It has been a rollercoaster weekend for one of the most high-profile companies in the AI sector: OpenAI. We’ll briefly run you through the main happenings.
On Friday (17 November) OpenAI’s board announced that its CEO and co-founder Sam Altman was leaving the company with immediate effect.
Why? “A deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities”.
Altman’s co-founder, Greg Brockman, immediately quit too.
A subsequent internal memo (which quickly leaked to Axios) clarified that firing Altman “was not made in response to malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices. This was a breakdown in communication between Sam and the board”.
But, plot twist! On Sunday Altman and Brockman were back at OpenAI HQ negotiating a possible return to the company in their old roles.
But, plot twist! Wired reported today that the efforts had failed, with former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear appointed as interim CEO at OpenAI.
And, yes, plot twist! Altman, Brockman and several senior OpenAI staff have this morning joined Microsoft… which has invested more than $10bn in OpenAI, is a key partner, and owns almost 50% of the company.
We confidently predict some more twists and turns in the coming days.
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