On Friday, the board of directors of OpenAI, the AI startup behind ChatGPT and other viral AI hits, did something unexpected but seemingly well within its rights: deleted CEO Sam Altman.
But as things unfold, OpenAI’s investors and partners — as well as many employees — appear to be concerned about idea They weren’t counting on the cult of personality surrounding Altman, the former president of Y Combinator and a longtime fixture on the Silicon Valley startup scene.
On Saturday night, just 24 hours after the OpenAI board of directors unceremoniously announced that Altman would be replaced on an interim basis by OpenAI CTO Mira Murati. many kinds of publication Reports have emerged suggesting that OpenAI’s board of directors is in talks to bring Altman back at the helm.
What changed their minds? There’s no doubt investor anger and panic — and rankings.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft Corporation main Open artificial intelligence partnerused to be report “Angry” at the news of Ultraman’s departureEvery minute” After the incident, as an OpenAI supporter, I have kept in touch with Altman and promised to support him. recruit Microsoft helped put pressure on the board to change course. At the same time, some of OpenAI’s major venture capital backers are said to be considering filing a lawsuit against the board; including Khosla Ventures and LinkedIn co-founder and former OpenAI board member Reid Hoffman, who was notified in advance of Altman’s decision to fire Altman.
Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, said the fund hopes Altman returns to OpenAI but will support him “whatever he does next.”
@sama He is a once-in-a-lifetime CEO. He was a provocateur whose positive impact on the world will have an indelible and profound impact in every corner of the globe. It was a privilege to work with him wherever he was.
— Vinod Khosla (@vkhosla) November 19, 2023
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Microsoft in particular has a lot of influence. OpenAI only got Fraction According to Semafor, a large portion of the company’s recent $10 billion investment came in the form of purchasing cloud computing rather than cash. Withholding these funds, along with the remaining cash investments, could result in OpenAI going bankrupt. As the cost of running and training its artificial intelligence systems continued to increase, the company was desperate for cash and found itself in an unsustainable financial position.
As the board considers its next steps, OpenAI’s top artificial intelligence researchers and executives announced their exits.
On Friday, OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman was appointed to the board of directors after he was removed from his role as chairman. Following Brockman, three senior OpenAI researchers also left, including research director Jakub Pachocki and head of readiness Aleksander Madry.employees are report Resign.
They see this as a power struggle, particularly between two board members, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo and Sutskever, and Altman with an unacceptable level of collateral damage. Sutskever said at the company’s all-hands meeting on Friday that he believed Altman’s ouster was “technically part of the nonprofit organization that manages OpenAI’s monetization strategy.”
but many The tech world – and apparently OpenAI – feels the opposite. high profile support It was an immediate success for Ultraman.
So, as Ultraman and Brockman method Investors focus on a new artificial intelligence chip-focused company and OpenAI employee stock sale Faced with an uncertain future, boards face an unsettling U-turn. Sutskever and the other board members — tech entrepreneur Tasha McCauley; and Helen Toner, director of strategy at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technologies — may have considered firing Altman The decision was correct and reasonable. But that doesn’t seem to be their real decision.