OpenAI on brink of collapse as Elon Musk demands answers if company is "doing something potentially dangerous to humanity"

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is on the verge of collapse after about 95% of the workforce threatened to quit over the controversial ouster of ex-CEO and co-founder Sam Altman and ex-Chair of Board of Directors and President Greg Brockman by the OpenAI board on Friday. The decision, which was made because Sam Altman allegedly failed to be “consistently candid in his communications with the board”, has drawn criticism from investors and has resulted in a tumultuous few days for the company.

OpenAI has since seen two interim CEOs, Sam Altman’s possible comeback, the board reportedly agreeing to resign in principle but failing to do so, and now a revolt by almost the entirety of the workforce that could see the company go out of business.

Microsoft potentially hiring Sam Altman

When the OpenAI board fired CEO Sam Altman on Friday, reports came about that Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest investor with a 49% stake in the company, and other investors were trying to broker a deal to reinstate Altman. Sam Altman’s conditions for return allegedly included the resignation of all directors and changes to the company’s governance structure. 

While it initially seemed that a deal was imminent after reports came out of the board agreeing to resign and Sam Altman and Greg Brockman traveling to the OpenAI HQ, the deal allegedly fell through and the board is still in place, at the time of writing. Later, amidst the chaos, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced on X that Sam Altman would be helming a new AI research team at Redmond. The AI research team was also announced to include Greg Brockman and OpenAI employees who followed the ex-CEO to Microsoft.

OpenAI employees threaten to quit the company

Following Satya Nadella's announcement, reports emerged that more than 730 OpenAI employees have signed a letter demanding the return of Sam Altman as CEO and the resignation of the board. In the event that the board fails to resign and Altman doesn’t return, the employees have threatened to follow the ex-CEO en masse to Microsoft.

Interestingly, the letter by OpenAI employees also holds the signature of Ilya Sutskever, the chief scientist at OpenAI. Ilya Sutskever, who sits on OpenAI’s board of directors, is considered to have played an instrumental role in ousting Altman. Per OpenAI’s governance structure, a board majority can fire the CEO and any director at any time.

At the time of Altman’s firing, the OpenAI board included CEO Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, Adam D’Angelo (current CEO of Quora), Tasha McCauley, and Helen Tooner of Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. So a simple majority which must have included Ilya Sutskever fired the now ex-CEO Altman and ex-Chair of the board Brockman.

Ilya Sutskever later voiced his regret at Altman’s firing by stating on X “I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we've built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.”

Elon Musk demands answers from OpenAI

It is no secret that Elon Musk doesn’t like the direction that OpenAI has taken as of late. The Tesla CEO was one of the co-founders of OpenAI. Musk’s vision for OpenAI was of an open-source, non-profit entity that could provide the balance of power against commercial AI giants like Google’s DeepMind. 

After his departure from OpenAI in 2018 following a reported power struggle, Musk has consistently warned about the dangers of rapid and uncontrolled development of AI that could do more harm than good to humanity. To that end, Musk is demanding OpenAI reveal to the public details of CEO Sam Altman's abrupt departure.

Replying to Ilya Sutskever's post on X, Musk asked Ilya to explain “Why did you take such a drastic action? If OpenAI is doing something potentially dangerous to humanity, the world needs to know.” It is interesting to note that Musk once fought DeepMind for Ilya ultimately succeeding in recruiting the scientist for OpenAI.

Unfortunately, we have no way of confirming whether Musk’s question is just a simple query or something with actual depth to it. 

It remains to be seen what happens to OpenAI and, by extension, Sam Altman. However, if practically the entirety of the workforce is threatening to resign, it is reasonable to assume that Altman’s return is inevitable and it is only a matter of time before we see the board resign.

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