Sam Altman's coworkers say he can barely code and misunderstands basic machine learning concepts

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shinto29@reddit

Anyone surprised by this hasn’t been paying attention

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scare097ys5@reddit

why do you say that, like whats the first suspicion you got ? and when

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tentacle_@reddit

the problem is not that there are people like you and me who can sense these people using "jedi mind tricks" and also immune io it.

the problem is that most people out there are susceptible to it.

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JackStrawWitchita@reddit

Coding and management and business are completely different skillsets. Steve Jobs couldn't code either. And Steve Wozniak wasn't very good at business.

Not defending Altman but this sort of headline is ridiculous.

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That simply not true. Jobs did know how to code, and in his early days he did alot of it. However, he was never a Wozniak, he managed to get by but it wasn't his strong suit. Jobs also did alot of electronics related stuff, so he wasn't completely incompetent. But again, his strong points where in business and marketing.

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perkia@reddit

Jobs did know how to code, and in his early days he did alot of it.

This is false. Woz (yes, that one) says the opposite on his website, and if there's ever a person without an ego or self-aggrandizing agenda I hope you can agree he is that someone:

Steve didn’t ever code. He wasn’t an engineer and he didn’t do any original design, but he was technical enough to alter and change and add to other designs. I did all of the Apple I and Apple ][ myself, including the feature choices. I did all of the BASIC myself (it’s in handwriting as I couldn’t afford an assembler). The only person who helped write some of the Apple ][ code was Allen Baum, who helped with the ‘monitor’ program.

https://woz.org/steve-jobs-know-code/

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jaxupaxu@reddit

I think that Wozniak was referring to Jobs time at apple. Before apple Jobs worked at atari as a technician.

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punkgeek@reddit

I was there in the early days you are mistaken ;-)

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rorykoehler@reddit

Jobs was an insanely good technical architect. There are videos of his time developing NeXT. He deeply knew everything about the system on a technical level.

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gourdo@reddit

Even worse there’s no article. It’s a handful of quotes and conjecture. I assumed the first few paragraphs were preamble to something deeper, and then it was over, without any detailed analysis. I don’t know what this is, but it aint journalism.

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Patient-Lie8557@reddit

Sam Altman talks shit about areas he is borderline incompetent on, much like Elon Musk.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are excellent examples of the opposite.

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Tramagust@reddit

Jobs wasn't very good at business either. He was very good at getting people to worship him including businessmen.

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ProxyLumina@reddit

Correct. This is the reality. Most people who post such articles, don't even know how businesses work.

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Krowken@reddit

Well yeah, he is a business man and not a programmer.

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john0201@reddit

He’s a sociopath, according to several people who have worked with him.

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SilentCamel662@reddit

Like Musk and Jobs.

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john0201@reddit

Jobs wasn’t a pathological liar. Elon is a man child, and has little technical ability, but I wouldn’t say he is a sociopath.

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Such_Land_5569@reddit

Bro, seriously?

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ExaminationNo8522@reddit

Elon has a bachelors of science and was coding video games at age 12?

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SilentCamel662@reddit

Jobs bullied his own daughter. Most CEOs are in some way unhinged

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/9allsj/the_memoir_by_steve_jobs_daughter_makes_clear_he/

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RoomyRoots@reddit

He already said businessman.

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BrightRestaurant5401@reddit

the first interview I saw with him gave me the goodebumps in a bad way,
there has been something awfully wrong with this guy from the start. but in a different way like say, Elon musk who also does not got them "all in a row"

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RoomyRoots@reddit

He gives off the same airs Sam Bankman-Fried does.

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ZenaMeTepe@reddit

The eyes, Chico, they never lie.

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ElBarbas@reddit

arent they all?

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flatfisher@reddit

You are missing the point, this is in response to those that think he is some kind of genius instead of just a good talker/conman. Also many businessmen especially in tech know what they're talking about, that's a very low bar he is not reaching.

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ChemistNo8486@reddit

"BREAKING NEWS: Red Bull's CEO can't do a supersonic skydive! - He is a fraud"

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Shark_Tooth1@reddit

Agreed, and Sam's fine, being the CEO of a major disruptive company is bound to get some haters at you.

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tertain@reddit

Being a rapist is probably more likely to get haters and rightfully deserved.

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Shark_Tooth1@reddit

Fuck you, you don't know whats true or not. Funny how the rest of his family comes to his defence against his insane sister.

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ConversationLow9545@reddit

Being a rapist

Bullshit

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Ok-ChildHooOd@reddit

Did Red Bull's CEO say he's a proficient skydiver and is he in the spotlight as being a pathological liar?

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UpperParamedicDude@reddit

Red Bull's CEO can't do a supersonic skydive?

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Queasy-Contract9753@reddit

Right? I'm surprised this thread has so many upvotes. We'd be more surprised if he could.

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Rise-O-Matic@reddit

I’m not surprised. Most CEOs I’ve worked under started in finance or operations, I inly knew one who started in engineering.

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Icy-Reaction5089@reddit

He's a liar and not a programmer. That's a common misunderstanding. *laughs*

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tentacle_@reddit

As one senior executive at Microsoft put it to the New Yorker: “I think there’s a small but real chance he’s eventually remembered as a Bernie Madoff- or Sam Bankman-Fried-level scammer.”

Elizabeth Holmes come to me as another example.

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justgetoffmylawn@reddit

Bernie Madoff had a fund…that wasn't really a fund. It was entirely faked.

Elizabeth Holmes had a medical product that…wasn't actually functional. If anyone asked her to show it worked, she couldn't do it - because it didn't work.

Altman is not a programmer and I'm unsurprised he's not tech savvy. But I'm literally using ChatGPT tonight to figure out the tech stack on a product. These things are not the same.

Yes, Tesla is overhyped and Elon is not actually a brilliant engineer - but it's a real company with a working product. But like Altman, he was business savvy enough to hire someone like Karpathy who actually knows what he's doing.

Someone earlier said that Altman and Elon are the same person - 100%.

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SilentCamel662@reddit

A lot of incredibly intelligent people work at OpenAI and they brought us a scientific marvel. ChatGPT was such a breakthrough when it first came out. I think people got used to LLMs so much that they forgot there was a life before them.

Even if Altman isn't competent, he has a gift for finding employees who actually are.

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dances_with_gnomes@reddit

Having a product that works is not the same as that product being profitable, or that product being what is sold. OpenAI is selling AGI or AI that will replace human work. While the latter is arguably happening to an extent right now, it is being subsidised.

Tesla's problem is that the company is extremely overvalued, and without ridiculous sustained growth the stock price will some day crash.

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send-moobs-pls@reddit

Wow it's almost like AI research is one job, and CEO is another job. Crazy, OP you should ask AI to explain the concept of division of responsibilities to you, AI isn't perfect but it's usually pretty reliable at explaining extremely simple fundamental concepts like this

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Far_Note6719@reddit

He is the manager of OpenAI and not a programmer.

Just for context. :)

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vaporwaverhere@reddit

Im sure he can vibe code

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wpillar@reddit

People are focusing on the wrong part of this, not being able to code, who cares. Not understanding basic ML concepts, concerning.

He does not need to be the most technically capable BUT he has to hold his team to account and ensure proper oversight of what they are doing, if he doesn't understand enough to ask the right questions then he is not adequately performing his duty as CEO of one of the most important technology companies in the world right now.

People are very blasé about this now but when we read/watch about corporate disasters and it turns out the CEO was clueless and let their team run riot whilst counting money... suddenly they sing a different tune.

Perhaps even more concerning, he has been the CEO of this company for 7 years now and hasn't learned or filled in his gaps, which if true says a lot more about his character and priorities.

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MrOaiki@reddit

The article implied he should be good at coding and understand machine learning concepts. Why would he? Are they talking about a COO or some kind of CTO?

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X-Jet@reddit

Just like one lackluster CEO who understands engineering better than anyone on this Earth.
His superheavy rocket meant to land on the moon already

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havnar-@reddit

It didn’t even have a pointy red tip, rookie

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nihnuhname@reddit

Sensation: Sam Altman may be using online LLMs as if they were local models.

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positivcheg@reddit

Oh no, you thought it's only elon who sounds smart on public but is completely cooked inside because of drug overuse? Welcome to reality.

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RoomyRoots@reddit

All CEOs are entitled salesmen. Hailing them is like offering your firstborn to a car salesman.

At least Jobs didn't pretend being a good programmer, but we have things like Musk that embraced the concept that they are actually smart and not just got good hands supporting them.

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