DailyPost 2927
OPENAI – A DANGEROUS CHURNING!
OpenAI brought Artificial Intelligence to the world’s center-stage to an extent that it would be difficult to find anyone who is unaware of it today, in less than two years of ChatGPT hitting the public domain. The effort is now on by OpenAI and a whole host of other companies and products to make AI commonplace, in literally having AI in anything and everything and reap commercial success of a kind the world has never seen. Sam Altman and AI together want to bring that change. Whatever may come out of it, the idea of $7 trillion investment, is the most audacious dream the world has ever seen.
That OpenAI had a dream run so far is to state the obvious, notwithstanding presumably out of the world research effort in the right direction in developing the GPT model and sticking to it. The fissures that erupted in the top technologists and leaders in their own right, after the landmark achievement of the development of ChapGPT does not seem to augur well. Sam Altmab became OpenAI CEO in May 2019 but no fissures have been reported in OpenAI. Quirky as it may sound, the Board of Directors of OpenAI ousted Sam Altman on Nov.17 2023 as they did not have faith in his leadership.
This could have gone down as the most fascinating corporate coup ever but it ended totally differently. Sam Altman was reinstated on Nov.22 after immense pressure from employees and investors. The removal as publicised emanated out of concern for artificial intelligence safety and allegations of Sam Altman’s abusive behaviour. It is a trillion dollar question if Altman can pull off something outlandish once again, given the fact of OpenAI losing a large chunk of its top tech brains and leadership too. Former board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley left the board immediately after the failed ouster and said Altman has created “a toxic culture of lying”.
The battle is regarding the way AI should impact the future of humanity. Some employees of which have already left have called for a more independent oversight of companies developing AI technologies. The contra thought process is companies like OpenAI can regulate themselves. Open AI has been functioning without President Greg Brockman, who is on leave of absence until the end of 2024. At least 10 leaders have left OpenAI since the standoff last November. Amongst the latest of the lot was Chief Technology Officer, Mira Muratti on Wednesday and shortly afterwards two other executives, Bob McGrew and Barret Zoph left OpenAI. Can OpenAI manage this talent, expertise and leadership loss? Where does OpenAI go from here? Will Sam Altman emerge as the ultimate tech leader of AI who could pull off another AI revolution to make AI truly commonplace?
ARE THESE CHANGES NATURAL OR ABRUPTLY MANMADE WITH HUGE CONSEQUENCES TO OPENAI?
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.