Sam Altman, who has rapidly become a household name for his work on ChatGPT, was pushed out of OpenAI on Friday. But that doesn’t mean Altman is anywhere near out of the AI game: Reports are already emerging suggesting he’s got designs for a new venture.
Altman’s dismissal was a shocking move that’s likely going to have longterm repercussions for the company and the AI community at large. And it’s left many of us wondering what exactly happened.
The board of directors gave few details, saying only that Altman had not been “consistently candid in his communications with the board.” CTO Mira Murati is taking over as interim chief while the company looks for a successor. It seems that investors, managers, employees, and even Altman were blindsided by the decision. Greg Brockman, who was also removed as chairman of the board at the same time, gave his version of the timeline last night before announcing on X (formerly Twitter) that he was resigning from his role as president in solidarity with Altman. Three senior researchers have also resigned in protest, according to The Information.
“We too are still trying to figure out exactly what happened,” Brockman wrote on X. He said that on Thursday night, Altman received a text from board member and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever asking him to meet Friday. Altman joined the meeting, along with the board (minus Brockman) and was told he was being fired, “with the news going out very soon.” That same day, according to Brockman, Sutskever asked him to meet. Sutskever said that Brockman was being removed from the board, but would stay in his position as president. “As far as we know, the management team was made aware of this shortly after, other than Mira who found out the night prior,” he wrote.
It’s not clear exactly what lead to Altman’s (and Brockman’s) ousting. The board’s claim that they couldn’t trust Altman as the head of the company anymore was blunt. But it was vague too, citing only the communications issue.
Slowly, though, details are starting to trickle out. “We can say definitively that the board’s decision was not made in response to malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety or security/privacy practices,” OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap reportedly told employees on Saturday. “This was a breakdown in communication between Sam and the board.”
Bloomberg reports that there were internal disagreements between Altman and the board over the tensions between commercialization and product safety. Tech journalist Kara Swisher on X added that Sutskever was at the center of this shakeup. “Increasing tensions with Sam Altman and Greg Brockman over role and influence and he got the board on his side,” Swisher wrote on X.
Sutskever, who hasn’t been in the public nearly as much as Altman, has routinely highlighted AI’s profound potential for good and bad, especially as systems approach artificial general intelligence (AGI), meaning they can learn to accomplish any intellectual task that human beings can perform. He’s recently been focused on how to contain “superintelligence”; his concern is ensuring that future AI systems—those much smarter than humans—will still follow human intent.
It’s hard to tell what Altman’s ouster—and the subsequent employee exits— will mean for the future of OpenAI. Microsoft, a huge investor in the company, reiterated its commitment to the partnership with OpenAI (despite reportedly being blindsided). “We have a long-term agreement with OpenAI with full access to everything we need to deliver on our innovation agenda and an exciting product roadmap; and remain committed to our partnership, and to Mira and the team,” CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement Friday. “Together, we will continue to deliver the meaningful benefits of this technology to the world.”
Altman already seems to be looking forward. He has been telling investors that he wants to launch a new venture, The Information reports. Brockman is expected to join that effort.
“The outpouring of support has been really nice; thank you, but please don’t spend any time being concerned. We will be fine. Greater things coming soon,” Brockman said in his X post on Friday.
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