Software giant Microsoft is hiring Sam Altman to lead a new artificial intelligence research group after an attempt to rehire him at OpenAI, the company behind the ChatGPT bot, failed following his surprise dismissal by the board.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced this.
Microsoft, which has invested $11 billion in OpenAI, said it remains committed to the company but will also provide Altman and Brockman with the “resources necessary for their success.”
It was the latest in a series of unexpected turns for OpenAI, the company at the center of the artificial intelligence boom.
Microsoft’s announcement came at the end of a weekend full of drama. It came shortly after OpenAI, which had been expected to reappoint Sam Altman as chief after he was fired 48 hours earlier, abruptly appointed Emmett Shear, the former head of TV streaming service Twitch, as interim director.
OpenAI executives fired Altman. The reasons for his dismissal are unclear. There were rumors over the weekend that controversy had emerged over the security of the company’s artificial intelligence programs as Altman reportedly tried to speed up their commercialization despite opposition from the board of directors.
The statement said the company had lost confidence in its 38-year-old co-founder after an “advisory review process” concluded he had “not always been transparent in his communications” but did not say how that happened.
Hours later, OpenAI senior director Brad Lightcap told employees in an internal company memo that his dismissal was due to “a communication error between Sam and the board of directors” and not due to “a crime or anything related to our finances.” our business or our security.” . /Privacy issues. Practices, methods, exercises.”
His abrupt departure led to the resignation of several senior employees, including President Greg Brockman, who announced his resignation. “Sam and I are shocked and saddened by what the board did today… We are also still trying to figure out exactly what happened.”
Sam Altman has been called the face of artificial intelligence and is regularly compared to Bill Gates and Steve for his influence on artificial intelligence and for taking Open AI to the point where it has the potential to become one of the most valuable technology companies in the world. Jobs compared. Earlier this month he was the keynote speaker at Rishi Sunak’s AI Security Summit at Bletchley Park.
Less than 48 hours after leaving the company, he returned with a visitor’s pass as concerned investors and employees tried to negotiate a deal that would allow him to return to the company. Investors feared his sudden departure would lead to a mass exodus of talent and a pending $86 billion stock sale.
Altman’s return agreement would mean major changes to the board and its governance. OpenAI is currently a non-profit organization. The current board of directors includes three independent directors who have no financial interest in the company, as well as the company’s chief scientific officer, Ilya Sutskever.
Following Sam Altman’s appointment at Microsoft, Ilya Sutskever tweeted: “I deeply regret my involvement in board decisions. It was never my intention to harm OpenAI. I love everything we’ve created together and will do everything I can to bring the company back together.”
Altman reportedly wanted to restructure the company to be more business-focused and sought to develop new products that could be brought to market sooner. The board was more cautious, concerned that the powerful artificial intelligence tool could be misused and cause widespread harm. Sam Altman argues that such concerns can be contained and that the potential benefits of making AI widely available outweigh the risks.
The conflict between OpenAI’s mission to develop technology to benefit humanity and the mission of its investors, who funded the effort in anticipation of a financial return, is a long-standing conflict, according to Richard Windsor, an analyst at Radio Free Mobile. “This weekend was just a bomb waiting to go off,” he said.
When the return agreement fell through, OpenAI appointed computer scientist Emmett Shear as its new leader.
Shortly after the announcement of a new director, distraught employees poured out of technology magazine OpenAI’s headquarters in San Francisco. Information reported. Hundreds of 770 OpenAI employees have signed an open letter calling on the board of directors to resign.
According to multiple reports, OpenAI executives remained skeptical of Altman’s commitment to OpenAI’s mission of providing safe artificial intelligence. Emmett Shear said he investigated his predecessor’s firing before taking the job and that Altman was not fired over disagreements over the safety of powerful artificial intelligence models.
“Their arguments were completely different. “I’m not crazy enough to take on this job without the support of the board of directors to commercialize our great models,” he said. One of his first actions will be to launch an investigation into his predecessor’s dismissal, he added.
According to Wall Street JournalAltman lost the support of the commission, a group he founded and promoted to allay growing concerns about the safety of AI. Microsoft shares rose more than 1 percent before U.S. markets opened.
Source: I News
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