- The ChatGPT developer fired Boss for not being “candid in his communications.”
- Prior to being fired, Altman “was working on new venture.”
- Thought: Altman was a reliable AI spokesperson. His company is more intricate
Amidst investor pressure to undo his abrupt dismissal, Sam Altman is expected to make a surprising comeback as the CEO of ChatGPT creator OpenAI.
In a decision that stunned Silicon Valley, the firm board dismissed Altman on Friday, citing a failure to be “candid in his communications”.
Microsoft is among the investors in OpenAI, though, and they are reportedly pressing for his restoration.
The tech news website The Information stated on Saturday that OpenAI was “optimistic” about Altman’s recovery.
The company’s chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, sent a note to staff informing them that efforts were being made to reunite Altman and other top colleagues who had departed, as reported in the story. After Altman left, three senior researchers—Jakub Pachocki, Aleksander Mądry, and Szymon Sidor—as well as OpenAI President Greg Brockman resigned.
Kwon responded, “We are still working towards a resolution and we remain optimistic,” the Information said. In order to achieve a resolution, we intend to bring back Sam, Greg, Jakub, Szymon, Aleksander, and other coworkers (I apologize if I missed you!). We also intend to maintain our position as the greatest environment for individuals to work on AGI [artificial general intelligence] research, safety, products, and policy.
Kwon stated the California-based business planned to provide more personnel updates on Sunday. Altman wrote on X early on Sunday, saying, “I love the openai team so much.”
https://twitter.com/sama
The Wall Street Journal reports that although Altman weighs the possibility of founding a new business with former OpenAI coworkers, he is thinking about coming back, but he has informed shareholders he need a new board and governance structure as a prerequisite. According to the WSJ, Altman would make a decision this weekend between the two possibilities.
There are rumors that Altman and Apple’s former design leader Jony Ive have been talking about developing a new AI hardware product. Additionally, it was stated that Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, had participated in the discussion.
According to reports, Altman’s reinstatement is supported by both Microsoft, the largest investor in OpenAI, and Thrive Capital, a venture capital fund that is the second-largest investment. The founder of Khosla Ventures, Vinod Khosla, stated on X on Saturday that while the fund wants Altman back at OpenAI, it “will back him in whatever he does next.”
In a separate internal business message on Saturday, Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap stated that Altman’s termination was due to a “breakdown of communications” rather than “malfeasance,” as reported by Reuters.
We’ve reached out to Microsoft, Thrive, and openAI for comments.