Why was Sam Altman Fired from OpenAI? | Between the Lines with Palki Sharma

[Music] it was the early hours of November 17 just another day at the office for many but not for open AI the makers of Chad GPT this company was witnessing a seesmic shift a beloved CEO was on his way out the board was now reigning Supreme and the world of tech was left watching a gast it was a coup like no other but 5 days later the same CEO was back in office Sam Alman is leading open AI again what about the board most of them are gone it's a script even Hollywood would die to right a superstar CEO on one side a disgruntled board on the other caught in the middle was 770 employees and the future of artificial intelligence so why did open AI fire Sam Alman why is he back as CEO in just 5 days what role did Microsoft have to play in all of this and finally what does this mean for the future of AI hello and welcome I'm py Sharma and on this show we read between the lines the stated and the unstated the obvious and the hidden to bring you the full [Music] story if you blinged and missed some update in the open AI drama you're not alone it was a fast-paced story with twists and turns that even Chad GPT could not have managed to write but where did all of it begin and why to understand that we need to go back to 2015 the year open AI was founded a group of tech Titans came together including the likes of Sam ultman he was backed by Tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Reed Hoffman so so together they set up open AI but here's the catch open AI was not set up as just any other tech company it was set up as a nonprofit why because their core mission was not to make money it was to help Humanity of course all of this sounds great it's good to be altruistic but no business can function like this you need money to sustain and grow and open AI faced this problem too when they hired people they were paying them competitive salaries salaries that matched any other technology company but they were a nonprofit remember so money was running out faster than it was coming in that's when openai devised a new plan in 2019 they restructured themselves they turned from nonprofit to capped profit this allowed them to create a subsidiary purely for profit this subsidiary would raise money and that money would help run the company sounds great right except there's a catch here too this Prof profit was going to be governed by a nonprofit board and why is that because they wanted to stay true to their original purpose their original goal to make sure that AI was safe for Humanity now this board had six members three open AI employees there was of course Sam Alman the founder open AI chair Greg Brockman and chief scientist ilas ATA and then there were three external directors Kora CEO Adam D'Angelo entrepreneur Tasha moli and Helen toner a researcher and strategist the board believed it served Mankind and not open AI investors so if they believe that the company was not serving its purpose it could remove the CEO which brings us back to November 17th that afternoon Sam Alman was summoned by the board they told him that they were firing him it was a majority decision four board members backed it open AI ilas ATA and the three other external members they said and I quote the board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading open AI so out went Sam ultman and in his place Mera morati became the interim CEO now no one still knows the real reason why Sam Alman was fired but there are three major points of speculation the first is his relationship with Helen toner a research paper by Tona raised questions about open AI safety practices remember she was a board member and she was publicly questioning the company so it did not go down too well with Sam Alman relations between toner and Alman soured and this could have led to his ouer the second reason could be qar an advanced artificial intelligence system that open AI was working on qar if you thought Chad GPT was revolutionary qar took it one step further it could solve basic math problems it was a step towards artificial general intelligence I know it sounds complicated but simply put it's artificial intelligence that is more powerful than humans now open AI staffers believe that this could threaten Humanity so some of them wrote a letter to the board this could also be the reason for the firing of Sam Alman and the third is Sam Alman himself after Chad GPT he became the face of AI for the world he was jetting off to Summits globally he was shaking hands with world leaders he was rubbing shoulders with the who's who of the world he was also working on side projects like the creation of an a device with former Apple chief designer John I now all of this seemed to have irked the board Alman was becoming bigger than the company itself and for the board that was not a good sign which brings us to how it happened the three external members were already on the same page they wanted Alman out they needed one more in their ranks so they convinced ilas ATA report suggest IIA was a little alarmed he heard about the threats to humanity he wanted to ER on the side of caution so he joined hands with the other three and together they fired Sam Alman they thought that would be the end of their problems but little did they know that it was just the beginning the ouer sent shock waves through Silicon Valley open ai's biggest investor Microsoft was taken aback they've invested up to $13 billion in open AI so of course they were alarmed they wanted Sam Alman back and reports suggest they even pushed for it but the board remained adamant so Microsoft relented on November 20th the open AI board appointed EMT Shear as CEO he was the co-founder of video streaming platform twitch now Shear's ideologies aligned more with the board he thought AI was moving too fast he wanted to slow development by 10 to 20% so the board thought he was the perfect choice but Microsoft had other plans minutes after Sher was announced as CEO Microsoft dealt them a reverse UNO card the CEO is Satya nadela he said Sam Alman and their open AI staff were joining Microsoft they would lead an advanced AI research team at Microsoft now it was a plot twist that the open AI board did not anticipate the announcement set off a rebellion Sam Alman was a popular figure in open AI the board may not have liked him but his employees loved him dozen started putting in their papers they were going to follow their beloved boss to Microsoft they also started tweeting not very much just one line open AI is nothing without its people that's what they said so clearly the public sentiment had shifted the open AI board was now Enemy Number One the Rebellion got to ilas ATA he saw what was happening and he jumped sides he said he deeply regretted his decision and he too was now against the board by 20th evening almost all of open AI 770 employees wrote a letter they threatened to quit if the board did not resign so the board was left with little choice the pressure was mounting they could either stand firm and risk losing 700 employees or they could cave and bring back Sam Alman we know the decision they took on 22nd November open AI sent out a tweet it confirmed that Sam Alman was back as CEO the board itself was restructured only one member from the original board was kept that's Kora CEO dangelo new members were also added the likes of Brett Taylor the former co-ceo of Salesforce and Larry Summers the former US Treasury secretary so the rebellion was over Sam mman was back there was a new board and all seemed well at open AI again but was this a loss for the board or was it a loss for Humanity you see the AI Community is divided into two groups there are the optimists the likes of Sam Alman and Greg Brockman they believe AI should move fast and that artificial intelligence must be developed at Rocket speed then there are the the doomers they're wary of fast advancements in AI they believe it could threaten Humanity they want guard rails in place before artificial intelligence moves forward now this open AI Saga was a battle between these two groups between the optimists and the doomers of course the stakes were were Skyhigh and that meant huge egos were also at play but the battle has expose the fault lines the power of AI is concentrated in the hands of very few people and they can decide what its future will look like I know it sounds alarming and it is remember the 2000s the birth of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg was what many would call an accelerationist he wanted to move fast and break things and he did break them he also broke Society in that process social media is still reeling from the lack of checks and balances in the initial stages and now we see history repeating itself artificial intelligence is moving fast and with a Sam Alman Saga you can say the optimists are winning here too in 2022 $189 billion was invested in AI so even if open AI chooses caution someone else will take its place it's a highly competitive market and it's a Race Against Time to develop the best AI tool but the world cannot afford the same mistakes that it did with social media the rise of artificial intelligence must be transparent there should be more caution more quality control there must be guard rails in place before it's too late safety of humankind must be priority number [Music] one

Channel: Firstpost

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Id: dgLkvKb8OhM

Length: 11min 10sec (670 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 26 2023