At the conclusion of a tumultuous weekend at OpenAI that culminated in investors — and a group of employees — trying to convince the company’s board to reinstate former Y Combinator CEO Sam Altman after his ouster on Friday, Altman will not return as CEO, according to a… a report In the information.
Citing an internal memo sent by Ilya Sutskever, a director of the board of directors and one of the co-founders of OpenAI, Altman decided to withdraw from the negotiations – at least for the time being. As the search for a new permanent CEO continues, OpenAI has named Emmett Scherr, co-founder of video streaming site Twitch, as interim CEO — replacing Mira Moratti, who held the position for just two days.
Bloomberg has taken over the board over Scheer’s concerns about the existential threats posed by artificial intelligence ReportsIn addition to his experience leading large engineering groups while at Twitch.
It was said that Moratti He defends strongly Altman is planning a way to employ him in some capacity even as the six-member board vets potential new CEOs, which may have something to do with her replacement. We’ve reached out to OpenAI for comment and will update this piece if we hear back.
This latest development threatens to worsen an already precarious situation for OpenAI, whose board is facing pressure from all sides to change course after Altman’s ouster with little input from some of its largest stakeholders.
The board’s decision on Friday evening to fire Altman — and demote OpenAI Chairman and co-founder Greg Brockman, who has since resigned, from his position as chairman of the board — is said to have angered Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, one of OpenAI’s key backers and partners. (Nadella was said to play a key role in mediating between the board and Altman, and has pledged to support Altman regardless of the outcome.) private Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, and Thrive Capital — They have been recruited Helping Microsoft put pressure on the board to reinstate Altman and Brockman while considering a lawsuit against the board members.
Meanwhile, top OpenAI officials and officers allied with Altman resigned. Three of OpenAI’s senior researchers left after Brockman, including research director Jakub Paczucki and head of preparedness Alexander Madry. Others threatened to withdraw if both Altman and Brockman were not reinstated.
So what started all this chaos? It is a clash of philosophies.
Sutskever said during an all-company meeting on Friday that he felt Altman’s removal was “necessary” to protect OpenAI’s mission of “making AI useful for humanity,” suggesting that Altman’s commercial ambitions for the company were beginning to worry the kingmakers on the board. Reports over the weekend confirmed this; Sutskiver It was said ‘Outrage’ over a number of announcements at OpenAI’s first annual developer conference, DevDay, such as custom GPTs that OpenAI said could one day run autonomously
Altman has reportedly demanded “significant” management changes at OpenAI — and a new board — as a condition for a return; The Wall Street Journal Reports Altman told colleagues that it was “ridiculous” that major shareholders had no say in OpenAI’s management. Salesforce co-CEO Brett Taylor was among those considered for nomination to the new board, along with a Microsoft-aligned member (or alternatively a board observer).
Bloomberg Emily Chang Reports That Microsoft is unhappy with Sunday night’s result – that’s not entirely surprising. The instability in OpenAI sent Microsoft shares down 1.7% on Friday, wiping out nearly $47 billion in market value.
Many employees are not. Dozens of employees internally Announce They left OpenAI late Sunday night, The Information reported