The ouster of Sam Altman, one of the founders and CEO of OpenAI, the organization behind ChatGPT, shook the business circles. Microsoft, a key shareholder of OpenAI, offered to hire Altman and other key people of OpenAI (including President Greg Brockman). About 700 of the 750 odd employees of OpenAI signed a letter to the new board that they will quit as well unless Altman is reinstated.
What’s not known about the issue is the reason this happened. The friction was between two groups. One conservative about how the development of AI should proceed for safety of humanity, led by board member and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever. The other, led by Altman, wanted to keep going full steam ahead and commercialize their technology as much as possible. It may ne noted that OpenAI was a non-profit organization for the very purpose of being careful about its impact on humanity.
Eventually, Altman was recalled, the new board resigned, and it is yet to be seen what happens next.
