Last Updated: 11/22/2023
Next thing we know…
So we all have an idea of what’s going on with our favorite AI tool by now.
But what the hell is going on exactly?
First Blood
On November 17th, Sam Altman cryptically tweeted that he was leaving OpenAI.
7 hours later on the same day, he retweets President Greg Brockman’s tweet on how they “are shocked and saddened by what the board did today.”
It turns out that four out of OpenAI’s six-member board voted in favor of firing Altman, the CEO of the company.
And that too without notifying their investors.
Brockman followed suit and announced his resignation the same day after he was demoted from the board, while Mira Murati was announced as the interim CEO, who was a part of the leadership team for 5 teams prior.
The Information reported that three senior researchers Jakub Pachocki, Aleksander Madry, and Szymon Sidor also resigned, with more staffers threatening to follow.
The next day, Altman tweets that he “loves the OpenAI team so much.”
It was quote tweeted with heart emojis by many of their employees, with The Verge reporting that “it’s meant to signal to the board they’re willing to follow Altman to a new company.”
Many of those people only joined the company in the first place due to the presence of the two.
According to the Fast Company, it is theorized that this decision came because Altman was pushing hard to commercialize OpenAI’s research “without giving proper regard to managing the safety risks of the technology,” but their COO Brad Lightcap wrote otherwise in a memo, in an attempt to keep the boat afloat and relieve tension within the company.
He said that Altman wasn’t fired for “malfeasance,” but the result of a “breakdown of communications”, also revealing that every employee was surprised by the decision.
The loyalty translated to Altman having the upper hand at the negotiation table on Sunday at OpenAI’s headquarters to discuss a return to the company, where Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was mediating the discussion with him and Brockman.
The entire team was willing to leave OpenAI, and while Nadella had no aces up his sleeve, Sam had all four: Brockman, his team, public support, and most importantly, the investors.
Microsoft wanted to wrap this up before the stock market opened Monday morning, but sources close to Altman said that things will take a “different path” if a deal isn’t reached by his 5PM PST hard deadline.
On top of that, OpenAI’s investors including Microsoft, Thrive Capital, and Khosla Ventures are all lobbying for his return, so it’s expected that the king will return to his throne where he’s meant to be.
Khosla Ventures’ CEO Vinod Khosla also tweeted that they want Altman back at OpenAI, but would back him in whatever he does next.
And Nadella also recognized the significance of Altman.
The Altman Appeal
Webush investor Dan Ives told Business Insider that, "OpenAI is like Mahomes to the Chiefs. Nadella recognizes this and losing Sam is not an option. This OpenAI board is way over its head and the failed coup is now backfiring,"
Some reports also state that Microsoft owns a stake in the company valued at as much as 49% of the company, so you can imagine just how reputable the guy they just fired is.
And to potentially rub more salt on the wounds, if Altman were to form a new AI startup, he can not only lure in his comrades over at OpenAI, but he’d also likely seek another cloud investor/partner, a hole that can easily be filled with an irresistible offer by Google or Amazon.
And as Ives wrote, that “would be a nightmare for Microsoft”, as It’s not just the money invested or the gains they’d stand to lose that was the problem.
They’ve been integrating OpenAI technology into virtually all of their major products since the partnership, beating rivals like Amazon to the punch.
Earlier this month, over 100 announcements of integrations with their tech were announced across Microsoft’s AI tools and ones in the cloud, so their employees were just as shocked as OpenAI when the news broke.
One of the conditions Altman set for his return was for the board members who voted against him to be replaced, given he had too much power and loyalty within the team while the board had none. that shouldn’t have been a problem at all right?
That’s what we all thought.
Expectations vs Reality
While Boba Guys deliverymen were showing up outside the headquarters with a dozen drinks, it was decided that Altman would remain ousted.
Why you ask? Because Murati herself planned on bringing the duo back, and the board caught wind of that.
This resulted in Altman seeing a spike in low-quality sleep that night.
No, seriously. The CEO of Eight Sleep Matteo Franceschetti reported that there was a 27% increase in people getting under 5 hours of sleep.
This led to an outrage within the OpenAI team, as not only were they tweeting “OpenAI is nothing without its people,” but 700 of the 770 employees said that they were now leaving.
And what about Murati?
Why, she was replaced by former Twitch CEO and Altman’s classmate at Y Combinator, Emmett Shear, of course.
Ironically enough, after initially requesting written documentation of why the board fired Altman (which, by the way, investors still don’t have a hold of either) the day Shear accepted the offer, the following day, he was threatening to resign if no legal evidence was provided.
While this was all happening, Altman and Brockman joined Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team, and one of the board members who voted him out, cofounder Ilya Sutskever, was now “deeply regretting his participation.”
And oh the irony, Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO since the Microsoft deal isn’t finalized, specifically holding talks with Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, who also voted to sack him.
But isn’t it like beating up a dead horse at this point?
Not really, it’s far from it actually.
The Upper Hands
If you think about it, Altman is a founder and investor. Why would he want to work at a corporation?
And if you haven’t guessed by now, whether or not Altman returns, Nadella still wins, so all this time, he was the one with the four aces up his sleeve, just not the ones that came to mind.
But the question then becomes: “What would be next for OpenAI if and when Altman returns?”
Obviously, all four members who voted him out would no longer be a part of the company, including Sutskever, Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley, and D’Angelo.
If and when this happens, Ives says that it’d mean Microsoft is in an even stronger position to control OpenAI’s strategic direction.
And by strategic direction, it means taking over the world.
No really.
Fear of World Dominance
If you closely read the language of the press release when Murati was initially announced as the successor, you get the jist why “the board no longer has confidence in him.”
From stating he was “not consistently candid in his communications with the board,” ensuring “that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity,” and most importantly, “preserving the nonprofit’s mission, governance, and oversight.”
And who are the nonprofit?
The board that voted to remove Altman; classic corporation speak where they “deeply regret to inform you.”
These people are “AI safetyists,” fearing that the technology was progressing too quickly for their liking, assumptions that can be confirmed by an Elon Musk tweet, saying that “Ilya has a good moral compass and does not seek power. He would not take such drastic action unless he felt it was absolutely necessary.”
Advances like the GPT store where you can create and publicly share GPTs and plugins would have D’Angelo thinking that it’d essentially kill off Poe, an integrated AI chatbot on Quora introduced in February.
And these are just a couple of examples of what the AI safetyists are scared of.
But on the topic of ChatGPT advancements, ChatGPT for voice was introduced today for free to all users, where in spite of no longer being affiliated with OpenAI (as things currently stand), Brockman quote tweeted the announcement saying to “give it a try.”
So who the hell now knows what’s going on at OpenAI?
All we can say is to buckle up for the rollercoaster and grab a big bucket of popcorn, because we’re clearly gonna be here for a while.
Edit: Or not, a few hours after this was published, the rollercoaster ride was already completed, as Altman has been reinstated by OpenAI. Props to Shear for helping both parties reach common ground during his 72-hour tenure as CEO.
A new initial board has been appointed composed of Bret Taylor (who will chair the board), Larry Summers, and D’Angelo (surprisingly). It is speculated that he may have negotiated for a quiet exit within 2-6 months. It is also important to highlight that Altman had issues with a research paper Helen coauthored criticizing OpenAI’s efforts to keep AI technologies safe, defending it as “an academic paper that analyzed the challenges that the public faces when trying to understand the intentions of the countries and companies developing AI.”
The paper also analyses how one could force AI companies to slow development, with recommendations on how they can be implemented and which are the most effective, like a “tying hands” method where you can encourage one to make public declarations and then threaten to punish them in manners such as being “subject to congressional investigation.”
But overall, for the king to return to his throne and restore peace and order in AIland, the AI safetiysts had to be removed.