Sam Altman returns to OpenAI after been fired
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI X:@SamAltman
The internal crisis of the technology giant, owner of the innovative Chat GPT platform, led to the dismissal of the company's CEO
By Javier López-Cuervo
Former executive director of OpenAI, one of the great powers of emerging artificial intelligence, Sam Altman, was fired on November 17 due to the loss of trust the company felt with him. “He was not consistently truthful in his statements, which hindered his ability to exercise his responsibilities,” the company said. That same day, OpenAI president Greg Brockman resigned.
The reactions were immediate and a massive number of workers threatened to resign if the company's drift was not corrected. Last Monday the 20th, also, Microsoft – OpenAI's largest investor – announced the hiring of Altman to “lead a new advanced research team.” However, just two days after this setback, OpenAI announced that it had agreed to the return of the former leader to return to the position of CEO.
Letter complaning
A letter published by former members of the technology giant states that “the methods of Altman and Brockman had increased doubts about their intentions and whether they were truly seeking the good of humanity.” They agree that a “significant personal cost” was being incurred, alleging that management until now had been “dishonest and manipulative,” and they accuse the 700 workers who threatened to resign and go to Microsoft of “blindly following Altman.”
Altman, after being reinstated at OpenAI, said that he was deeply grateful to Microsoft for the offer and that when he decided to accept it “he was sure that it was the best path for him and his team.” However, the Silicon Valley firm got in the way of his new job and presented itself as an irrefutable option for the computer scientist.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella supported Altman and confirmed the manager's return to his former company. In addition, he commented that “they were confident with the changes in OpenAI” and that “they considered them an essential first step towards a more stable path with better communication and administration.”
“Threaten humanity”
On the other hand, sources close to the company claim that Sam Altman was “aggressively” approaching the development of an algorithm with artificial intelligence that could “threaten humanity.” The chief scientist at OpenAI Ilya Sutskever, who was allegedly one of those responsible for Altman's dismissal, was investigating a series of processes that indicated that the CEO's discoveries had been close to a finding that mathematically surpassed the already known algorithms and, therefore, could destroy the balance of the world economy and human capabilities to create jobs. Altman, at an event in Los Angeles, gave some statements that hinted at some glimpses of this: “In the last two weeks, I have had the opportunity to be in the room where I leave behind the veil of ignorance and the frontier of discovery ahead, and being able to do it is a professional honour in my life.”
Doctor on journalism and expert on AI, Javier de la Rosa, says “Artificial Intelligence has just opened the doors to an unknown and mysterious world in which good and bad things can be done, but where there’s a place for human development”.
His colleague, Álvaro García, confirms that “AI is advancing by leaps and bounds, but at the moment human being is still being superior than machines”.