Imagine a company that, overnight, loses its own co-founder and CEO, in addition to the support of the majority of its employees! It doesn’t seem like a pleasant situation for a weekend, but that’s what happened with the OpenAI.
The company board behind theChatGPT fired, last Friday (17), CEO Sam Altman. According to the board itself, the former CEO was not frank in his communications, which led to a loss of trust on the part of senior members of the company.
The board’s decision generated negative reactions within OpenAI, including the immediate departure of former president Greg Brockman, who was supported by more than 500 employees in solidarity with him and Sam.
Sam and I are shocked and saddened by what the board did today.
Let us first say thank you to all the incredible people who we have worked with at OpenAI, our customers, our investors, and all of those who have been reaching out.
We too are still trying to figure out exactly
Greg Brockman (@gdb) November 18, 2023
Sam and I are shocked and saddened by what the council did todayGreg posted on his official X (formerly known as Twitter) account.
In an open letter, employees stated that they were willing to follow Altman and Brockman, who migrated to Microsoft, unless the board reinstated them OpenAI. In a confident gesture, they confirmed that the company created by Bill Gates has the space to accommodate them all.
The process by which you fired Sam Altman and removed Greg Brockman from the board threatened our work and compromised our company. Your actions have made it clear that you do not have the competence to oversee OpenAI, the employees wrote.
Among the letter’s signatories is Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist and board member, who initially agreed with the dismissal and commented that he would not take drastic action unless he felt it was absolutely necessary. After the controversy, Ilya reversed his decision and declared that he had no intention of destroying the company.
In addition to Sutskever, technology director Mira Murati, who would take over as CEO, also signed the letter, which led OpenAI to offer the position to Emmett Shear, co-founder of Twitch, who accepted. However, this decision also generated controversy, with employees refusing to participate in an emergency meeting following the announcement. Shear, in addition to declaring that the situation was poorly handled by OpenAI, highlighting Altman and Brockman’s commitment to building the company, hired an independent investigator to investigate the case that led to Sam’s dismissal.
Meanwhile, at Microsoft, OpenAI’s main investor, the relationship appears more stable. Sam Altman now leads the company’s artificial intelligence team. Despite the controversy, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, stated that the company will maintain its ties with the owner of ChatGPT, even announcing a new personal collaboration with OpenAI.
What were the real reasons?
The reasons behind the dismissal remain a matter of speculation, but according to journalist Kara Swisher, Altman and Sutskever were at odds with the direction the board was taking in developing and commercializing OpenAI. The former CEO was interested in expanding the company into the hardware and create a chip of artificial intelligence, possibly to compete withNVIDIA.Altman’s approach was seen as impulsive by the company’s board, which has more cautious ideals. Kara shared the information in a series of tweets.
Scoop: There are about to be a lot more major departures of top folks at @OpenAI tonight and I assume Altman will make a statement tonight. But, as I understand it, it was a misalignment of the profit versus nonprofit adherents at the company. The developer day was an issue.
Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) November 18, 2023
Sources tell me that the company’s profit direction under Altman and speed of development, which could be seen as too risky, and the nonprofit side dedicated to more safety and caution were at odds. One person on Sam’s side called it a coup, while another said it was the right move, commented the journalist.
* With information from BBC, Fast Company, Exame and O Globo | Cover photo: Reproduction/Internet
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