Finance
New Delhi: A day after his upcoming assignment at Microsoft made headlines, OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman said his colleagues at the company that fired him days back have been doing an “incredible job” that will “be in the history books”.
He said he is “incredibly proud of them” and excited that they are going to work together “some way or other”. “One team, one mission,” he said in a post on X.
“The openai leadership team, particularly mira brad and jason but really all of them, have been doing an incredible job through this that will be in the history books. incredibly proud of them,” Altman posted on X.
Altman, former CEO of OpenAI that created the revolutionary ChatGPT, is joining Microsoft with former OpenAI president Greg Brockman to lead a new team for advanced research in Artificial Intelligence, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced yesterday.
Microsoft is OpenAI’s largest shareholder and has reportedly invested more than $13 billion in the organisation.
“Despite the recent changes, Satya and I remain dedicated to ensuring OpenAI continues to thrive. Our top priority is to provide seamless continuity of operations to our partners and customers. The OpenAI/Microsoft partnership makes this transition very doable,” Altman posted on X.
Nadella’s announcement about Altman coming on board followed high drama that started with the surprise sacking of the OpenAI co-founder. On Friday, they fired him over a Google Meet call, as reported on X by Brockman. The next day, during another Google Meet call, they informed Brockman that they were removing him from the board but allowing him to retain his role because he was “vital to the company.”
Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and Chief Scientist at OpenAI, conveyed both decisions, as stated by Brockman in his post. “Sam and I are shocked and saddened by what the board did today,” mentioned Brockman in his Saturday post.
Following a deliberative review process, the board of Microsoft-backed OpenAI announced Altman’s departure. Concluding that he was not consistently candid in his communications, hindering its ability to fulfill responsibilities, the board stated, “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”
The move sent shockwaves through the tech industry. Soon after, US media reports claimed that major investors in OpenAI wanted Altman to return and had started efforts to reach out to him. The attempts to bring him back, reports said, hit a roadblock after Altman demanded sweeping changes, including the removal of current board members, as a condition to return.
According to a Reuters report, OpenAI’s staff has threatened to quit and join Altman at Microsoft’s new division unless the board resigns.
In addition to Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, Chief Data Scientist Ilya Sutskever, and Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap, approximately 500 staff members have declared their intention to resign, the report said.
