Puzzling Chaos and Leadership Shuffle at OpenAI Leaves Industry Guessing, US

Former OpenAI director Reid Hoffman expresses confusion and uncertainty over the board’s decision to briefly remove CEO Sam Altman without providing a specific reason. Speaking at the Wired LiveWired conference in San Francisco, Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a prominent startup investor, stated that the situation remains unclear. Altman was reinstated as CEO after significant pressure from top investors and the threat of employee exits. The board is currently undergoing changes, with some longtime directors leaving. Despite the upheaval, the reasons behind Altman’s initial removal have not been disclosed. Various reports suggest different factors, including Altman’s pursuit of funding for a new AI chip startup, concerns from co-founder Ilya Sutskever about the company’s risk management, a technical breakthrough disclosed by employees, and a disagreement between Altman and a departing director, Helen Toner. While uncertainty surrounds OpenAI, the company continues to operate successfully, providing services like ChatGPT and partnering with Microsoft. However, during this period of instability, competitors have used the situation to their advantage. Adam Selipsky, Amazon’s cloud unit head, highlighted the importance of not being tied solely to one AI model provider during a recent conference. Hoffman, one of OpenAI’s original donors, believes that Altman’s reinstatement is beneficial, stating that Altman is highly skilled for the CEO role. Hoffman also praised the relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft, anticipating it will be studied by future business-school students. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella expressed his integrity and willingness to hire Altman, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, and their colleagues for a new advanced AI research group. Ultimately, however, Altman returned to OpenAI. Hoffman believes that Nadella’s attitude reflects the idea of not fixing something that isn’t broken. As a leading news agency, we will continue to monitor this situation and provide updates as more information becomes available.