Some use it as a personal secretary, as a home cook’s assistant, as a letter writer or as a summary of scientific articles – even in Hungarian. The AI platform ChatGPT has crept into our lives over the past year.
However, what happened at OpenAI, the company behind the platform, over the weekend could not have been further from the cold logic of AI due to its chaotic and exciting nature.
After the board fired co-founder and CEO Sam Altman on Friday, the chairman himself was also removed. Meanwhile, it has spread that the workers want to bring back the CEO, but for this, the leaders have appointed the former head of Twitch, the chat and streaming platform used by gamers, in his place.
It was already Monday in Europe when it was revealed that Altman, the former CEO, would join Microsoft along with Brockman (whom he fired) and “other colleagues.”
All of this is a big boost for the company, which already owns the intellectual property rights to the OpenAI engine (i.e. ChatGPT). This big news was announced by Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadelli, himself at X.
We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and are confident in our product roadmap, our ability to continue innovating on everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners. We look forward to getting to know Emmett…
– Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) November 20, 2023
Microsoft is the largest investor in OpenAI, and now that it has poached two of its key hires, it has quickly hired them to lead its new advanced AI research team.
According to press reports, the events caused dissatisfaction with the employees who remained at OpenAI, who beat them to the ground by three CEOs in three days.
Altman was fired Friday because he was “not always honest in his communications.” The board’s decision caused a real earthquake in Silicon Valley. At first, Microsoft pushed for his reinstatement, then he ratted out the specialist.
In the background, it was said that there are concerns that the development of artificial intelligence is “too fast”, not transparent, and that workshops are racing towards the future without taking into account the negative effects on human society. However, the council said:
Altman was fired “not over a specific security dispute, but over something else entirely.”
The issue caused a stir in the company, and on Monday among OpenAI employees He called for his resignation The Company Board of Directors. In a letter, they questioned the competence of the board of directors and accused it of undermining the company’s work. They are also demanding that Altman be reinstated to his previous position.
According to commentators, the weekend’s drama is a major victory for Microsoft. The proof of this is that the original non-profit model of OpenAI is not working and yes, AI development is a profit-oriented business, because the development is practically in the hands of one of the largest companies in the world.
According to the company’s business structure, at the top of the pyramid is the board of directors, below it is OpenAI Inc., registered as a charitable organization, and below it is the holding company that brings together the owner’s employees and investors. It is the majority owner of OpenAI Global LLC (Kft), which is already aiming for limited profits, while Microsoft is a minority, but also a customer. ChatGPT technology is already integrated into a range of Microsoft products from Windows to Office. Microsoft is now doing what happens to many startups: a larger, non-innovative company comes along and swallows it up or imitates it.
