The soap opera of the year in the technological world does not end. The sudden dismissal of Sam Altman at OpenAI, which only lasted one weekend after a spectacular cable collection by his board of directors, has even more crumbs.
Although Altman is now CEO again and there is a new board of directors that will have to investigate the bizarre dismissal of the manager, they are beginning to learn more information about the possible reasons for his dismissalas he comments Business Insider.
Sam Altman He is an old acquaintance of the world of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley. He founded Loopt, a social network based on geolocation in 2005. With his profits he founded, together with his brother Jack Altman, a venture capital investment company called Hydrazine Capital, to enter the prestigious incubator in 2011. Y Combinator (Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, Reddit, Cruise, Twitch…).
Altman tried to turn several members of the board of directors against him
He The official reason for his dismissal that OpenAI gave at the time was a brief “he has not always been sincere in his communications with the board”since then all the information has come out in dribs and drabs thanks to leaks from employees and former employees.
According to Business InsiderAltman has tried to impose himself on the board of directors that manages the different entities of the business network that OpenAI has.
The new data indicates that Altman attempted to turn on board members who are against his aggressive approach by deploying developments in artificial intelligence technology, such as the rumored Q* project.
Among the members Altman tried to turn against was Helen Toner, an Australian researcher focused on artificial intelligence who is no longer on the board of directors. Toner published an article that specifically questioned the speed at which AI improvements such as ChatGPT were being released.
Another member of the board of directors that Altman allegedly opposed is Ilya Sutskeveran academic and current chief scientist at OpenAI who is no longer a board member.
Other board members, who come from academia and non-profit organizations, also saw their approach to releasing news so quickly as dangerous. And we must remember that OpenAI’s flagship program, ChatGPT, is only one year old.
Some council members felt that Altman lied to them to get his way. They feared his tactics so much that they knew that the moment he learned of his dismissal he would do everything possible to undermine the board.
And no one can doubt that. Altman himself published in X (formerly known as Twitter) “It is clear that there were misunderstandings between the board members and me.”
