The “weekend of operatic boardroom drama” reads like a movie script.
“Altman, who did not have a sparkling track record of technology or business success before #OpenAI, has long been known as one of Silicon Valley’s most persuasive dealmakers. He applied these skills masterfully at OpenAI and has also appeared to be adept at growing and managing the company’s workforce.
But concerns over the speedy development and commercialization of the technology ultimately helped tear the startup apart. From Altman’s perspective, vast resources were required to achieve the company’s mission. From the board’s perspective, fast commercialization was risky.
The worst case scenario: AI could turn so bad it attempts to wipe out human civilization.
[Emmett Shear, co-founder and former CEO of game-streaming website Twitch], the new CEO, shares those concerns about the unchecked development of AI. He won over directors because of his past recognition of the existential threats that the technology presented, according to a person familiar with his thinking. In September, Shear tweeted that he’s ‘in favor of a slowdown’ of AI advancement.
The big story
OpenAI couldn’t balance its goals as a nonprofit with its cash-hungry operation and billions of dollars worth of commercial obligations. That’s what ultimately led to the showdown between the board and Sam Altman.
[OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever, Altman’s primary antagonist,] has been a key part of the breakthrough equation at the company. He’s a legend in the AI field dating back to his research at the University of Toronto. Along with a couple of colleagues, he showed that neural networks could perform exceptionally well at computer vision tasks, and the publication of a 2012 paper still stands as perhaps the seminal moment that led to an explosion of modern AI technology. He continued to deliver a series of leaps forward, first at Google and then later as a founder of OpenAI.” https://lnkd.in/eqH9TRbg #chatgpt #openai #microsoft
Deputy General Counsel, AI Innovation & Trust @ Docusign | Board Member | Growth, Strategy, GTM, and Operations | Community Builder
8moYou make us proud. So cool old chum.