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Sam Altman wins power struggle, returns to OpenAI with new board (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 year ago by misk@sopuli.xyz to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Meanwhile, some new details emerged about the days leading up to Altman's firing. "In the weeks leading up to his shocking ouster from OpenAI, Sam Altman was actively working to raise billions from some of the world's largest investors for a new chip venture," Bloomberg reported. Altman reportedly was traveling in the Middle East to raise money for "an AI-focused chip company" that would compete against Nvidia.

As Bloomberg wrote, "The board and Altman had differences of opinion on AI safety, the speed of development of the technology and the commercialization of the company, according to a person familiar with the matter. Altman's ambitions and side ventures added complexity to an already strained relationship with the board."

"According to people familiar with the board's thinking, members had grown so untrusting of Altman that they felt it necessary to double-check nearly everything he told them," the WSJ report said. The sources said it wasn't a single incident that led to the firing, "but a consistent, slow erosion of trust over time that made them increasingly uneasy," the WSJ article said. "Also complicating matters were Altman's mounting list of outside AI-related ventures, which raised questions for the board about how OpenAI's technology or intellectual property could be used."

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[–] misk@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

While large language models and similar "AI" technologies are very overhyped, they are already plenty usable for things like deepfakes which if left unchecked have significant potential to be weaponised and destabilize societies.

OpenAI is a non-profit that's behind those machine learning models and practical applications like ChatGPT. In principle it should govern development so that it's safe and responsible. There are many allegations that Sam Altman became focused on profit betraying non-profit mission.

While OpenAI is not technically controlled by commercial entities (it has 49% stake by Microsoft) it's entirely dependent on them for funding which likely led to being strong-armed to have Altman regain control.