Last week there was one of the biggest technology earthquakes in recent times. In just 72 hours, the man of the moment, Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI, was fired from the company he founded and rehired without any apparent explanation.
As the statement stated, the board had “lost the trust” placed in him to run the company, but the reasons were not made clear. Although at first the reason seemed to be a security breach that had not been reported, little by little the explanations turned towards a more line of business in which it was assumed that everything was due to the investors wanting to make the company a more profitable company.
However, none of this could be proven… until now. Just one year after launching his flagship product, ChatGPT, Altman gave an interview to the American media The Verge in what he foresees for the future of the company and has shed some light on the soap opera in which he was involved just a few days ago. These are the things you should know.
1. “Our structure has a problem”
The structure when managing OpenAI is quite complicated. It is organized into a series of non-profit companies with another for-profit company that is responsible for the OpenAI that is used by millions of users, such as Dall-E or ChatGPT and that needs to make money to offer, for example, high salaries. To him eployees. All controlled by a board of directors that elects the CEO.
“Design a [nueva] really good governance structure, especially for such an impactful technology […] It will take a long time.”
2. Not even Sam Altman knows why he was fired
In the interview, one of the first questions is about the reasons for his dismissal, of which Altman does not know the reasons or does not want to comment on them publicly. “The board is going to do an independent review.”
Altman refers to a new board of directors, since the directors who voted in favor of his departure will leave.
3. The board of directors asked him, 24 hours after being fired, to return
Altman comments how on the same Saturday, just 24 hours after the announcement of his dismissal and already one of the stories of the year, some members of the board called him and asked him if he would be willing to talk about his dismissal.
His initial response was obvious: “You hurt me and I’m angry, and I think this whole thing sucks.”, he commented to the member of the board of directors. “It took me a few minutes to wake up and overcome my ego to say that I did want to come back.”
4. OpenAI security had nothing to do with his dismissal
Among the rumors that were given to clarify the reason why Altman was fired, a possible security problem was mentioned.
Mira Murati, CTO of OpenAI, was categorical in the interview in which he also participated, stating that Altman’s departure has nothing to do with security.
5. The “Q*” project is focused on research, for now it will not be translated into its products
Other possible reasons why it was believed that Altman was fired is the relationship with a new project in artificial intelligence, called Q*, which would have achieved great progress in terms of artificial intelligence.
“Without commenting on anything specific, project or whatever, we believe that progress is research”. Altman also comments that the progress of AI will continue to be rapid and that they will continue working to make it safe and beneficial to society.
