Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, was fired from his position on Nov. 17. The Verge reported a day later that the OpenAI board was in discussions with Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman to return, with many of the board members previously pushing for his removal completely pivoting. Interim CEO Emmett Shear, appointed on Nov. 19 to replace previous interim CEO Mira Murati, allegedly threatened to leave unless the board could provide evidence for firing Altman.
This was likely in response to the threat of a mass exodus of the company’s workers. By evening on Monday, Nov. 20, over 730 employees had signed an open letter threatening resignation unless Altman and Brockman were rehired. The 738 employees represented 95 percent of the company.
“Your actions have made it obvious you are incapable of overseeing OpenAI,” the employees wrote to the board. “We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgment, and care for our mission and employees. … Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary (run by Altman and Brockman) should we choose to join.”
Days after OpenAI fired Altman and Brockman resigned in solidarity, Microsoft hired them and the company’s stock rose substantially. The tech giant has already invested over $13 billion in the other company, owning a 49 percent share. By hiring Altman directly, they cemented their position as leaders in the AI development race.
However, the win was clouded by the potential implications for AI safety, something OpenAI’s mission statement centers around. Earlier this year, Microsoft eliminated its entire AI ethics team. Those employees were crucial to ensuring the company’s products reflected responsible AI policies. With AI progressing quickly and Altman driving innovation, losing top talent like him could take OpenAI out of the running.
But they did not lose him after all — OpenAI rehired Altman on Nov. 22, five days after his initial dismissal. The CEO was welcomed back to a radically different interim board, notably excluding those who pushed the hardest against him. This new board includes Bret Taylor, who has worked with Shopify, Salesforce, and Twitter as well as Lawrence Summers, a former Harvard University president and Clinton administration Treasury Secretary. Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo is the only previous member who kept his seat. OpenAI appears to have ousted former members Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley, and Ilya Sutskever from the board, though multiple remain as company executives.
Reports are still inconclusive on why the board fired Altman, beyond vague statements about his lack of transparency. Many critics surmise that his values began to depart from OpenAI’s mission on the cautious development of artificial general intelligence, or that he was pushing the company in a more ambitious and profit-driven direction than the board’s skeptics were comfortable with.
If firing Altman was due to distrust in his commitment to that overarching goal, rehiring him suggests OpenAI has decided that may be less important than moving full speed ahead with AI — before anyone surpasses their increasingly tentative lead. Whether or not his firing resulted from a disregard for safety or a fear of faster progress through partnerships with tech giants is still unclear, as is OpenAI’s future.
Since the release of ChatGPT last November, the company’s non-profit roots have grown into a rapidly expanding technology boom that promises billions of dollars to the highest powers. Big Technology writer Alex Kantrowitz claims the AI field “will not go back to ‘normal’ after this.”
“OpenAI was already vulnerable coming into the chaos and will now have to work harder to maintain its lead while facing inspired competition,” Kantrowitz said. He explained that OpenAI “sold the world’s top AI researchers on a vision and a safety valve: Join us, help us get closer to human-level artificial intelligence, and if things get unsafe, the board will step in. [However, the] board was poorly structured, almost blew up the company, and the new structure will be less safety-focused. The future of the AI safety field is in flux.”
Leave a Reply