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Did OpenAI’s board get a warning letter about a new algorithm shortly before it fired CEO Sam Altman?
A Reuters story last week said they did. But two people familiar with the board’s thinking tell The Messenger that they didn’t, the latest complication in a complex saga that monopolized Silicon Valley’s attention for days and has highlighted the immense interest around the technology.
Moreover, the people said, it’s not clear that a letter was ever written. Reuters had previously reported that OpenAI researchers had composed a letter detailing their concerns around a secret project, codenamed Q, that had developed an AI that could imperil humanity. That letter was then one of the reasons the board fired Altman, according to Reuters.
Altman is now back at OpenAI as CEO, rehired by the same board that fired him after the startup’s staff threatened to leave en masse and its investors pressed the board to reconsider Altman’s firing.
The unexpected shakeup sparked a media frenzy around what was already one of the world’s most closely watched startups, and one of the people familiar with the board’s thinking suggested that the Q letter in the Reuters story fit into a broader campaign by the Altman camp to find a good narrative for Sam and his side, casting his dismissal as a high-minded fight about AI safety rather than a more straightforward disagreement over management.
