On Friday, the board of directors of OpenAI, the artificial intelligence startup behind ChatGPT and other AI-driven buzzwords, did something unexpected but seemingly within its purview: it replaced CEO Sam Altman.
But judging from the development of the situation, OpenAI's investors and partners, as well as many employees, appear to be more willing to accept the power of the board of directors rather than exercise this power. And they didn't expect that Altman, the former president of YCombinator and a veteran in the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial circle, would receive such a cult of personality.
On Saturday evening, just 24 hours after the OpenAI board of directors unceremoniously announced that OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati would temporarily take over Altmann's position, multiple publications published reports that the OpenAI board of directors was negotiating to return Altmann to the helm.
What changed their minds? There's no doubt investor anger and panic -- and dissatisfaction with management.
According to reports, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, OpenAI's main partner, became "livid" "minutes after learning of Altman's departure" and has been in contact with Altman and promised to support him. Meanwhile, some of OpenAI's major venture capital backers are said to be considering filing a lawsuit against the board; none of the backers, including Khosla Ventures and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman (a former OpenAI board member), were given advance notice of Altman's firing.
Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, said the fund wants Altman to return to OpenAI but will support him "no matter what he does next."
@sama is the best of a generation of CEOs. He was a promoter whose positive mark on the world will be indelible and far-reaching in every corner of the globe. Wherever he is, it will be an honor to work alongside him.
— Vinod Khosla (@vkhosla) November 19, 2023
Microsoft's influence is particularly large. According to Semafor,OpenAI has received only a fraction of the company's recent $10 billion investment, and much of that funding came in the form of buying cloud computing services rather than cash.Withholding those credits and the rest of the cash investment could put the cash-hungry OpenAI in financial trouble as the cost of running and training artificial intelligence systems continues to rise.
As the board considered its next move, OpenAI's top artificial intelligence researchers and executives announced their exits.
Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president and co-founder, resigned on Friday after the board stripped him of his chairmanship. After Brockman, three senior researchers at OpenAI also left one after another, including research director Jakub Pachocki and preparation director Aleksander Madry. According to reports, more employees have submitted resignations.
They believe this is purely a power struggle, especially between Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo (Adam D'Angelo), Sutskever (Sutskever) and Altman, two board members, causing unacceptable collateral damage. Sutskever said at the company's all-hands meeting on Friday that he believed Altman's removal was "necessary" to protect OpenAI's mission of "making artificial intelligence good for humanity," a sign that Altman's business ambitions for the company were beginning to unsettle those in power on the board. (Technically, OpenAI’s board of directors is part of a nonprofit organization that manages OpenAI’s monetization strategy).
But many in the tech world—apparently including OpenAI—feel exactly the opposite. The outpouring of high-profile support for Altman continues to grow.
So when Altman and Brockman approached investors about a new artificial intelligence chip venture and OpenAI's employee stock sales faced an uncertain future, the board faced an uncomfortable U-turn. Sutskever and the other members of the board — tech entrepreneur Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner, director of strategy at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technologies — may have felt their decision to fire Altman was justified. But that doesn't seem to be their real decision.
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