Sam Altman, boss of OpenAI, returned to the board of directors of the company he co-founded on Friday, more than four months after a major governance crisis (AFP/Archives/OLIVIER DOULIERY)
Sam Altman, boss of OpenAI, returned to the board of directors of the company he co-founded on Friday, more than four months after a major governance crisis within the publisher of the leading artificial intelligence program. (generative AI), ChatGPT.
In a press release published Friday, OpenAI announced the arrival of three new board members, Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Nicole Seligman, a former president of Sony and Fidji Simo, the director of Instacart and former director of Facebook’s mobile application, as well as the return of Sam Altman to the board.
The thirty-year-old was abruptly fired in mid-November by the former board of directors, for lack of “transparency”, then rehired a few days later, following an outcry from executives and the overwhelming majority of OpenAI employees. .
WilmerHale, an independent firm responsible for investigating this crisis, considered that “Sam Altman’s conduct did not justify his dismissal,” according to another OpenAI press release on Friday.
The firm “observed a breakdown in trust between the former board of directors and Mr. Altman, which precipitated the events of November 17,” details the company.
The former board hoped to “alleviate internal management issues and did not anticipate that his actions would destabilize the company,” according to WilmerHale’s lawyers.
They further believe that their decision “was not motivated by concerns about product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI’s finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners” – as much reasons mentioned in the American press after the crisis.
– “Benefit humanity” –
OpenAI highlighted the experience of the three new members “in leading international organizations and managing complex regulatory environments, particularly in the areas of technology”.
“Their experience and leadership will enable the Board to oversee the growth of OpenAI and ensure that we continue OpenAI’s mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of us.” humanity,” said Bret Taylor, chairman of the board of directors of OpenAI, quoted in the press release.
The success of ChatGPT at the end of 2022 propelled its creator to the rank of Silicon Valley star and launched the trend for generative AI (production of content on a simple query in everyday language).
For Sam Altman and his colleagues, the goal is to improve the technology so that it has cognitive abilities similar to or superior to those of humans – what they call “general AI”.
“We recognize the importance of our role in driving these fundamental new technologies for the benefit of all,” added Mr. Taylor.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the American stock market watchdog (SEC) is examining Sam Altman’s internal communications as part of an investigation into the November crisis.
– Initial mission –
Last week, Elon Musk, one of OpenAI’s co-founders, filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing Sam Altman and current management of having “betrayed” its original mission – according to its non-profit statutes, it was to work for the good of humanity and design “open source” AI programs (accessible, modifiable, usable and redistributable by all).
Elon Musk, boss of Tesla, SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter), November 2, 2023 in London (POOL/AFP/Archives/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
The boss of Tesla, SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter) left the organization in 2018 and founded his own AI company, xAI, last year.
He particularly criticizes OpenAI for its partnership with Microsoft, which has invested some $13 billion in the start-up in recent years. The two companies market AI services for developers and individuals, and compete with Google and other tech giants in this area.
The Windows maker backed Sam Altman and won an observer seat on the board after members critical of the boss were dismissed in November.
On Tuesday, Sam Altman and management detailed their counter-arguments to Elon Musk’s complaint, to show that their former colleague was not opposed to the idea of transforming OpenAI in order to carry out its mission – to build the General AI in the common interest.
By 2017, “we all realized that we were going to need a lot more capital to succeed in our mission – billions of dollars a year, which was way more than any of us, especially Elon, thought be able to raise as a non-profit organization”, they explain in particular.
At the end of January, the American competition authority announced that it was investigating investments by Microsoft, Google and Amazon in the main generative artificial intelligence start-ups, OpenAI and Anthropic.
© 2024 AFP
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