The Wall Street Journal, commonly known as WSJ, has shed light on excerpts from the upcoming book “The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future” penned by Keach Hagey, a journalist at WSJ. The article delves deeper into the inner workings of OpenAI, revealing a scenario where the OpenAI board ousted Sam Altman as CEO abruptly, only to reinstate him a few days later.
During that period, the board justified Altman’s dismissal citing his lack of direct communication with the board, causing a breach of trust. The main conflict outlined in the book between the majority of the board and Altman revolves around the AI Safety verification process, where both parties often disagreed. Altman, one of the six board members of OpenAI, faced several instances where the board mistrusted him, leading to his removal. For instance, the launch of GPT-4’s feature without full safety checks, which Altman claimed to have completed but later allowed Microsoft to test before its release. Furthermore, Altman initiated a Startup Fund related to OpenAI without informing the board and publicly unveiled ChatGPT without board approval, despite earlier reservations.
These accumulated issues led to Ilya Sutskever, the Head of Research at OpenAI and a board member, seeking outside opinions and Mira Murati, OpenAI’s COO with conflicting views with Altman, gathering evidence. This ultimately led the board to make the decision to remove Altman from the CEO position, despite Greg Brockman, the board president, being close to Altman.
This news caused a stir among all parties involved, with the ousted board members facing pressure from employees seeking answers. Initially expecting OpenAI employees to support their decision, the outcome was quite the opposite, leading even Sutskever and Murati to sign a petition for Altman’s reinstatement as CEO, followed by their voluntary resignations from OpenAI.
TLDR: The Wall Street Journal provided insights into the internal turmoil at OpenAI, culminating in the abrupt ousting and subsequent reinstatement of Sam Altman as CEO, amidst conflicts regarding AI Safety processes and undisclosed actions, leading to resignations by key board members.
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