Massive news in AI this week – the man most-associated with the breakout ChatGPT platform, CEO Sam Altman, has been ousted from the business he co-founded, OpenAI.
It’s difficult to overstate how seismic this is. After a week where the company dazzled with its debut DevDay reveals – leading to a server overload and ChatGPT outage as everyone tried to access the considerable new features – Altman was about as impervious as could be imagined.
Yet, just a few days later, he’s gone. What happened?
The scenario that makes the most sense is that he was setting up a new venture – and the Board of OpenAI weren’t convinced he wasn’t creating something that would challenge its own business. “Not consistently candid in his communications” was the Board’s heavily-legalled excuse for its dramatic decision.
Another rumour doing the rounds is that there was a fracturing of relationships over AI ‘safety’, with Altman’s desire to rein-in the pace of technological development - to allow regulation to catch up - at odds with shareholders’ desires to maximise their first-mover advantage.
Whatever the reasons – and we’ll find out in the end – the repercussions were instant. Greg Brockman, President, Co-Founder and the tech brains behind the incredible progress the business has made, Tweeted “I quit”. Other key members of the senior team have also resigned. There are even crazy new stories swirling that the Board is now trying to re-hire Altman, in order to stop the brain-drain.
None of this is good for OpenAI.
The most likely scenario right now is that its main shareholder, Microsoft, makes like the ‘adult in the room’ and sorts everything out by taking it over. This would be the dream outcome for their super-smart (but also strangely vindictive) CEO, Satya Nardella, who has longed for control of a technology that ‘makes Google dance’.
Until then, OpenAI is going to limp along, the subject of briefings and rumours from allies and enemies alike. The biggest winners? Old, Big Tech – Google, Microsoft and Meta (Facebook).
Oh, and Elon Musk. Again.
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