There is currently chaos at OpenAI. The company’s board of directors has surprisingly fired CEO and ChatGPT inventor Sam Altman. Just one day later, under pressure from investors, there was already speculation about his return. The background to the chaos at OpenAI.
The board of OpenAI surprisingly fired CEO and ChatGPT inventor Sam Altman on Friday, November 17, 2023. Just one day later, a turnaround was already in the offing. This was because some investors such as Microsoft were pushing for Altman’s return.
This was reported by the Wall Street Journal and the Bloomberg news agency, among others. In the meantime, a solution was being worked on to bring back Sam Altman, who is considered the face of ChatGPT. However, the sensational return apparently came to nothing.
Why was Sam Altman fired?
The Board of Directors of OpenAI had surprisingly withdrawn its confidence in Sam Altman. According to reports, the supervisory body came to the conclusion that the ChatGPT boss had not been honest in terms of communication. Head of Technology Mira Murati quickly took over his position on a temporary basis.
However, it was not only well-known investors such as Microsoft that voiced their opposition, as they were apparently not privy to the decision. Numerous employees – including co-founder Greg Brockman – also announced their intention to leave the company. There was even talk of Brockman and Sam Altman founding a new AI company.
Chaos at OpenAI
But then things took another turn for the worse. Under pressure from investors, Altman’s return was suddenly on the table again just one day later. An agreement even seemed to be within reach. The condition: The Management Board should reinstate Altman and Brockman and then resign itself.
However, the committee let a corresponding deadline pass and stood by its decision. According to reports, the reason for this is a dispute over direction. Part of OpenAI’s management apparently believes that Altman brought ChatGPT to market and commercialized it too quickly.
The company’s focus was originally supposed to be on developing secure artificial intelligence. Since the release of ChatGPT, there has been a global debate as to whether AI will have a positive or negative impact on society, the labor market and politics.
