Microsoft has hired OpenAI founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman to head “a new advanced AI research team,” software group President Satya Nadella said Monday, capping three days of intense discussions following the unexpected decision by OpenAI’s board to fire Altman.
Several members of OpenAI, including co-founder Brockman, left the company in protest last week. Nadella said Altman and Brockman will be joined by “colleagues.” Former OpenAI top talent Simon Sidor, Jakub Paczucki, and Alexandre Madry are joining Microsoft with “more” to follow, Brockman said in a post on X. (Oddly enough, missing from the list so far is the whereabouts of Mira Moratti, former CTO of OpenAI.) OpenAI, who was appointed interim CEO after Altman’s dismissal.)
“We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success,” Nadella said, in what many tech entrepreneurs described as an example of “incredible execution.” Brockman He added in a post that the new team will build “something new and it will be amazing.”
Nadella, whose company has invested more than $10 billion in OpenAI and has a roughly 50% ownership, said the Windows maker remains committed to the startup.
Microsoft was allegedly caught off guard by the sudden action taken by the OpenAI board. Remarkably, Nadella was able to convince and find a new, familiar home for the former leaders of OpenAI before the market opened on Monday.
Altman has been the public face of OpenAI, the most valuable American startup. Not only is it widely recognized as leading the current AI race, but in less than a year it has also taken over as a kingmaker for thousands of other startups building on top of its software offerings. The investment in OpenAI also contributed to strengthening Microsoft’s efforts in the field of artificial intelligence, which helped it attract many companies.
Several prominent business leaders and investors expressed surprise at OpenAI’s decision, warning that without Altman’s leadership, the startup may struggle to maintain its current pace of progress. Microsoft’s strategic move to secure Altman and Brockman strengthens its competitive edge, preventing other major technology companies from stealing its expertise and strengthening Wall Street’s positive outlook on Microsoft’s future.
Microsoft’s move comes after a tumultuous weekend that saw a failed attempt by OpenAI’s board of directors, investors, team members and Altman to bring the entrepreneur back to the startup. Instead, OpenAI’s board of directors named former Twitch CEO and co-founder Emmett Shear as its interim CEO in a move that reportedly shocked Altman. OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.
Earlier in the weekend, Altman also began doing so Presentation of a new artificial intelligence project For investors, according to the New York Times.
“We are committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate on everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners. We look forward to getting to know and work with Emmett Shear and the new OAI leadership team,” Nadella added. .
OpenAI’s board said it fired Altman because he was not “consistently honest” in his conversations with them. He did not explain why, which angered many OpenAI employees. “The board had the opportunity to explain their radical actions, but they did not take advantage of it,” Andrei Karpathy, a research scientist at OpenAI, wrote on X.
In a post on Within the next 30 days, Scheer said he plans to hire an independent investigator to conduct a full review of the process that led to Altman’s removal, engage in extensive discussions with stakeholders to gain insights, and restructure the management and leadership team to better serve OpenAI’s customers.
“Depending on the outcomes, whatever we learn from these, I will drive changes across the organization – including pushing hard for significant governance changes if necessary. I will roll them out when they become clear over the 30-day period. The stability and success of OpenAI is so important that It cannot be allowed to be disrupted in this way by disruption. I will seek to address key concerns as well, although I believe in many cases it may take more than a month to make real progress. books.
“I have nothing but respect for what Sam and the entire OpenAI team have built. It’s not just a great research project and software product, but a great company. I’m here because I know it, and I want to do everything I can to protect it and grow it further.”