OpenAI board fires CEO: Control Altman, delete
(2023/11/17)
- Reference: 1700257630
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/11/17/openais_board_of_directors_fire/
- Source link:
OpenAI's board of directors just fired CEO Sam Altman for not being "consistently candid" in his communications.
CTO Mira Murati has been appointed as the interim CEO to lead the lab in the meantime as the board finds a new boss.
In a statement Friday, the board of directors [1]said : "OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity. The board remains fully committed to serving this mission. We are grateful for Sam's many contributions to the founding and growth of OpenAI. At the same time, we believe new leadership is necessary as we move forward."
[2]
Altman, an OpenAI co-founder, was ousted after the board claimed he had not been completely honest and forthright in his conversations, leading to a lack of confidence in his abilities to continue as CEO.
[3]
[4]
The move comes as a shock. Launched in 2015 as a non-profit with the short-lived backing of Elon Musk and a culture of openness, Altman changed the upstart as it transformed into a secretive for-profit biz. A number of OpenAI staffers later hit eject, and got together to form a rival AI lab, [5]Anthropic , we note.
OpenAI is seen as a leader in generative AI technology, and was the first outfit to commercialize large language models in a big way with its GPT family.
[6]
Since then, OpenAI has developed many other types of AI models with other generative capabilities, such as its text-to-image DALL-E, code-writing Codex used in GitHub Copilot, and more – including ChatGPT, its most well-known product.
[7]OpenAI pauses ChatGPT Plus sign-ups as it 'hits capacity'
[8]UK won't rush to regulate AI, says first-ever minister for digital brainboxes
[9]To pay or not to pay for AI's creative 'borrowing' – that is the question
[10]Microsoft hits Alt+F4 on internal ChatGPT access over security jitters, irony ensues
Under Altman, the startup's valuation catapulted as it attracted billions of dollars from investors. Its largest backer Microsoft splashed what is believed to have been [11]$10 billion on a deal with OpenAI that gave the IT titan a 49 percent stake in the upstart, and at one point the lab was valued at $29 billion. At the same time, Microsoft has been keen to [12]slap its own branding over OpenAI's technology as the Windows and Azure giant integrates the lab's neural networks into [13]every corner of its products and services, from Bing to Windows.
Altman's sudden exit comes just as OpenAI talked up its app-store-like marketplace for [14]applications built on top of its AI chatbot ChatGPT.
Nothing seemed amiss as Altman announced various services and updates during the US-based lab's [15]first developer conference this month. Prior to this, he was flying around the globe talking to world leaders about the potential and dangers of AI as governments work towards crafting policy to regulate the technology. On Thursday, Altman showed up at the high-profile Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation [16]conference in San Francisco, attended by US President Joe Biden and China's President Xi Jinping.
On Twitter, Altman [17]said : "I loved my time at OpenAI. It was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. Most of all I loved working with such talented people ... [I] will have more to say about what’s next later."
[18]
But behind closed doors, it must have been a different story for the board to dump him. Perhaps it had something to do with the massive costs involved in training and running powerful state-of-the-art models, and feeding them with training data sourced from the internet as well as the need to put guardrails around the output.
Perhaps it had to do with Altman constantly [19]crying about the potential for AI to destroy society, fears some experts have said are overblown, and [20]heralding a general form of artificial intelligence no one in their right mind would want.
"We believe new leadership is necessary as we move forward. As the leader of the company's research, product, and safety functions, Mira is exceptionally qualified to step into the role of interim CEO," the board said of the CTO. "We have the utmost confidence in her ability to lead OpenAI during this transition period."
OpenAI's board of directors include its co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever; Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo; entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology's Director of Strategy and Foundational Research Grants Helen Toner.
Co-founder Greg Brockman was chairman of the board, and will be stepping down from that position, though remain employed at OpenAI, as part of the reshuffle. ®
Get our [21]Tech Resources
[1] https://openai.com/blog/openai-announces-leadership-transition
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZVfwlElRoh8OdTAFZLsSuQAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZVfwlElRoh8OdTAFZLsSuQAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/03/language_model_gpt3/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZVfwlElRoh8OdTAFZLsSuQAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/15/openai_pauses_chatgpt_plus_signups/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/17/uk_ai_regulation/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/15/house_of_lords_ai_copyright/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/10/microsoft_blocks_chatgpt/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/23/microsoft_openai_applications/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/15/microsoft_ignite_copilot/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/03/microsoft_365_copilot/
[14] https://openai.com/blog/introducing-gpts
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/06/openai_gpt4_turbo_copyright_shield/
[16] https://www.apec2023sf.org/what-is-apec
[17] https://twitter.com/sama/status/1725631621511184771
[18] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZVfwlElRoh8OdTAFZLsSuQAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/30/ai_human_extinction/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/27/openai_ceo_agi/
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
CTO Mira Murati has been appointed as the interim CEO to lead the lab in the meantime as the board finds a new boss.
In a statement Friday, the board of directors [1]said : "OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity. The board remains fully committed to serving this mission. We are grateful for Sam's many contributions to the founding and growth of OpenAI. At the same time, we believe new leadership is necessary as we move forward."
[2]
Altman, an OpenAI co-founder, was ousted after the board claimed he had not been completely honest and forthright in his conversations, leading to a lack of confidence in his abilities to continue as CEO.
[3]
[4]
The move comes as a shock. Launched in 2015 as a non-profit with the short-lived backing of Elon Musk and a culture of openness, Altman changed the upstart as it transformed into a secretive for-profit biz. A number of OpenAI staffers later hit eject, and got together to form a rival AI lab, [5]Anthropic , we note.
OpenAI is seen as a leader in generative AI technology, and was the first outfit to commercialize large language models in a big way with its GPT family.
[6]
Since then, OpenAI has developed many other types of AI models with other generative capabilities, such as its text-to-image DALL-E, code-writing Codex used in GitHub Copilot, and more – including ChatGPT, its most well-known product.
[7]OpenAI pauses ChatGPT Plus sign-ups as it 'hits capacity'
[8]UK won't rush to regulate AI, says first-ever minister for digital brainboxes
[9]To pay or not to pay for AI's creative 'borrowing' – that is the question
[10]Microsoft hits Alt+F4 on internal ChatGPT access over security jitters, irony ensues
Under Altman, the startup's valuation catapulted as it attracted billions of dollars from investors. Its largest backer Microsoft splashed what is believed to have been [11]$10 billion on a deal with OpenAI that gave the IT titan a 49 percent stake in the upstart, and at one point the lab was valued at $29 billion. At the same time, Microsoft has been keen to [12]slap its own branding over OpenAI's technology as the Windows and Azure giant integrates the lab's neural networks into [13]every corner of its products and services, from Bing to Windows.
Altman's sudden exit comes just as OpenAI talked up its app-store-like marketplace for [14]applications built on top of its AI chatbot ChatGPT.
Nothing seemed amiss as Altman announced various services and updates during the US-based lab's [15]first developer conference this month. Prior to this, he was flying around the globe talking to world leaders about the potential and dangers of AI as governments work towards crafting policy to regulate the technology. On Thursday, Altman showed up at the high-profile Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation [16]conference in San Francisco, attended by US President Joe Biden and China's President Xi Jinping.
On Twitter, Altman [17]said : "I loved my time at OpenAI. It was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. Most of all I loved working with such talented people ... [I] will have more to say about what’s next later."
[18]
But behind closed doors, it must have been a different story for the board to dump him. Perhaps it had something to do with the massive costs involved in training and running powerful state-of-the-art models, and feeding them with training data sourced from the internet as well as the need to put guardrails around the output.
Perhaps it had to do with Altman constantly [19]crying about the potential for AI to destroy society, fears some experts have said are overblown, and [20]heralding a general form of artificial intelligence no one in their right mind would want.
"We believe new leadership is necessary as we move forward. As the leader of the company's research, product, and safety functions, Mira is exceptionally qualified to step into the role of interim CEO," the board said of the CTO. "We have the utmost confidence in her ability to lead OpenAI during this transition period."
OpenAI's board of directors include its co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever; Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo; entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology's Director of Strategy and Foundational Research Grants Helen Toner.
Co-founder Greg Brockman was chairman of the board, and will be stepping down from that position, though remain employed at OpenAI, as part of the reshuffle. ®
Get our [21]Tech Resources
[1] https://openai.com/blog/openai-announces-leadership-transition
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZVfwlElRoh8OdTAFZLsSuQAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZVfwlElRoh8OdTAFZLsSuQAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZVfwlElRoh8OdTAFZLsSuQAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/03/language_model_gpt3/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZVfwlElRoh8OdTAFZLsSuQAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/15/openai_pauses_chatgpt_plus_signups/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/17/uk_ai_regulation/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/15/house_of_lords_ai_copyright/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/10/microsoft_blocks_chatgpt/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/23/microsoft_openai_applications/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/15/microsoft_ignite_copilot/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/03/microsoft_365_copilot/
[14] https://openai.com/blog/introducing-gpts
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/06/openai_gpt4_turbo_copyright_shield/
[16] https://www.apec2023sf.org/what-is-apec
[17] https://twitter.com/sama/status/1725631621511184771
[18] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZVfwlElRoh8OdTAFZLsSuQAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/30/ai_human_extinction/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/27/openai_ceo_agi/
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Scandalous revelations coming out in 3...2...1
Anonymous Coward
1) Even more loss-making than we thought?
2) Even bigger illegal data grab than we thought?
3) There is more truth to the analysis that GPT4 performs worse than GPT3.5 than we thought?
4) Sam Altman knew all this time about the fundamental issue with transformers, the core of LLMs, being incapable of ever becoming intelligent, as Google research revealed this week?
5) Something more mundane such as lying about his actual remuneration?
6) An office affair?
Re: Scandalous revelations coming out in 3...2...1
Notas Badoff
Is this the article and research about 'revelation' 4 ?
* [1]Google researchers deal a major blow to the theory AI is about to outsmart humans (at businessinsider.com)
* [2]Pretraining Data Mixtures Enable Narrow Model Selection Capabilities in Transformer Models (at Arxiv)
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/google-researchers-have-turned-agi-race-upside-down-with-paper-2023-11
[2] https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.00871
Re: Scandalous revelations coming out in 3...2...1
Doctor Syntax
Or https://time.com/6300522/worldcoin-sam-altman/?
Rikki Tikki
At least Altman has somewhere to go:
https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/12/sam_altman_indonesia_gold_visa/
Developing the next AI trend while sitting on a beach in Sumatra maybe?
Firing a CEO for lying, really?
sarusa
He's a CEO, of course he lies as effortlessly and necessarily as he breathes. I guess he wasn't lying the way they wanted, though.
Altman constantly crying about the potential for AI to destroy society
Howard Sway
He was partially right though : some people will end up losing their jobs because of AI. As he has now proved.
OpenAI may be an upstart, but I think "startup" was intended in para 5. Really, the whole sentence probably wants rewriting.