The surprise sacking of Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, has sent shockwaves through the tech world and prompted an unprecedented showdown between board members and staff.
As well as being the chief executive of the company behind ChatGPT, the chatbot that has passed exams and written books, Altman is also one of the leading figures in the AI world.
Why was Sam Altman fired?
On Friday 17 November, the board of OpenAI announced it had fired Altman because “he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board” and was thus “hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities”.
While the board provided no further detail about the communications in question, Emmett Shear, Altman’s successor as interim CEO, said the personnel change was not due to any disagreement over safety.
Many tech professionals have expressed concerns that AI companies, such as OpenAI, are developing too rapidly and could pose a security and safety threat.
What has happened since then?
At the weekend, OpenAI investors, including Microsoft, attempted to reinstate Altman, to no avail.
Staff at OpenAI are in uproar over Altman’s sacking, with more than 700 staff – around 95 per cent – sending an open letter to the board of directors threatening to resign and join Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest investor, unless the board quits and reinstates Altman.
On Monday, however, Microsoft confirmed it had hired Altman and former OpenAI president Greg Brockman to head a new AI research unit.
“Satya [Microsoft boss Satya Nadella] and my top priority remains to ensure OpenAI continues to thrive,” Altman tweeted.
“We are committed to fully providing continuity of operations to our partners and customers. The OpenAI/Microsoft partnership makes this very doable.”
What does this mean for the future of AI development?
As instrumental players from OpenAI jump ship to Microsoft, it’s likely that the work on advanced AI will continue as before under the tech giant.
Altman is focused on researching “how to build superintelligence”, or artificial general intelligence (AGI), an AI system that can carry out tasks at or above a human level of intelligence.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, he said: “The vision is to make AGI, figure out how to make it safe … and figure out the benefits.”