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After OpenAI co-founders set aside their differences to work together again, former and current CEO Sam Altman announced his return to the company late at night yesterday. The announcement was confirmed by the company, too, on X, after xAI CEO Elon Musk shared a letter on GitHub with stunning allegations against the firm that was formed as a moonshot attempt at humanity’s first artificial general intelligence (AGI) computing software.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT, trained on the latest semiconductors designed by NVIDIA Corporation, has been the center of media coverage for a year now, and with the fairy tale completing its first 12 months, matters at the firm have returned to the status quo after a brief disruption.
OpenAI Ignores Allegations In Letter Shared By Elon Musk On X
In the fight between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the board that led to his rapid ouster last week, Altman returned to the company while the board underwent a shuffle. According to OpenAI’s announcement, only Altman’s return is confirmed, along with two new board members and a board Chairman.
Brockman was targeted after the board fired Altman, and the unsuccessful shakeup saw the new CEO, Mira Altman, later decline to get stuck in a fight between Altmnan, Brockman and OpenAI’s then head of research, Illya Sutskever.
Political conflict at the company was broadcasted in real-time at X, and as matters settled down, X’s owner Elon Musk shared an interesting letter on his profile. The letter (addressed to OpenAI’s ex interim CEO) allegedly details reasons that might have been behind Sutskever and the former board’s swift attempt to shake things up at the company. It was shared on the GitHub code storage and management platform and has been deleted since then.
Some allegations against Brockman and Altmnan noted that they had pushed out employees who had resisted attempts to tilt OpenAI towards a for-profit business approach.
However, while it is absent from GitHub, a copy is still available on Board.net, a collaborative work etherpad. This copy shares Board links for future updates, with the one seen by Wccftech being dated November 21 and being publicly editable.
OpenAI’s X page did not mention any allegations in the letter. Instead, it announced Altman’s return and a new OpenAI board president. Brockman also announced his return to OpenAI through an X post, and other members that will join the board along with Altman are former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo.
Altman and Brockman’s return follows another letter shared by OpenAI employees who had threatened to resign en masse if the former status quo at the company remained unrestored. The letter Musk shared was addressed to OpenAI’s interim CEO Emmett Shear, and with him paving the way for Altman to return, it’s unclear whether Altman will initiate any investigation against himself.
The saga surrounding the firm that operates ChatGPT has left Microsoft Corporation, one of OpenAI’s largest investors, unscathed. Microsoft boss Satya Nadella was quick to remind the public on X that his company had all the tools necessary at its disposal to ensure project execution, and his offer to bring Altman and Brockman to Microsoft seems to have instead enabled Altman’s return to OpenAI instead.
All big tech firms except Apple have their own artificial intelligence platforms. However, unlike Google who maintains full control over Bard and Amazon who acquired an OpenAI spin off Anthropic earlier this year, OpenAI is a separate legal entity from Microsoft. While Altman has announced his return, he has not shared any plans that he might have to resolve the conflict at OpenAI with regards to its profit/non-profit motive.