Blogocentric Formulations

OpenAI

I've been following this OpenAI saga for the past couple of days, and it's fascinating. If you hadn't heard about the drama, here's a quick recap:

Sam Altman is the CEO. He's fairly beloved among tech CEOs, and he recently testified quite well in front of Congress on issues of artificial intelligence (as opposed to certain other tech CEOs whose testimonies left a lot to be desired). He's, by all accounts, a celebrity CEO and widely-respected and yet, last Friday afternoon, the OpenAI Board of Directors (of which Sam was a member) announced he had been fired, and immediately revoked his access to his computer and company premises. The people who would normally be made aware of a big move like this (both internal executives and partners like Microsoft who has invested $13 billion in the company) found out as it was happening in real time. The stated reason was that Altman "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board," and that statement was not elaborated upon. By the end of the day, OpenAI's President and Chairman of the Board Greg Brockman (who was also caught unaware) had also quit in protest.

By Saturday morning, Altman and Brockman were already starting talks with investors about launching a rival AI company and which OpenAI employees would be likely to join them in the new venture. By Saturday afternoon, there were threatened lawsuits by investors and shareholders. Things had shifted so monumentally, that there was talk of bringing Altman and Brockman back, and the entire remaining OpenAI board resigning. By Sunday, Altman and Brockman were in the OpenAI offices for meetings to talk about where to go from here. Even Mira Murati, the company's Chief Technology Officer who was named interim CEO after Altman's firing, is advocating for Altman's return and the firing of the current board.

Rumor has it that Ilya Sutskever, one of the OpenAI co-founders (along with Altman and Brockman) and the company's Chief Scientist engineered the board coup over a dispute about making ethical/responsible decisions versus prioritizing growth and advancement.

I have a personal theory about this. It seems super weird that a board would just up and unceremoniously fire it's well-respected CEO at the drop of a hat one Friday afternoon. Especially after they went out of their way to say that it wasn't for any malfeasance or fireable offense on Altman's part. Which makes me think there was a political component of it. I think that Elon Musk (an initial investor - to the tune of $100 million - and recently an outspoken critic of OpenAI's operations), who has relationships with most of the people on the board (including Sutskever who he helped recruit to OpenAI from Google), helped engineer this coup to install people who were more aligned with his vision of where he wanted the company to go. That's complete conjecture on my part, but I just can't help but thinking there's more to it than just a board who, on its own, decided to vote out its CEO with zero advanced notice.

It's also important, though, to acknowledge that Altman may have done something wrong. Especially in the USA, people can assume a charismatic, friendly CEO is the "good guy" and that may not bear out depending on how the details of this story play out. If rumors are to be believed, Altman was more in the "keep pushing the limits and going further" camp while Sutskever and a few other board members were in the "ethical AI" camp, which advocates moving slower to make more informed, responsible decisions. And don't forget, Sam Altman was the one who testified in front of Congress not too long ago and said that Congress needs to regulate this industry because otherwise the industry won't regulate itself. And while Altman as the CEO has a fiduciary duty to maximize investors' and shareholders' returns, if he was doing that in a way that was bypassing the board or not presenting them with a full suite of options when they make decisions, that could very well have been a reason for removing him (although I'd still argue that dropping a bomb on a Friday afternoon is probably not the best way of going about it).

At any rate, it's a fascinating story that's developing quickly. It's been interesting to follow along with all the twists and turns of what, by all accounts, feels like an attempted corporate coup that backfired spectacularly. I'm curious to see what other details emerge as this story develops.