OpenAI has recently been in the news for the sudden firing and subsequent return of its CEO—Sam Altman. The famed AI firm that built colossal language models like GPT-4 and popular chatbots such as ChatGPT was in the news due to the pandemonium and shock caused by the firm’s decision to fire its Chief Executive Officer. In what has been an extremely eventful few days for the AI domain, facets of artificial intelligence such as the technology’s purpose and its future direction were also highlighted, despite not being the central aspect of the chaotic period. OpenAI, which was built as a non-profit organization to facilitate the creation of artificial general intelligence for the betterment of humanity, eventually also launched a for-profit arm of the company—OpenAI LP—functioning on a capped profit basis in 2019.
While OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, are locked in ongoing rivalries with firms such as Google and Anthropic, internal rifts might prove to be expensive for tech companies, given that the market is highly competitive. Presently, OpenAI’s for-profit arm seeks to attract investments and talent while acting as a startup-like firm. However, the non-profit and research arms of the company were growing increasingly concerned about losing track of their core purpose, leading to numerous hasty decisions and a subsequent cascade of events that eventually resulted in the restatement of Sam Altman and the near-total departure of the company’s board.
What Led to the Ousting of OpenAI’s CEO?
Sam Altman’s removal as OpenAI’s CEO caused major upheaval within the firm.
OpenAI’s board described the removal of Sam Altman as a “breakdown of communications.” While it is still unclear what this entailed, the board concluded that Altman “was not consistently candid in his communications” and that it led to an inevitable fallout. Despite the abrupt and sudden decision that it was, the board did mention that Altman’s ousting was not due to any financial, safety, security, or malfeasance concerns. Indications point toward a complex set of internal miscommunications and deficiency of understanding between OpenAI’s CEO and the governing board of directors, which eventually led to the latter losing their confidence in Altman’s ability to lead the firm. However, the chaos spiraled out of control when the company’s President—Greg Brockman—quit due to disagreements with the board’s decision on November 17, 2023—the same day as Altman’s removal. Alongside Brockman, several other senior researchers and employees quit as well, which led to an open rebellion in the firm. A number of these researchers like Jakub Pchoky and Aleksander Madry had worked on important LLM offerings developed by the firm. OpenAI eventually announced that Mira Murati, the Chief Technology Officer, would be taking over as interim CEO. However, this was short-lived as the firm quickly announced that Emmett Shear, Twitch’s cofounder, would take over.
As people from the AI community and tech enthusiasts reeled from the news of the famed executive and others’ departure from the firm, the board of directors had already begun leaning toward bringing Altman back, barely a day following the initial announcement. This was signaled by an internal memo written by the company’s Chief Strategy Officer, Jason Kwon. As pressure from external investors increased to reinstate the ousted CEO and return the President, the employees, too, began signing an open letter demanding the board’s resignation and the restatement of Altman at the helm of the AI and machine learning colossus. As events unfolded, it was revealed that OpenAI’s chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, was at the forefront of the coup against OpenAI’s CEO, over fears that the firm was prioritizing growth and aggressive expansion over AI safety and research.
Microsoft, Negotiations with OpenAI, and Sam Altman’s Return
Altman’s return was marked by the near-complete replacement of OpenAI’s board.
Among the external stakeholders leading the negotiations with OpenAI’s board following Sam Altman’s shock departure, was Satya Nadella, the Chief Executive Officer at Microsoft. Given that Microsoft had invested heavily in the firm, along with partnerships such as those involving Bing and ChatGPT, the stakes were clearly high for them to get involved. However, with an initial discussion between the former OpenAI CEO and the board breaking down, Sam Altman announced that he would be joining Microsoft along with a few important researchers from the famed AI startup. Altman spoke about the move on social media, along with the special place he still had for OpenAI. This was seen as a smart move from Microsoft since it would now directly be involved with Sam Altman and select professionals who had left OpenAI. However, this would not come to last, as just a day following Microsoft’s big announcement, OpenAI stated that the board had reached an in-principle agreement to facilitate their former CEO’s return. By November 22, 2023, the news was out that Altman was indeed returning to OpenAI, finally putting to rest several speculations about the firm’s future.
However, the rapid transformations at OpenAI didn’t end there, with nearly the entire board being ousted following Sam’s return. The firm announced that new members of the OpenAI board will include big names from the industry including Quora founder Adam D’Angelo, former Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor, and Larry H Summers—former United States Secretary of the Treasury. Soon after, former OpenAI President Brockman also announced his return to the firm. With the confusion finally coming to an end following the OpenAI board’s removal, it could also be stated that the overall tussle in the firm was primarily between the nonprofit and for-profit arms of the startup, leading to a series of miscommunications that culminated in the events between November 17 and November 22, 2023.
AI Chatbots, Conglomerates, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT
The future of OpenAI will be interesting to witness following the new changes.
OpenAI’s renewed board along with its restated CEO will now resume their efforts in making ChatGPT and OpenAI’s other language model offerings stand out in the market. This will be crucial since the market is hotly contested by open source alternatives, Google Bard, and Claude 2. While ChatGPT still remains on top, the firm that created it might expect to see radical changes in the coming times. Since the key debate existed between sections calling for research and safety versus those focused on growth and expansion, these events hold important conclusions for both OpenAI and other AI startups. Moreover, OpenAI’s relationship with Microsoft is only set to deepen, indicating interesting developments in the future.