Sam Altman, CEO of artificial intelligence startup OpenAI, said today that OpenAI is reconsidering the company's "profit and non-profit" mixed structure. Altman was abruptly ousted from OpenAI's board of directors a few weeks ago, but returned to the company as CEO last week. Today, he attended an artificial intelligence conference, which was also his first public appearance since returning to the company.
Altman told attendees that his removal was shocking, but declined to answer whether it was related to a "super artificial intelligence" technology. Previous reports suggested that Altman's expulsion may have been due to a dispute within OpenAI over a potentially dangerous super artificial intelligence technology.
OpenAI was originally a non-profit organization and is still governed through a board of directors. But then OpenAI added a for-profit subsidiary that raised huge amounts of money, including billions from Microsoft.
Today, Altman said via video at the VinAI conference hosted by Vingroup: "There are obviously some flaws in this structure, and our new board of directors is seriously thinking about what the best corporate structure should be for our mission."