OpenAI: An Artificial Intelligence Machine that Doesn’t Get Fooled by Power-Seeking States and Profit-seeking Corporations
It’s unclear as to what is at the heart of OpenAI. A.I. was too powerful a technology to be controlled by profit-seeking corporations or power-seeking states. OpenAI’s charter says that it had to be developed by an organization to act in best interests of humanity. OpenAI was built to be that organization. It began life as a nonprofit. When it became clear that developing A.I. would require tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, it rebuilt itself around a dual structure, where the nonprofit — controlled by a board chosen for its commitment to OpenAI’s founding mission — would govern the for-profit, which would raise the money and commercialize the A.I. applications necessary to finance the mission.
Minutes after OpenAI announced Altman’s return to the company, Altman also posted, saying “I love openai, and everything i’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together.”
There have been two signal events in recent weeks. One of them you’ve heard about. The nonprofit that governs OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, fired Sam Altman, the company’s chief executive. The decision was unexpected and largely unexplained. “Mr. Altman’s departure follows 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,” read a cryptic statement.
Science fiction writers and artificial intelligence researchers have long feared the machine you can’t turn off. A powerful A.I. is developed in the story. Its designers are thrilled, then unsettled, then terrified. They go to pull the plug, only to learn the A.I. has copied its code elsewhere, perhaps everywhere.
Sam Altman Returned to MS in a Powerful Reversal of OpenAI and the Board of a Better Company, Emmett Shear
At the weekend, discussions about a possible return broke down, and he agreed to join Microsoft, his former employees issued an open letter threatening to leave, and the board installed a new interim CEO, Emmett Shear.
Helen Toner, who was reportedly the key board member in the move to oust Altman, tweeted “and now, we all get some sleep,” which will be very funny at a later time, we’re sure.
Kelly Sims, partner at Thrive, said in a statement that Openai could become one of the most consequential companies in history. Sam and Greg have an innate ability to inspire and lead. We couldn’t be more excited for them to come back to the company they founded and helped build into what it is today.”
Shear posted on X after OpenAI’s announcement of the agreement for Altman to return that he was “deeply pleased by this result, after ~72 very intense hours of work.” It was not clear if he would stay at the company.
A person with direct knowledge of the negotiations says that the sole job of the initial board is to vet and appoint a new formal board of 9 people that will reset the governance of OpenAI. Microsoft will likely have a seat on the board that was expanded, as will the man himself. The company did not want to have any more surprises, said the CEO during the press tour.
OpenAI said late Tuesday it had reinstated Sam Altman as its chief executive in a stunning reversal that capped five days of drama that rocked the artificial intelligence community.
The company, maker of the popular ChatGPT, said it would also create a new board of directors. This comes after the former board voted to fire Altman as CEO late last week.
What caused Sutskever’s sudden dismissal of a global AI consultancy? A joke by Toby Ord and his colleague, David Shrier
I joked that the bizarre org chart that mapped out this relationship looked like something a future GPT might come up with was not appreciated by Sutskever. “We are the only company in the world which has a capped profit structure,” he admonished me. “Here is the reason it makes sense: If you believe, like we do, that if we succeed really well, then these GPUs are going to take my job and your job and everyone’s jobs, it seems nice if that company would not make truly unlimited amounts of returns.” In the meantime, to make sure that the profit-seeking part of the company doesn’t shirk its commitment to making sure that the AI doesn’t get out of control, there’s that board, keeping an eye on things.
It might have been hard to imagine a convoluted story of corporate intrigue. Questions continue to swirl around what had prompted his dismissal in the first place.
“It turns out that they couldn’t fire him, and that was bad,” says Toby Ord, senior research fellow in philosophy at Oxford University, and a prominent voice among people who warn AI could pose an existential risk to humanity.
“What I know with certainty is we don’t have AGI,” says David Shrier, professor of practice, AI, and innovation, at Imperial College Business School in London. “I know with certainty there was a colossal failure of governance.”