On Sunday, the board of ChatGPT creator OpenAI rejected pressure from Microsoft and other significant investors to reverse its stunning decision to fire CEO Sam Altman, US media reported. The nonprofit lab rocketed to fame with the launch of ChatGPT last year, showcasing advances in generative artificial intelligence that set off a gold rush in the sector. The tech boom has raised concerns that the technology could be used to spread falsehoods, violate copyright protections, and upend jobs. It has also brought a wave of new venture capital investments. The saga over the future of a startup founded in 2015 by Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and others will likely have implications far beyond Silicon Valley.
OpenAI’s board said Altman’s “lack of candor” hindered its ability to exercise its responsibilities. He did not respond to requests for comment. Altman is a startup incubator Y Combinator co-founder and a former CEO of PayPal. He led a group of tech luminaries that invested $1 billion to launch OpenAI in 2015.
In the early days, the lab was nonprofit with an original charter aiming to ensure that “artificial intelligence benefits all humanity.” But in 2018, it changed its corporate structure into a for-profit company and shifted its focus to commercially viable applications of generative AI. The move irked some of its founders, including Altman, who left the board in favor of co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever.
Sutskever is widely viewed as the “real brains” behind ChatGPT and is a leading figure in developing an algorithm to prevent any future superintelligent AI from harming humans. He recently revealed that his highest priority is developing a method.
But many critical details of what happened in the weeks leading up to Altman’s firing remain shrouded in mystery, given that most involved nondisclosure agreements still with wet ink. Tech journalists are scouring documents and interviewing sources for clues.
OpenAI staffers have been told that the company is optimistic it can bring back Altman and Brockman, The Information reported. A memo sent to employees on Saturday night by Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon, citing a call with Brockman and Sutskever, needed to specify what progress had been made in those efforts.
The board’s decision blindsided Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who has been in touch with Altman to offer support, people familiar with the situation said. According to the sources, other principal OpenAI backers, including Tiger Global and Thrive Capital, have been recruiting Microsoft’s help in putting pressure on the board to reconsider its decision.
