Timeline:
- ChatGPT’s-parent OpenAI board fires Sam Altman
- Greg Brockman President & Co-Founder of OpenAl resigns
- Mira Murati, former CTO, becomes interim CEO.
- Mira Murati offers Altman a temporary position
- OpenAI hires former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear
- Microsoft hires Sam Altman to lead Microsoft’s new Al team
- OpenAI employees protest and promise to resign.
- Sam Altman joins OpenAI as CEO again.
In a tech industry tale reminiscent of a startup’s wild journey, the recent upheaval at OpenAI reached its conclusion with a celebratory party in San Francisco’s eclectic Mission District. Just days after the board ousted CEO Sam Altman, the company announced his reinstatement, sparking jubilation among employees who gathered to mark the occasion with chicken tenders, boba tea, and champagne.
This corporate drama, fueled by financial stakes, ally campaigns, media scrutiny, and a cautious A.I. community, resulted in a significant overhaul. OpenAI, once on the precipice of collapse, is now poised to replace its heavily criticized board of directors with a more traditional group, including figures like former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.
The board reshuffle aims to position OpenAI for a more stable future, especially after the widely adopted ChatGPT chatbot put the company in the spotlight. However, questions loom about whether the revamped board, which may include members from major investor Microsoft and the A.I. research community, can strike the right balance between profit motives and OpenAI’s original mission of creating safe and beneficial artificial intelligence.
The incident highlighted the ongoing challenge of aligning the interests of profit-seeking business executives with the concerns of researchers who grapple with the potential societal impacts of their creations, particularly in the realm of job displacement and the ethical considerations of technologies like autonomous weapons.
Observers, including Box CEO Aaron Levie, see this episode as a transformative blip that offers OpenAI an opportunity for a public and dramatic reset. The hope is that the organization emerges more trustworthy, aligned with its board, and ultimately more valuable than before.
The sudden firing and subsequent reinstatement of Sam Altman, combined with the resignation of OpenAI’s president Greg Brockman, underscored the unusual governance structure of the company. Controlled by the board of a nonprofit, with investors lacking a formal mechanism to influence decisions, OpenAI faced a governance crisis that led to internal strife and public scrutiny.
The key dispute revolved around an October research paper co-authored by Helen Toner, an OpenAI board member. The paper drew criticism from Altman, who felt it undermined the company’s safety efforts while praising a competitor. This episode, among others, contributed to the growing frustration within the board, ultimately leading to Altman’s removal.
As OpenAI emerges from this turbulent period, the tech industry and the world at large will be closely watching to see if the company can strike a balance between innovation, profitability, and ethical responsibility. Only time will tell whether OpenAI has indeed undergone a transformation that aligns with its mission and ensures a more harmonious collaboration between business objectives and societal concerns.