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Trip, shmacation — I may be gallivanting throughout the pond proper now on PTO, however how might I not deal with the Mutiny on the Bounty (unique me, Board) that’s happening proper now at OpenAI? Have you ever heard the newest — that more than 500 OpenAI employees signed a letter saying they might stop and be a part of Sam Altman at Microsoft (which was the latest news before this latest news, which got here after the earlier newest information about all these heart emojis) until OpenAI’s nonprofit board resigns and reappoints Altman?
Let me circle again to 1 week in the past. Final Monday, I printed a narrative about how OpenAI’s six-member board had the facility to determine ‘once we’ve attained AGI.‘ I wrote about OpenAI’s nonprofit construction, which a number of legal professionals I spoke with referred to as “uncommon,” which wielded energy over the for-profit facet of the corporate, and the a number of board members with ties to the Efficient Altruism motion.
Recapping my reporting within the context of Sam Altman’s ouster
It was a whirlwind day on Friday the place the OpenAI board fired its CEO Sam Altman, changed him within the interim with chief know-how officer CTO Mira Murati, and president Greg Brockman was eliminated as chairman of the board after which stop after Altman’s Ouster. I recapped the wild coincidence of my earlier week’s story with a submit on my Substack referred to as “I spent final weekend writing about OpenAI’s nonprofit board — now on the coronary heart of Sam Altman’s ouster.”
In that post, I identified that within the context of my authentic piece, it made sense to me that OpenAI’s nonprofit board — whose mission was to give attention to AI security considerations, not commercialize merchandise — can be on the coronary heart of Altman’s ouster and Brockman’s removing from the board. The Data had reported that when board member Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist, stated that “this was the board doing its obligation to the mission of the nonprofit, which is to be sure that OpenAI builds AGI that advantages all of humanity.”
OpenAI CEO musical chairs results in worker mutiny
After all, then all hell broke free. After OpenAI’s board acquired large blowback from traders together with Microsoft, discussions all of a sudden started to…you guessed it, carry him again. There was the picture of Altman carrying a guests badge to firm HQ on Sunday. There have been the tons of of OpenAI staff posting coronary heart emojis indicating they have been on his facet.
Then, extra drama: Just a few hours later, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella introduced that Altman and Brockman would join the corporate to move a brand new superior AI analysis unit and appeared able to welcome any OpenAI staff prepared to leap ship. However that’s not all — in one other head-spinning transfer, the identical OpenAI’s board that kicked Altman to the curb all of a sudden eliminated Murati and appointed but interim CEO, Emmett Shear, the previous CEO of the online game streaming website Twitch.
This appeared to be a final straw: Wired’s Steven Levy reported today that “some OpenAI workers stayed up all evening debating a plan of action following information that Altman wouldn’t return to OpenAI. Many workers have been pissed off a few lack of communication over Altman’s firing. Dozens of staff appeared to sign their willingness to leap ship and be a part of Altman final evening by posting “OpenAI is nothing with out its folks.” on X. Of their letter, the OpenAI workers threaten to affix Altman at Microsoft. ‘Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI staff at this new subsidiary ought to we select to affix,’ they write.”
AI security misalignment results in a human mutiny
It appears ironic, to say the least, that the unprecedented actions of OpenAI’s nonprofit board — that took its AI security mission so severely that they might truly sack the CEO — would truly undermine its efforts by creating industry-wide uncertainty and fracturing belief with its staff, resulting in these staff conducting their very own mutiny and leaving OpenAI weaker, and certain much less protected — no less than within the short-term — consequently. Actually the board’s mission to create synthetic intelligence that advantages all of humanity has been slowed considerably.
Chief scientist Ilya Sutskever actually appears to remorse his actions, with a post on X this morning saying: “I deeply remorse my participation within the board’s actions. I by no means meant to hurt OpenAI. I really like all the things we’ve constructed collectively and I’ll do all the things I can to reunite the corporate.”
In the end, OpenAI proved that for now, it stays people that err and go rogue. The AI is okay, it appears — however the people have loads of work to do. Board governance could seem boring in comparison with constructing AGI, however in hindsight, it appears OpenAI — and their said mission in direction of constructing protected AGI — would have been higher off specializing in constructing a greater board. As a substitute, it appears to be like prefer it has a mutiny on its palms.