Astral Codex Ten

Adam D’Angelo

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Adam D’Angelo

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Adam D’Angelo is a recurring person in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 4 times across 4 issues between November 28, 2023 and January 02, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as “Adam D’Angelo, and Larry Summers”; “appointment of three mutually agreeable board members (Larry Summers, Bret Taylor, Adam D’Angelo)”; “What was Adam D’Angelo’s angle?“. It most often appears alongside OpenAI, Sam Altman, Aella.

Metadata

  • Category: People
  • Mention count: 4
  • Issue count: 4
  • First seen: November 28, 2023
  • Last seen: January 02, 2025

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

In Continued Defense Of Effective Altruism
November 28, 2023 · Original source
Open Philanthropy Project originally got one seat on the OpenAI board by supporting them when they were still a nonprofit; that later went to Helen Toner. I’m not sure how Tasha McCauley got her seat. Currently the provisional board is Bret Taylor, Adam D’Angelo, and Larry Summers. Summers says he “believe[s] in effective altruism” but doesn’t seem AI-risk-pilled. Adam D’Angelo has never explicitly identified with EA or the AI risk movement but seems to have sided with the EAs in the recent fight so I’m not sure how to count him.
23
December 05, 2023 · Original source
The crisis ended with the appointment of three mutually agreeable board members (Larry Summers, Bret Taylor, Adam D’Angelo), who are supposed to seed a new full board to be picked later. I can’t find a market for who will be on this new board exactly. This one is for who will be on the board as of 1/1/24. Most forecasters don’t expect the new board to have been picked by then, but the few who do can give us some information about who they expect to be on it.
I’m most unsure about whether Adam D’Angelo is a committed safetyist. He hasn’t said so explicitly and isn’t openly linked to the safetyist movement. But he’s displayed a lot of awareness of the arguments, and he joined the coalition to fire Altman.
Or it could have nothing to do with that. Maybe it wasn’t a Machiavellian factional decision at all. Bret Taylor was the head of the Twitter board that negotiated with Musk; people think he did a good job. He might just be “generic person who’s good at boards”. Larry Summers is also a generic person who’s probably good at boards. Adam D’Angelo could credibly claim to be the most moderate (neither explicitly an Altman pawn nor explicitly a safetyist) person on the last board, and if they were going for a board of moderates, he could be there to provide continuity.
Son Of Bride Of Bay Area House Party
December 12, 2023 · Original source
It has been three weeks since Sam Altman was fired, but the conversation won’t move on. “What did Ilya see?” asks your Uber driver, on the way to the airport. “What wasn’t he consistently candid about?” ask people on the street, as you walk your dog. “What was Adam D’Angelo’s angle?” asks the cop, as he writes you a ticket. “Was the Microsoft move just a bluff?” asks the robber at gunpoint, as he ransacks your apartment.
It's Still Easier To Imagine The End Of The World Than The End Of Capitalism
January 02, 2025 · Original source
Altman has fired all independent board members (except possibly Adam D’Angelo?) and handpicked their replacements. This was apparently a response to the 2023 board coup, but the coup itself was caused by Altman trying to fire independent board members, so the exact cause and effect is unclear. In any case, he’ll probably succeed at getting board permission to change the structure. The main obstacle now is legal and regulatory - people who contributed to the charity may have grounds to sue. One of those people is Elon Musk, who hates OpenAI, loves suing people, and low-key controls the country. Sounds like everyone will have a fun time.