A little tour and then it’s gone. Sam Altman, Microsoft’s new recruit plucked from OpenAI, could already be on his way if his former company wants him.
The soap opera is not yet over. While we thought the fate of OpenAI was sealed with the departure of Sam Altman at Microsoft and the hiring of the former boss of Twitch to replace him, this is not the case in reality. The situation continues to be very unstable in the house of ChatGPT and it could well be that the co-founder returns through the front door… or that the company collapses completely.
Without employees, without customers: the end of OpenAI?
According to information obtained by The Verge, the former boss of OpenAI has actually not definitively settled down at Microsoft and is waiting to see whether or not the management committee decides to rehire him. More precisely, he is waiting to see if the hundreds of employees who threatened to leave the company will be able to have the skin of those who pushed him towards the door.
It must be said that the situation is critical within the company. In addition to the many, many employees who are threatening to leave to follow Altman at Microsoft, a good portion of OpenAI’s customers also seem to want to change creameries. According to The Informationseveral hundred OpenAI partners are reportedly knocking on the doors of Google and other companies specializing in artificial intelligence to see if it could not quench their thirst for AI elsewhere.
Without employees and without customers, OpenAI could well become an empty shell led by the ex-CEO of Twitch who, according to the latest news, was not even the first choice of management since other candidates approached before him refused the position. During the artistic blur that accompanied the departure of Sam Altman, the company even considered merging with Anthropic, another firm specializing in AI, to recover its CEO and the big names who work there.
Microsoft puts pressure on
After the reversal of Ilya Sutskever, the head of research who would have led the battle against Sam Altman, all that would be missing is for two of the three members of the management committee to change their minds so that Sam Altman can return to the helm. ‘OpenAI. Even Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, does not yet seem sure that the co-creator of OpenAI will stay in his ranks for very long. Asked about this by CNBC, the manager avoided answering by explaining that he was “attached to OpenAI and Sam, regardless of configuration.»
It must be said that Microsoft has invested more than 10 billion in the company. Seeing OpenAI sink, even if it is to recover its employees, would surely seem like a waste for the company. Whatever happens, Satya Nadella explained that Microsoft “wanted to see changes in governance» from OpenAI. With this statement from one of its biggest investors, the company is under more pressure than ever.
Source : The Verge, The Information
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