.
This case has nothing to do with "defrauding" a charity. It has to do with Elon Musk getting his feeling hurt because other billionaires were mean to him.
* Granted this is based on the 22% stake that Open AI the chairty owns and the current valuation of Open AI Inc. Entirely possible that valuation is a pile of shit and Open AI is worth a lot less or even nothing but in that case Open AI the charity would likewise be worth nothing so it doesn't really matter either way.
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