The Open AI Musical Chairs
“A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in god” — Alan Perlis
ChatGPT was revolutionary in the way it came into the world with the intent of simplifying human lives via artificial intelligence. The company behind it, Open AI, is an empire building organization which could be challenging all the technology behemoths on the curve of innovation. In fact Microsoft had even swell up a $13 billion investment to partner in AI research and development. All this would indicate that Open AI is on the rise and there can barely be any company which can stop it in its upsurge. A company is only as successful as its people and leaders and the past week has indicated the turmoil that was ongoing in Open AI.
To recap the past week, Sam Altman was removed as CEO of Open AI by the board followed by him joining Microsoft as part of its new advanced AI research team. Upon vehement opposition by employees of Open AI, Sam Altman was reinstated as CEO of Open AI and multiple board members were removed potentially paving way for some seats in the board for Microsoft. All this happened in a span of 5 days.
These musical chairs indicate that all is not well in the world of generative AI and there may be more surprises on the way. This can be attributed to different outlooks among board members on the future of Open AI and the pressing concern related to safety of AI. ChatGPT is, indeed, a great proponent of simplification and is going a long way to redefine the industry and the world but its constant advancement can also throw a threat to the redundancy of humans and the safety to human life. There are varied views on its expansion and usage and that’s where the musical chair in Open AI becomes interesting.
The Sam Altman view
Sam Altman is a visionary who wants to build an empire out of the great innovation he has built. His go getter attitude is ensuring that companies like Microsoft are ready to plush in huge sums of money into Open AI. At the same time, his vicious pace of development and bringing advancement is throwing shivers down in behemoths like Google and Amazon who are trying to establish themselves in the generative AI space. Owing to the visionary attitude and an extreme hunger for success, Sam Altman is willing to ignore the safety concerns being raised related to ChatGPT and is often going toe to toe with the board. This lack of communication and stewardship ultimately led to his temporary removal from the board.
Sam Altman wants to build an empire and he is ready to go the distance irrespective of what it takes.
The Board aka Protectors view
The board of Open AI comprised of visionaries like Adam D’Angelo from Quora who hold Sam Altman in high regard but their experience of working in major giants and building tech giants brings the more pressing concern on stewardship and safety of humans at the forefront. Their concern on Open AI’s rapid expansion along with competitors like Google just breathing down its neck has resulted in them pushing for a more cautious approach and even slowed down the pace of ChatGPT 5’s release. Their coherent disagreement with Sam Altman and strong willingness to keep Microsoft off the board has resulted in these musical chairs within the organization.
So, what happens next?
With Sam Altman back the helm in Open AI, the musical chairs will slow down, and it is highly likely that Microsoft will get a few seats in the board of Open AI. This will support his push for faster advancement and more resources at hand. However, association with a company of Microsoft’s scale will only ensure that Sam does not always gets his way. A smooth takeover of Open AI may be up for grabs or a potential giant killer release in chat GPT which can ultimately lead to a sale of Open AI to Microsoft. All these are mere speculations and only the new set of musical chairs in Open AI with Microsoft’s presence will define the future of generative AI.
