OpenAI, the company that popularized artificial intelligence (AI) with the ChatGPT tool, remains in limbo after the surprise firing of its chief executive, Sam Altman.
Everyone fantasizes about what they will say at their funeral, what people think about themselves. Altman, 38 years old and apparently in good physical shape, has managed to enjoy the reality of this fantasy in his lifetime.
He can feel happy: 95% of employees are willing to follow him wherever he goes, whether back to OpenAI, which they kept trying, or to another company. SiliconValley enthrones him as a great visionary and the smartest person in AI. Investors and the market praised him and immediately a tech giant like Microsoft came out to hire him and offer to create a laboratory for him to continue his work.
As OpenAI navigates the chaos, entrenched in its decision to kick the genie out of the lamp and ratify it two days later as a measure “necessary to preserve the board’s ability to carry out its responsibilities and mission (altruistic ) of the organization,” Altman is at the top and Microsoft, the tech giant that came to his rescue, emerges as the big winner of this crisis, according to analysts.
Microsoft is OpenAI’s largest shareholder with $13 billion and the driving force behind investor pressure (some intend to file a lawsuit against OpenAI) for Altman to return to the company he co-founded.
Satya Nadella, top boss of the giant and turned arbiter of this matter, had and has a special preference for Altman’s return to OpenAI.
He insisted on his and Microsoft’s support for the work of Open-AI, stressing that they remain associated and maintain confidence in it. But he warned that things cannot continue as they have been, with or without Altman.
“At this point, I think it’s very clear that something has to change around governance”, declared Nadella. OpenAI emerged in 2015 as a non-profit organization that in 2019 approved the creation of a subsidiary with limited profits to attract investors and be able to pay dividends. This kind of power severely limits trading ability and investors don’t like that.
Despite indicating that they were still in dialogue with the board of directors, Microsoft made the move to sign Altman when they realized the board’s resistance to backing down.
Strategically, Microsoft will be able to continue in the short term with the use of OpenAI models to enhance its products. In turn, it provides Altman with a working team, with money and computing power to build models of the future under Microsoft’s own umbrella. In the event that the signing is confirmed and the return to OpenAI is definitely ruled out, Altman will have more than a double source of talent, the exodus of those who follow him after resigning his position due to his departure and what already is in the ranks of the technological giant.
This move, described as a master stroke, means that Microsoft is in the driver’s seat in the emerging AI industry, with a clear bet on development and commercial benefits, over those pessimists who think that, without a check, this tool has the potential to wipe out humanity. Emmett Shear, the new interim head of Open-AI, is one of those who think it is necessary to slow down.
