The Saga of Sam Altman and OpenAI: The story of a controversial ouster and its aftermath.
Tags: ai, openai, chatgpt
Published: 2023-11-21 13:36:45

Perhaps, you have not paid attention to the events with OpenAI and Sam Altman that has happened recently, or maybe you need clearity. Let me share with you what happened this weekend.

**Who is Sam Altman?**

Sam Altman is one of the prominent people in the tech market who co-founded OpenAI and served as president of Y-combinator between 2014-2019. He now leads another team in applied AI research department at Microsoft(more on this later on).

**The Unexpected Layoff**

On Friday November 17, 2023; OpenAI made a strange move. The firm renowned for its consideration toward AI ethics and safety terminated Sam Altman who is the most passionate supporter of AIs positive impacts on humanity.

This move surprised and disappointed a lot of people as it was brought about by a resolution passed by a board meeting of OpenAIs directors. It also had its intriguing aspect as very few people knew about the identity of most of the members of the board.

**The Reason Behind the Layoff**

The board made that decision with the claim that it had lost confidence in Sam Altman’s communication style. Some said that he had failed to be “honest” with the board, thus, it was difficult for them to perform their duties as members of the board.

The confusion was further compounded by the fact that the OpenAI investors were allegedly not informed of the activities and projects carried out at the company. However, it could not be determined with certainty what exactly was the cause of Altman’s failure in communication; it was most likely, though, the reason behind was a deficiency of openness.

During these speculations one Reddit user under the user name Anxious_Bandicoot126 offered a more detailed explanation behind the firing of Altman. Altman has been laid-off due to his focus on profits. They also went on to say that Altman prematurely released tech without proper safety assessment for the sake of fame and fortune rather than considering the company’s core values.

**The Attempted Reconciliation**

After the strong protests from many parties, even from distinguished experts in technology, the OpenAI board somehow comprehended the magnitude of their choice. The board tried to have the layoff rescinded and brought Sam Altman back to the business.

A little bit of history repeated itself with some irony in this instance, as it bore a striking resemblance to another such event that took place in years past involving Apple and Steve Jobs.

At first, it seemed like Altman could return since he believed totally in the goals set for OpenAI. He, however, stipulated that he should only go back after the current OpenAi Board had been completely purged.

However, negotiations collapsed as Open AI refused to accept the condition proposed by Sam Altman.

**The Ripple Effect**

Altman’s layoff had far-reaching effects that went beyond the boardroom. Moreover, OpenAI received a lot of criticism from the public, thus losing several important executives namely Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever who publicly opposed the action.

An ill-fated layoff saw Ilya Sutskever, one of their board members publicly apologies as well as promise re-unification with the company. However, Greg Brockman reacted saying that he was in great shock with the news but will work towards discovering what happened.

Financial implications have been seen in the loss of billions of dollars in the company’s secondary share, and a foreseen 90% drop in valuation in 2024.

**The Aftermath and Next Steps**

At present, only the names of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman could be mentioned from among several colleagues who just entered into the “Advanced AI research team” of Microsoft, whereas other representatives may take the decision to resign from OpenAI and join Altman.

The present CEO of OpenAI is Emmett Shear (major shareholder in Anthropic – OpenAI’s foremost competitor). He considers a possibility for combining Anthropic with OpenAI, the leading competing organization. Nevertheless, signs of trouble in negotiations have been evident.

Personally, I think that the first thing that OpenAI must do is take care of the uneasiness inside the company. It is imperative for OpenAI to move with speed following employee dissatisfaction and other companies like Salesforce making attractive offers so as to ensure the firm’s internal morale and stability.

**OpenAI's Justified Actions**

The question remains: WAS SAM ALTMAN JUSTIFIED TO BE FIRED BY OPENAI? It is a multifaceted and complicated response.

Communication is of utmost importance towards building an ethics-oriented company and therefore the necessity of clearly defined policies in place is critical.

On the other hand, Altman's contributions to OpenAI and his unwavering commitment to AI's positive impact on humanity are undeniable.His dismissal is bound to have a great effect on the company and the tech community in general. This decision by openAI raises questions on their leadership and value system. Although the realities of the matter still are not known, there is no doubt that this would cast a shadow on OpenAI’s future.

Is OpenAI action justified? What do you think?

🙋♂️ 𝑰'𝒎 𝒂 𝒔𝒐𝒇𝒕𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝑨𝑰, 𝙨𝙤𝙛𝙩𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝒅𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒑𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔.

𝑭𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝑳𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒆𝒅𝑰𝒏: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-nwankwo-9876b4196