OpenAI in Upheaval: Founder's Exit Triggers Surge of Resignations
Summary:
Following the sudden dismissal of founder Sam Altman, OpenAI has reportedly experienced a wave of resignations, including those from three high-level researchers. The company's board of directors cited a pattern of opaque communication as the reason for Altman's ousting. In the wake of his removal, several other employees have quit or been laid off. The ramifications of these sudden shifts are yet to be seen, as are Altman's plans for his future career.
Unrest continues to plague OpenAI following the sudden dismissal of its founder, Sam Altman, on November 17. Reportedly, this has lead to the resignation of three top-level researchers from the artificial intelligence company. The board of directors at OpenAI cited a lack of transparent communication from Altman as the reason for his departure from the CEO role, as announced in a recent blog post. Meanwhile, Mira Murati, the company's CTO, is stepping into the CEO role on a temporary basis. Altman's unexpected removal led to a cascade of resignations, including OpenAI's co-founder and president, Greg Brockman who announced his departure a few hours after Altman's ousting. Reports suggest several senior officials at OpenAI, including Jakub Pachocki, research director, Aleksander Madry, preparedness chief, and Szymon Sidor, senior researcher, have also resigned.
Concurrently with Altman's removal, at least one other employee was dismissed. Alex Cohen, who was tasked with crafting presentations for OpenAI's board of directors, also lost his position. Cohen, having commented on his dismissal on X (previously Twitter), believes more resignations are to follow. Cohen speculated, "With Sam and Greg gone, I cannot see why people would want to stick around. I'd guess around 40% of OpenAI employees are currently weighing up new opportunities."
It is suspected that the decision to remove Altman arises from disagreements he had with the startup's co-founder and chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, particularly about new fundraising initiatives and AI development strategies. As for Altman's future plans, these remain to be seen. He is known as the founder of Tools for Humanity, the team behind the crypto project Worldcoin, and has been scouted for involvement in new projects. For instance, the founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson, extended an invitation for Altman to join the ecosystem's decentralized large language model (LLM).
Published At
11/18/2023 8:45:09 PM
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