On November 18, Beijing time, people familiar with the matter revealed,OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was ousted due to widespread disagreements with the company's board of directors on a series of issues, especially with OpenAI's other co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever.
People familiar with the matter said that the two parties have different views on the safety of artificial intelligence (AI), the speed of technology development and the commercialization of the company. The dispute once again highlights the divisions within OpenAI over the responsible development of AI. This problem has plagued OpenAI since its creation. Previously, similar disagreements within OpenAI over AI safety and commercialization had led to Elon Musk parting ways with the company in 2018, and a group of employees quit in 2020 to create Anthropic to compete with OpenAI.
Infighting exposed
In July of this year, Suskwo formed a new team at OpenAI to control possible "super-intelligent" AI systems in the future. Before joining OpenAI, the Israeli-Canadian computer scientist worked at Google Brain and as a researcher at Stanford University.
People familiar with the matter said that Suskwo was stripped of his power a month ago and there was friction between him, Altman and company president Greg Brockman (Greg Brockman). Suskwo then appealed to the board and won the support of some directors, including Helen Toner, director of strategy at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technologies.
As a result, Altmann was ousted on Friday. Brockman later announced his resignation.
According to people familiar with the matter, Altman himself and Brockman were shocked by the decision to remove OpenAI’s board of directors. It also caught major Silicon Valley investors and startups off guard, plunging one of the most promising tech industries into uncertainty.
As of late Friday morning, Altman was still sending emails to employees as usual in his capacity as CEO. On Thursday, he even appeared at multiple events, speaking on behalf of OpenAI at the APEC Summit in San Francisco, and also attended a night event associated with Burning Man, where he spoke about the future of AI art.
Altman is a huge influence in the technology world, having backed and co-founded a number of startups. He was also a major voice in the AI industry, and his departure could undermine confidence in the technology. But like past scandals, some predict the AI industry will not be affected.
“I don’t think this will shake anyone’s confidence in the technology industry,” said Cory Klippsten, CEO of Bitcoin financial services company Swan. “I think it will allow people to really take a closer look at the biases or rules or protocols that exist in the OpenAI structure.”