Sam Altman the sociopath, reasons for hope, McD’s CEO says it’s mom’s fault, and men failing up
Story of the Week (DR):
Jeff Shell, president and board director at Paramount Skydance, is stepping down after allegations of SEC violations
Shell came under scrutiny after gambler and whistleblower R.J. Cipriani filed a $150M lawsuit alleging Shell shared confidential information in violation of SEC rules.
Shell previously left his role as NBCUniversal CEO in 2023 after he admitted to having an “inappropriate relationship” with an employee.
The company said it did not find an SEC violation. Paramount added in a statement that the claims were “baseless” and said Shell is taking “forceful legal action.”
His future at Paramount has been in question since the company beat Netflix in a bidding war in February to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery The acquisition of WBD will bring in many new executives, and Shell, who was not involved in deal talks, didn’t have a defined role at a combined company, CNBC reported last month.
Yesterday, a Separation Agreement was announced: Shell will be getting approximately $16M:
$5M Cash Severance ($3.5M salary + $1.5M bonus)
$11M Equity Acceleration (1,000,000 shares @ $10.95=$10.95M)
12 months of COBRA benefits COBRA/Subsidies ~$30,000
According to the agreement: “The Executive shall not issue a press statement announcing about the separation without the advance approval of the Company” and “Nothing contained in this Agreement shall be deemed or construed as an admission of wrongdoing or liability on the part of the Company or of the Executive”
“The problem is Sam Altman”: OpenAI Insiders don’t trust CEO DR
Inside Sources Say Sam Altman Is a Sociopath
OpenAI Insiders Claim Sam Altman is Lying, Manipulative, and Untrustworthy in The New Yorker's Investigation
Two OpenAI Execs Are Going on Medical Leave
The company’s chief marketing officer Kate Rouch is reportedly stepping down to recover from cancer.
And Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of artificial general intelligence development — and arguably one of the AI company’s most important cogs — is taking medical leave.
“For my entire time here, I’ve postponed medical tests and new therapies to stay completely focused on the job and not miss a single day of work”
Proxy adviser ISS recommended a vote against the BP board for revoking two resolutions from 2015 and 2019 requiring company-specific climate reporting which passed with near 100% support at the time.
At the same time, Activist shareholder Follow This agreed with ISS and warned of possible legal action after BP refused to put a separate shareholder resolution on the agenda of its April 23 AGM
Oklahoma bill would block climate change lawsuits against fossil fuel companies
A measure introduced in the legislature this year would prohibit anyone in Oklahoma from suing fossil fuel companies for damages related to the effects of climate change or greenhouse gas emissions.
Rep. Anthony Moore (R-Clinton) said the legislation would protect the industry, which includes any company working with oil and gas, coal, natural gas liquids or refined petroleum products: “The reality is, if you were to get that judgment, billions and billions of dollars, that's just passed on to the taxpayer — that would be passed on at the pump, that would be passed on through electricity costs, energy costs across the board would dramatically change. There's no reason that that has any place in any court of law, but especially in Oklahoma.”
Rep. Anthony Moore won a state championship in golf; minored in Bible in college; began his professional career as a landman in the oil and gas industry; his law practice focuses primarily on oil and gas; and has received numerous recognitions for his for his work representing oil and gas mineral owners, earning Super Lawyers Rising Star recognition in the field of oil and gas law for five consecutive years.
Mark Cuban admits he made a mistake letting go of the Mavericks: ‘I don’t regret selling. I regret who I sold to’
Family of Sheldon Adelson
founder/chair/CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation
Owned more than 50% of stock
Still routing took $25M in pay, including $5M in security costs
Son-in law patrick Dumont: CFO/director
Donald Trump's largest donor in 2016 and 2020 ($557M as of 2024)
In February 2012, Adelson told Forbes magazine that he was "against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it.”
secretly bought Nevada's largest newspaper for $140 million through a shell company: the Las Vegas Review-Journal in Dec. 2015, a deal orchestrated by Adelson's son-in-law Patrick Dumont and seen as "lavish" and as a dramatic overpayment, and speculated that the move was a power play to further Adelson's business or political agendas
A set of editorial principles drawn up in 2016 and publicized to ensure the newspaper's independence and to deal with possible conflicts of interest involving Adelson's ownership were withdrawn after a new publisher was hired. The new publisher personally reviewed, edited, and sometimes killed stories involving Adelson
Fighting cannabis legalization was a personal passion of Adelson, whose son Mitchell died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine.[69] Mitchell used cocaine and heroin from an early age.[70] Adelson believed cannabis is a gateway drug
A few random scandals:
The Macau Bribery Settlement ($9 Million)
The Steven Jacobs Wrongful Termination Suit
he was fired for attempting to stop "illegal" activities
The $47.4 Million Money Laundering Settlement
Allegations of Links to Triads (Organized Crime)
The "Prostitution Strategy" Allegations
Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):
MM: BP Chair Faces Shareholder Backlash Over Climate Vote Block
MM: Elon Musk seeks ouster of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as part of lawsuit
Assholiest of the Week Reasons for Hope (MM):
Journalism DR
Sam Altman piece in the New Yorker
The most well researched, thorough, and harrowing view of one of the architects of what is inevitably the worst thing to happen to humanity in AI
“Groups of senior employees, concerned with Altman’s leadership and lack of transparency, asked Loopt’s board on two occasions to fire him as C.E.O., according to Hagey.”
“We have interviewed more than a hundred people with firsthand knowledge of how Altman conducts business: current and former OpenAI employees and board members; guests and staffers at Altman’s various houses; his colleagues and competitors; his friends and enemies and several people who, given the mercenary culture of Silicon Valley, have been both.”
“Yet most of the people we spoke to shared the judgment of Sutskever and Amodei: Altman has a relentless will to power that, even among industrialists who put their names on spaceships, sets him apart. “He’s unconstrained by truth,” the board member told us. “He has two traits that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is a strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction. The second is almost a sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may come from deceiving someone.”
“Altman is not a technical savant—according to many in his orbit, he lacks extensive expertise in coding or machine learning. Multiple engineers recalled him misusing or confusing basic technical terms. He built OpenAI, in large part, by harnessing other people’s money and technical talent.”
“My vibes don’t match a lot of the traditional A.I.-safety stuff,” Altman said.
Even people close to Altman find it difficult to know where his “hope for humanity” ends and his ambition begins.
Senator who criticized Disney for being ‘too woke’ spotted at Disney World
GOP Sen. Rick Scott from Florida had been paparazzied by TMZ at Disney World during a recess
He said, “Disney used to be the happiest place on Earth, now it’s just woke central. It’s on the losing side of an issue that the majority of families, regardless of political ideology, agree with.”
He also criticized the hypocrisy of Disney. Scott added, “While Disney tries to lecture us with these extreme views, the mouse is completely unwilling to speak up for freedom and against real oppression in places such as Communist China.”
Local resistance
Maine set to become first state with data center ban
There is a great con of the data center - jobs
Really means: energy consumption, a handful of jobs, but state subsidies to placate billionaires who don’t want to pay
Maine doesn’t have a water problem, but could if a data center starts eating it all
Studies now showing how bad data centers are for people - compute is the new oil
A small city just voted on AI, and the result could ripple nationwide
Despite Apocalyptic Warnings, California Fast Food Wage Hike Didn’t Kill Jobs
The list of countries banning young teens from social media keeps getting bigger. Here’s the latest
Labor resistance
Gen Z workers are so fearful AI will take their job they’re intentionally sabotaging their company’s AI rollout
ProPublica journalists go on strike partly over use of AI
A Major Strike of Beef Workers Pauses in Colorado—but Workers Say the Fight Isn’t Over
United Airlines and flight attendants reached a tentative deal with $740 million in bonuses
Women
MacKenzie Scott rewrote the rules of philanthropy. Who will follow her lead?
When Robby Starbuck says of Bill Ackman: ““There is a system that preys more on white males, because it’s like they are outside the victim hierarchy.” - woman must be winning
Headliniest of the Week
DR: McDonald's CEO said he blames his mother for his infamous Big Arch taste test
MM: You’re looking at the AI revolution all wrong, top economist says: 40% unemployment and a 3-day work week are the same thing
MM: CoStar Group Ranked No. 1 on Washington Business Journal’s List of Women on Public Company Boards
-23% gender power gap
CEO Andrew Florance has 54% influence, is a dictator
Average female director tenure: 2 years; average male director tenure: 15 years
Who Won the Week?
DR: Jeff Shell, for constantly failing up
MM: Nepo grandchildren: Hershey is moving back to the original recipe for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups after the chocolate’s grandson blasted them last month
Predictions
DR: New BP CEO Meg O’Neill blames her grandmother, her sister, her mom, her aunt, herself, and her daughter and then apologizes after it is proven that BP’s scaled back "green energy" targets missed out on revenue from effects of the War in the Middle East (despite the fact it wasn’t her decision in the first place)
MM: Everything Jamie Dimon says this week:
JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon says don’t make big decisions when you’re tired—especially if it’s a Friday. PREDICTION - No decisions are made on Fridays
Jamie Dimon says New York, other cities face worker 'exodus' as lawmakers push higher taxes. PREDICTION - All workers leave NYC.
Jamie Dimon Says Inflation Could Be 'Skunk at the Party': PREDICTION - NYC party guests start bringing skunks
