Inside OpenAI’s weird governance structure
“WHICH WOULD you have more confidence in? Getting your technology from a non-profit, or a for-profit company that is entirely controlled by one human being?” asked Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, at a conference in Paris on November 10th. That was Mr Smith’s way of praising OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, and knocking Meta, Mark Zuckerberg’s social-media behemoth.
In recent days OpenAI’s non-profit governance has looked rather less attractive. On November 17th, seemingly out of nowhere, its board fired Sam Altman, the startup’s co-founder and chief executive. Mr Smith’s own boss, Satya Nadella, who heads Microsoft, was told of Mr Altman’s sacking only a few minutes before Mr Altman himself. Never mind that Microsoft is OpenAI’s biggest shareholder, having backed the startup to the tune of over $10bn.
By November 20th the vast majority of OpenAI’s 700-strong workforce had signed an open letter giving the remaining board members an ultimatum: resign or the signatories will follow Mr Altman to Microsoft, where he has been invited by Mr Nadella to head a new in-house AI lab.
2023-11-20 21:03:33
Post from www.economist.com
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