Sam Altman — the leader of one of the world’s most influential AI companies that created ChatGPT, OpenAI — was fired on Friday night by the startup’s board in a surprise move.
Within about 48 hours, he was hired to run a new division at Microsoft where he’ll be arguably even more powerful, with the resources of one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
But more than 700 OpenAI employees, including other top executives, have threatened to join Altman at Microsoft, in an open letter addressed to OpenAI’s four-member board.
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In the letter, which circulated on Monday, they called for the board’s resignation.
They also called for Altman’s reinstatement, as well as that of OpenAI former president and co-founder, Greg Brockman, who quit in protest after Altman was fired.
“If the architects and vision and brains behind these products have now left, the company will be a shell of what it once was,” said Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute director, Sarah Kreps.
“All of that brain trust going to Microsoft will then mean that these impressive tools will be coming out of Microsoft.
“It will be hard to see OpenAI continue to thrive as a company.”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he was “extremely excited” to bring on the pair and looked “forward to getting to know” the new management team at OpenAI.
Altman later said on X that his top priority was to ensure that OpenAI “continues to thrive” and that it was committed to “fully providing continuity of operations to our partners and customers.”
Who is Sam Altman?
Altman helped catapult ChatGPT to global fame, based on the technology’s ability to respond to questions and produce human-like passages of text in a seemingly natural way.
In the past year, he has become Silicon Valley’s most in-demand voice on the promise and potential dangers of artificial intelligence.
Earlier this year, he went on a world tour to meet government officials, drawing big crowds at public events as he discussed the risks of AI and attempts to regulate the emerging technology.
But as money poured into OpenAI this year, it also brought more conflict around whether that fast pace of commercialisation fit with the startup’s founding vision.
Why Sam Altman was fired?
OpenAI said on Friday that Altman was pushed out after a review found he was “not consistently candid in his communications” with the board of directors, which in turn lost confidence in his ability to lead the company.
In an X post on Monday, OpenAI’s new interim chief executive, Emmett Shear, said he would hire an independent investigator to look into Altman’s ousting and write a report within 30 days.
“It’s clear that the process and communications around Sam’s removal” were handled “very badly”, wrote Shear, who co-founded Twitch, an Amazon-owned livestreaming service popular with video gamers.
Shear said he planned in the next month to “reform the management and leadership team in light of recent departures” by driving changes in the organisation, including “significant governance changes if necessary”.
Originally started as a non-profit, and still governed as one, OpenAI’s stated mission is to safely build AI that is “generally smarter than humans”.
Analysts believe a key factor in the lead up to the ousting was tension between Altman, who favoured developing AI more aggressively, and members of the OpenAI board, who wanted to move more cautiously.
But Shear said the reason behind the board’s removal of Altman was not a “specific disagreement on safety”, nor does the board oppose commercialisation of AI models.
The company said in a statement that Altman’s behaviour was hindering the board’s ability to exercise its responsibilities.
The open letter from employees included allegations that, after Altman’s firing, the company’s remaining executive team had recommended that the board resign and be replaced with a “qualified board” that could stabilise the company.
But the board resisted and said allowing OpenAI to be destroyed would be consistent with its mission, according to the letter.
“Everyone at @OpenAI is united,” one of the signatories, research scientist Noam Brown, said on X.
“This is not a civil war. Unless Sam and Greg are brought back, there will be no OpenAI left to govern.”
An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed that the company’s board received the open letter.
Microsoft declined to comment on the letter.
-With CNN
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