After internal chaos earlier this month, OpenAI replaced the women on its board with men. As it plans to add more seats, Timnit Gebru, Sasha Luccioni, and other AI luminaries tell WIRED why they wouldn’t join.
Earlier this month OpenAI’s board abruptly fired its popular CEO, Sam Altman. The ouster shocked the tech world and rankled Altman’s loyal employees, the vast majority of whom threatened to quit unless their boss was reinstated. After a chaotic five-day exile, Altman got his old job back — with a reconfigured, all-male board overseeing him, led by ex-Salesforce CEO and former Twitter board chair Bret Taylor.
Right now, only three people sit on this provisional OpenAI board. (More are expected to join.) Immediately prior to the failed coup, there were six. Altman and OpenAI co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever sat alongside question-and-answer website Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, AI safety researcher Helen Toner, and Tasha McCauley, a robotics engineer who leads a 3D-mapping startup.
The specifics of the boardroom putsch attempt remain a mystery. Of those six, D’Angelo is the only one left standing. In addition to Taylor, the other new board member is former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers, a living emblem of American capitalism who notoriously in 2005 said that innate differences in the sexes may explain why fewer women succeed in STEM careers (he later apologized).
While Altman, Brockman, and Sutskever all still work at OpenAI, despite their absence from the board, Toner and McCauley — the two women who sat on the board — are now cut off from the company. As the artificial intelligence startup moves forward, the stark gender imbalance of its revamped board illustrates the precarious position of women in AI.
What this underscores is that there aren’t enough women in the mix to begin with, says Margaret O’Mara, a University of Washington history professor and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. For O’Mara, the new board reflects Silicon Valley’s power structure, signaling that it’s back to business for the world’s most influential AI company — if back to business means a return to the Big Tech boys’ club. (Worth noting that when it was founded in 2015, OpenAI only had two board members: Altman and Elon Musk.)
Prominent AI researcher Timnit Gebru, who was fired by Google in late 2020 over a dispute about a research paper involving critical analysis of large language models, has been floated in the media as a potential board candidate. She is, indeed, a leader in responsible AI; post-Google, she founded the Distributed AI Research Institute, which describes itself as a space where AI is not inevitable, its harms are preventable. If OpenAI wanted to signal that it is still committed to AI safety, Gebru would be a savvy choice. Also an impossible one: She does not want a seat on the board of directors.
The issue of gender representation on OpenAI’s board highlights a broader problem in the tech industry. Women, despite their significant contributions, often face discrimination and lack of opportunities in male-dominated fields. The absence of female voices at the top level of organizations like OpenAI perpetuates the gender imbalance and undermines the progress towards inclusivity and diversity.
The addition of more women to OpenAI’s board is not only a matter of equality but also crucial for cultivating a more inclusive and comprehensive perspective. As leading AI luminaries like Timnit Gebru and Sasha Luccioni state their reluctance to join an all-male board, it is evident that OpenAI needs to actively prioritize gender diversity and ensure that women are given equal opportunities to shape the future of AI.
As Margaret O’Mara rightly points out, the absence of women in positions of power reflects the wider power structures in Silicon Valley. It sends a worrying message that the tech industry is reverting to its old boys’ club mentality, disregarding the progress made in recent years towards a more inclusive and equitable environment.
OpenAI’s decisions regarding its board composition have far-reaching implications for the future of AI development. By including diverse voices, experiences, and insights, the company can better address the ethical and social implications of AI technologies. It is not just a matter of improving gender representation, but also a strategic move to enhance the effectiveness and potential impact of OpenAI’s endeavors.
Ultimately, OpenAI must heed the concerns raised by these prominent women in tech. By actively seeking and valuing their perspectives, the company can elevate its commitment to diversity and ensure that the decisions made around AI align with the needs and interests of all members of society. The representation of women at the highest levels of organizations like OpenAI is a critical step towards achieving a truly inclusive and ethical future in the field of artificial intelligence.
