Senior OpenAI employees claimed Sam Altman was ‘psychologically abusive’: report

 A group of senior employees at OpenAI complained to the company’s former board of directors that CEO Sam Altman was “psychologically abusive” — and the allegations contributed to the shocking decision to fire him, according to a report Friday.

Altman, one of most recognizable figures in Silicon Valley and a leader of the artificial intelligence movement, was pushed out Nov. 17 — only to return days later as CEO following a mass revolt by OpenAI employees and investors.

Prior to the firing, senior staffers — who were not individually named but included company leaders and the heads of large teams — alleged that Altman was “creating pockets of chaos and delays” at the company behind ChatGPT through his antics, according to the Washington Post.

Altman also was accused of “pitting employees against each other in unhealthy ways,” the outlet reported, citing two people with knowledge of the board’s thinking.

The allegations by key staff members, which hadn’t been reported before, purportedly fueled concerns among OpenAI’s board that Altman had become unmanageable.

As a result of the claims, the board enacted a review of Altman’s behavior to assess concerns that toxic management could cause key employees to leave the company, the Washington Post reported.

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was accused of “pitting employees against each other in unhealthy ways.”AP

Some OpenAI employees reportedly told the board that they “feared retaliation from Altman.”

In one case, Altman had allegedly become “hostile” after an employee “shared critical feedback” with him.

Aside from the staff complaints, the sources said OpenAI’s board felt that Altman lied to them as part of an effort to oust Helen Toner, a board member and academic focused on AI safety.

Altman reportedly soured on Toner after she contributed to a paper that criticized OpenAI for pushing out ChatGPT, arguing the move accelerated the AI race at the expense of safety.

The details echoed an earlier report by the Wall Street Journal, which said board members felt Altman had tried to mislead one of them into thinking that another supported his push to remove Toner as a director.

The reports provided fresh details about the circumstances that led to OpenAI board’s shocking decision to remove Altman.

At the time, the board said its decision was based on a loss of confidence in Altman because he was “not consistently candid” in his communications.

Altman returned as CEO after days of frantic negotiations led by Microsoft and other key investors.

“We believe Sam is the best leader for OpenAI,” company spokesperson Hannah Wong said in a statement. “The senior leadership team was unanimous in asking for Sam’s return as CEO and for the board’s resignation, actions backed by an open letter signed by over 95% of our employees.”

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Senior OpenAI employees reportedly felt Altman was “psychologically abusive.”REUTERS

Toner, who finally broke her silence on events leading to Altman’s ouster, told the Journal that an OpenAI attorney had warned that she and other board members who participated in the coup could be in violation of their fiduciary duties to investors — a move she felt constituted an “intimidation tactic.”

Toner and all but one of OpenAI’s board members resigned as part of those negotiations.

The company’s new board so far consists of three members, including the sole holdover, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo; ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and former Twitter chair Bret Taylor.

The board will eventually consist of nine members. Microsoft received a non-voting observer seat.

Another of the departed board members was OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who voted to oust Altman but later claimed he regretted participating in the coup.

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Ilya Sutskever is an OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist.AFP via Getty Images

In a bizarre twist, Sutskever hinted earlier this week at internal discord at OpenAI in a now-deleted tweet in which he discussed the lessons he had learned at the company.

It’s still unclear if Sutskever will return to work at the company.

“One such lesson is that the phrase ‘the beatings will continue until morale improves’ applies more often than it has any right to,” Sutskever wrote.

Despite that tweet, Sutskever’s lawyer, Alex Weingarten, told the Washington Post that his client supports Altman.

“There have been a lot of wild and inaccurate reports about what happened with the Board but the bottom line is that Ilya has very publicly stated that Sam is the right person to lead OpenAI and he is thrilled that he is back at the helm,” Weingarten said in a statement.

https://nypost.com/2023/12/08/business/senior-openai-employees-sam-altman-was-psychologically-abusive/

Israel is not morally required to sacrifice its people to save Gazan civilians

 Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently issued the following warning to Israel:

“You know, I learned a thing or two about urban warfare from my time fighting in Iraq and leading the campaign to defeat ISIS. Like Hamas, ISIS was deeply embedded in urban areas.”

“And the international coalition against ISIS worked hard to protect civilians and create humanitarian corridors, even during the toughest battles.”

“So the lesson is not that you can win in an urban warfare by protecting civilians. The lesson is that you can only win in urban warfare by protecting civilians.”

“You see, in this kind of a fight, the center of gravity is the civilian population. And if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat.”

That ill-advised admonition reflects a basic misunderstanding of the relationship between Hamas and most Gazans. Recent polls show overwhelming support by Gazans not only for Hamas but also for its barbarities of Oct. 7.

The sad reality is that the civilian population of Gaza is already in the “arms of the enemy.”

It is part of the problem, not the solution.

The only way to get these “civilians” out of the arms of Hamas is to show them that atrocities committed by Hamas will hurt the civilians of Gaza as well as the terrorists of Hamas.

This message is obviously not intended for infants and young children, who are completely innocent.

But it does include most adults, men and women alike, many of whom not only cheer for Hamas but are complicit in their terrorism by allowing themselves to be used as human shields and their homes and mosques to be used as hiding places for weapons and commanders.

When the Allies killed hundreds of thousands of German and Japanese civilians during World War II, this did not drive the surviving civilians into the arms of the enemy.

To the contrary, the show of strength and the total victory of the Allies, drove most of them into the arms of the victors who promised them a better life— and delivered through the Marshall Plan in Germany and the rebuilding of Japan.

Not even the bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo and Dresden drove the civilians into the arms of the military evil-doers who provoked the allied response.

The lesson of the total war and unconditional surrender that ended World War II is far more relevant to Gaza than the experiences in Iraq.

Moreover, Iraq was not a success for the United States.

Many civilians were killed, and much of Iraq is currently in the arms of Iran.

Not exactly a model to be followed by Israel.

So Secretary Austin, well-meaning as he is, should be careful about the advice he offers.

Israel should continue to try to prevent civilian casualties while aggressively pursuing its legitimate military goals: the complete destruction of Hamas’ ability to terrorize Israeli civilians and the return of all the hostages.

The world — and especially the United States — should understand that when Hamas undertook the barbarous attack on Israel with the help, support and approval of many Gazans, they sentenced their civilian population to disastrous consequences, just at the Germans and Japanese did when they started World War II.

Hamas then compounded these consequences by using civilians as human shields.

The inevitable collateral consequences to civilians — especially young children — should be blamed on Hamas.

Israeli soldiers should not be required to sacrifice their lives and to forgo an Israeli victory to protect the citizens of Gaza from self-inflicted wounds caused by Hamas.

Moreover, the greatest beneficiaries of the total defeat of Hamas would be the civilians of Gaza, even if they don’t realize it.

The same was true for the civilians of Germany and Japan.

Israel is doing more than any military in history to try to minimize the civilian casualties that are caused by Hamas.

They should not be asked by Washington to do more, if doing more would defeat their legitimate military goals.

To sacrifice victory in order to placate the civilians of Gaza — or to reduce criticism of Israel from the biased international community, academia or the media — would be wrong, both morally and strategically.

Alan Dershowitz is professor emeritus at Harvard Law School. Andrew Stein, a Democrat, served as New York City Council president, 1986-94.

https://nypost.com/2023/12/08/opinion/israel-is-not-morally-required-to-sacrifice-its-people-to-save-gazan-civilians/

MTA ‘reckless spending spree’ needs extra $1B for non-pedestrian plans as drivers face congestion fee

 The MTA plans to build its new Second Avenue subway stations twice as large as needed — bloating construction costs as the transit agency calls on drivers to help finance the project through the controversial new congestion pricing scheme, according to experts and data obtained by The Post.

The planned subway expansion into East Harlem is set to cost straphangers and taxpayers $1 billion more than necessary thanks to station designs from consultants which include tens of thousands of square feet of extra space that will be largely sealed from the public’s use, according to an analysis of station plans and a federal budget review of the project.

The findings raise new questions about the MTA’s ability to design and manage major projects as it prepares to impose the $15 daily toll to drive south of 60th Street in Manhattan.

“This is yet another example of the MTA’s consistent financial mismanagement and yet another reason why [MTA] Chairman Janno Lieber is whacking hardworking Jersey commuters to pay for his reckless spending spree,” Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), a longtime vocal critic of the congestion pricing plan, told The Post.

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The planned subway expansion into East Harlem is set to cost straphangers and taxpayers $1 billion.

“Congress should immediately investigate the MTA’s spending and misuse of taxpayer dollars.”

The bloated new Q-line stations in East Harlem will be at least 200 feet longer than the much-criticized design used at the now open and operating new Second Avenue line station on 86th Street, a Post review of station schematics showed.

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The MTA has been heavily criticized for the massive size and extraordinary costs of the stations it built as part of the Second Ave. Subway’s first phase through the Upper East Side, like this one on 86th Street.AP

Much of that space wouldn’t even be seen by straphangers, as it would be used simply for things such as storage, break rooms and to run cables.

Experts said much of that fat could easily be trimmed — as other subway systems use much less space for the same functions.

“It’s striking that the Second Avenue work could be more streamlined since the MTA is telling folks in Brooklyn and Queens they may have to wait to get passenger service on an existing rail line because there isn’t enough money,” said Jon Orcutt, a former Department of Transportation executive.

“Your statements should match up with what you’re doing.” 

The Post also found the agency plans to spend more than $400 million on consultants for the Second Avenue project, including $191 million on an outside firm to oversee construction and manage the project, according to the Federal Transit Authority’s 2022 oversight report on the project.

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The station features a massive mezzanine level that runs the length of the platform and long escalators because the it was built so far underground.Getty Images

The need to shell out for consultants has been attributed in the past to the MTA’s failure to hire enough in-house staff.

The outside firms often return pricy and oversized plans, which overstretched MTA staffers struggle to trim back.

“How do you deliver an important mega-project when you’re short-staffed?,” said NYU professor Eric Goldwyn, who has analyzed the MTA’s Upper East Side train expansion.

“When you talk to people in Europe — in Italy, in Spain, in the U.K. — you don’t have consultants managing consultants.”

The MTA’s overspending is being revealed the same week its board voted nine to one to advance the congestion pricing plan — and as Gov. Hochul touted the new fee, saying it will finally give the MTA “the resources to invest in our system, a 110-year old system.”

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The MTA has yet to break ground on Phase 2 in East Harlem.NY Post/Mike Guillen

There was no talk of finding savings, however, as Lieber in a press conference with the governor ripped critics, especially those from New Jersey, as people who “never lifted a finger for mass transit.”

The MTA is currently $47 billion in debt — a figure they hope to alleviate with the projected $1 billion in tolls per year from congestion pricing.

But savings could be found to close that gap and fund capital projects with common sense cuts, Goldwyn said.

“For Phase 1 [of the area’s train expansion project] 77% of the construction costs were in the stations. If you want to find cost savings, that’s the first place you should look,” he said.

“The lesson from Phase 1 is that if you want to reduce costs and build more transit, the way to do that is to economize our stations.”

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Straphangers ride the long escalators down from the street level toward the 86th Street station’s mezzanine.Christopher Sadowski

Combined, the three new Harlem-area Second Avenue stations — which will be at 106th Street, 116th Street and 125th Street-Lexington Avenue — are expected to cost an astonishing $3.4 billion, the federal data shows.

The current high cost comes after the MTA already cut $1 billion from the project by scaling back station mezzanines and reusing tunnel that was laid down in the 1970s.

The 86th Street station, the smallest of the trio, has 76,000 square feet of space dedicated to ancillary functions, the post found.

The designs for the 106th Street station, meanwhile, call for an underground station more than 1,200 feet long — which is more than 200 feet longer than the 86th Street station.

The station set for 125th Street-Lexington Avenue is also some 1,200 feet long and will likely cost more than $1 billion to build.

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Gov. Kathy Hochul walks through the tunnel that was constructed for the Second Avenue Subway’s East Harlem extension in the 1970s.Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of the Governor

But federal station design guidelines reviewed by The Post show that other subway stations require just 7,000 square feet of space for their ancillaries.

Those designs — modeled after stations commonly found European capitals and the Washington Metro — would cost just $2.3-2.5 billion, The Post’s analysis found.

“We want comfortable spaces, we want functional spaces, but we also need them to be efficient,” Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski (D-Rockland), who chairs the committee in the Assembly that oversees the MTA.

“I believe there is a range, but I can’t believe it’s a 10-fold difference,” he added.

As for the cost of consultants, the FTA report says they “strengthen” the MTA’s “Management Capacity and Capability.”

But a series of stories in The Post this year revealed how the agency’s major projects division is undermanned, putting consultants in the driver’s seat when making key early decisions about size.

The outside firms return pricy and oversized plans, which overstretched MTA staffers struggle to trim back.

“How do you deliver an important mega-project when you’re short-staffed?,” said Goldwyn. “When you talk to people in Europe — in Italy, in Spain, in the U.K. — you don’t have consultants managing consultants.”

The MTA promised in March to review the station designs following previous Post reporting about the cost and said late Friday that work is ongoing.

“We’re being vigilant about the second phase of the Second Avenue Subway,” Jamie Torres-Springer, the chief of the MTA’s construction and major projects agency said in response to requests for comment.

“We have these past issues with the early scoping of projects and the early planning of projects being out of control and we’ve brought them under control — and we’re seeing the results of it.”

https://nypost.com/2023/12/08/metro/mta-needs-extra-1b-for-non-pedestrian-expansions-as-drivers-face-congestion-fee/