Chaos at the world’s most important start-up: The development company behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT has thrown its boss out the door – and could bring him back after a few days.
According to media reports, investors in the AI company are putting pressure on bringing back Sam Altman, who was forced out. Strategy chief Jason Kwon wrote in an email to employees on Sunday night that they were “optimistic” that such a solution could come about, industry service “The Information” reported.
OpenAI’s board of directors surprisingly withdrew confidence in Altman on Friday. He was said to have been dishonest in his communications with the board. The 38-year-old Altman was the face of OpenAI – and, more broadly, the boom in artificial intelligence.
According to media reports, the background to the expulsion is a dispute over direction: part of the management team at OpenAI was of the opinion that Altman was developing the AI software too quickly and wanted to bring it to market with an approach that was too commercial. They got the majority of the board of directors on their side. Technology chief Mira Murati took over the top position on an interim basis.
The chatbot ChatGPT can formulate sentences at the linguistic level of a human. Its publication around a year ago sparked AI hype. OpenAI has thus become a pioneer in the technology. Microsoft entered into a multi-billion dollar pact with the company to bring its technology into the company’s products. Other tech heavyweights such as Google, Amazon and the Facebook group Meta presented competing software.
The financial service Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that OpenAI backers such as Microsoft, Thrive Capital and Tiger Global pressured the board of directors to bring Altman back. One possibility is that the current board of directors resigns completely.
The renowned technology journalist Kara Swisher wrote that the trigger was differences between two camps of OpenAI – namely between the for-profit and the non-profit wing. OpenAI was founded by Altman in 2015 and was also the head of Tesla, among other things Elon Musk was founded as a not-for-profit start-up to research AI. However, over time – and a billion-dollar investment from Microsoft – OpenAI became more and more a profit-oriented company. Musk, among others, repeatedly criticized this.
Note between the lines
The official communication already contained a reference to such tensions between the lines. It emphasized that OpenAI was built for one mission: “to ensure that general artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity.” We remain committed to this goal.
Some of Altman’s confidants at the company are talking about a “overthrow.” According to Swisher’s sources, Altman learned of the board’s decision just 30 minutes before the announcement was made public.
According to information from Swisher and the also well-connected industry service “The Information”, one initiator of the action against Altman was chief scientist Ilya Sutskever – another co-founder of OpenAI. According to Bloomberg, there were disagreements over how quickly the AI software should be developed, how to market it and how to minimize risks. Altman’s attempts to collect money from investors to develop his own AI chip also caused controversy.
Microsoft emphasized on Friday that it was sticking to its collaboration with OpenAI. At the same time, the software giant made it clear that the AI company could not simply withdraw from the cooperation: “We have a long-term agreement with OpenAI and have access to everything we need to implement our innovation agenda.”
The pioneering role is lucrative for OpenAI: According to media reports, a total valuation of $86 billion was assumed for the sale of employee shares. This means that OpenAI has joined the ranks of the most valuable companies not listed on the stock exchange – alongside the video service TikTok and Musk’s space company SpaceX.
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