OpenAI epilogue
One more thing with OpenAI.
The Verge reports Sam Altman to return as CEO of OpenAI:
Sam Altman will return as CEO of OpenAI, overcoming an attempted boardroom coup that sent the company into chaos over the past several days. Former president Greg Brockman, who quit in protest of Altman’s firing, will return as well.
So basically it was just bluff?
We’ll skip on the composition of the new board, just some white men (the two women are gone).
The takeaway is that the board who was supposed to oversee the whole organization, and its use of AI has no power and is now subject to the CEO of the for profit arm. This make OpenAI “non-profit” status suspicious and their goals not appearing to be “for the greater good”.
Now, Microsoft said they would hire the 100+ staff if they left OpenAI, to create a new research team. This lead to two questions:
- How do people that got laid off for Wall Street feel about the CEO that post on a whim that he can hire a team of 100+ experts? In some country this would be an illegal move as layoffs are regulated.
- Was this orchestrated and a boatload of lies with some ulterior motive?
The Verge has Read Microsoft’s internal memos about the chaos at OpenAI:
Scott doesn’t even address the fact Microsoft said it was creating a “new advanced AI research team,” nor the fact that Altman won’t actually be joining the company. It’s like Microsoft has helped hit the reset button back to Friday morning, something I thought Nadella was hinting at when he appeared in two TV interviews earlier this week.
I guess it is 2. Maybe to protect their investment. But if I wan an employee I’d ask about 1.
On a final note about Bing AI search:
Microsoft paid a lot of money for these results.