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In aseries of posts on Xon Thursday , Paul Graham , the co - founder of startup catalyst Y Combinator , brushed off claims that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was hale to resign as president of Y Combinator in 2019 due to possible conflicts of interest .
“ hoi polloi have been take [ Y Combinator ] arouse Sam Altman , ” Graham drop a line . “ That ’s not straight . ”
I got tired of hearing that YC fired Sam , so here ’s what really happened : pic.twitter.com/3YvBDH7oqV
Altman became a partner at Y Combinator in 2011 , ab initio solve there on a part - fourth dimension base . In February 2014 , Graham named him president of Y Combinator .
Altman — along with Elon Musk , Peter Thiel , Y Combinator founding better half Jessica Livingston and others — announce OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015 , lift $ 1 billion .
Altman for several years split his meter between Y Combinator and OpenAI , effectively running both . But — according to Graham — when OpenAI announced in 2019 that it would establish a for - profit subsidiary of which Altman would be chief executive officer , Livingston told Altman that he had to choose one or the other : OpenAI or Y Combinator .
They tell him “ if he was move to do work full - meter on OpenAI , we should find someone else to operate YC , and he agreed , ” Graham write . “ If he ’d say that he was hold up to find out someone else to be CEO of OpenAI so that he could focus 100 % on YC , we ’d have been hunky-dory with that too . ”
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Graham ’s retelling of result contradictsreportingthat Altman was coerce to give up from Y Combinator after the catalyst ’s partners aver he ’d put personal projects , include OpenAI , ahead of his duties as chair . Accordingto a Washington Post story last November , Graham edit an overseas trip myopic to personally give Altman the kick .
Helen Toner , one of several ex - OpenAI board members who locomote to remove Altman as OpenAI ’s CEO over allegations of shoddy behavior before Altman negociate to claw the part back , alsoclaimedin an appearance on the Ted AI Show podcast that the true reasons for Altman ’s departure from Y Combinator were “ quiet down up at the time . ”
Reportedly , some Y Combinator partners took specific issuance with the indirect stake in OpenAI Altman hold while Y Combinator ’s president . Y Combinator ’s former - stage stock gift $ 10 million in OpenAI ’s for - lucre subsidiary .
But Graham says that the investment funds was made before Altman was full - time at OpenAI — and that Graham himself was n’t mindful of it .
“ This was not a very openhanded investment for those store , ” Graham write . “ And obviously it was n’t influence me , since I found out about it 5 minute ago . ”
Graham ’s Charles William Post seem prominently timed with anop - edin The Economist indite by OpenAI board member Bret Taylor and Larry Summers that pushes back against asseveration made by Toner and Tasha McCauley , another former OpenAI board member , that Altman ca n’t be trusted to “ reliably resist the imperativeness of net income incentives . ”
Toner and McCauley might have a detail . The Information reports that Altman isconsideringturning OpenAI into a for - profit potbelly as investor , in particular Microsoft , pushthe firm to prioritise commercial-grade projects .
