In its incredibly short history, OpenAI has become famous for two things: astronomical technological ambition and comical corporate governance. It's not a pleasant combination.
Sam Altman's firing raises further concerns about AI management.
The sudden departure of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman from the board last Friday sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley like few other events in recent years. The genetic AI leader, who had helped make OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot a success as a service to users, was ousted from the board during a video call. Soon after, several other top OpenAI executives, including its president, Greg Brockman, followed suit.
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There are many mysteries surrounding the story and how it will end. The reason the board rejected Sam Altman may be because he wasn’t completely honest with his colleagues. Sam Altman’s strong desire to start an chip raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest. However, the board itself was not clear in its reasoning for its decision to OpenAI employees, investors, and Microsoft. More than 500 of OpenAI’s 770 employees signed an open letter calling for Altman to return and the board to resign, putting the company’s future in doubt.
However, this case raises broader questions about how artificial intelligence companies are governed.
OpenAI has always been a special business, to be sure. The research company was founded in 2015 as a non-profit organization dedicated to safely developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity. However, the cost of developing advanced models is so high that it’s difficult for non-profits to stay in the game for long. That’s why OpenAI created a for-profit division, while maintaining a non-profit board of directors, in order to attract outside investment and commercialize services .
This structure has caused tensions between the two “tribes” at OpenAI, as Sam Altman calls them. The security team, led by scientist and board member Ilya Sutskever, has argued that OpenAI should stick to its original purpose and develop AI with caution. What does all this mean for Microsoft? Its $13 billion investment in OpenAI is clearly at risk — though much of that commitment was in the form of computing resources, which have yet to be committed. Still, Microsoft appeared on Monday to have triumphed by hiring Altman and several top OpenAI researchers. As Ben Thompson, a writer for the newsletter Stratechery, noted, Microsoft may in fact have “just acquired OpenAI for $0 and zero antitrust risk.”.
Read more: OpenAI: ChatGPT outages were due to a DDoS attack
The irreparable damage to OpenAI also reinforces calls for artificial intelligence to be developed by scientists at an international, non-commercial research institute similar to CERN. If those developing such powerful technologies cannot self-regulate, then they must prepare for the possibility of being subject to external regulation.
Source: ft.com
