OpenAi, Altman and the whims of Silicon Valley billionaires
The meaning of Altman's sudden expulsion and incredible reintegration into OpenAi is to be found in the dimension of whim, ego, envy and elementary school spite. Mattia Ferraresi's italics for the newspaper Domani
Last weekend Altman, CEO of OpenAI, was fired on the spot by the board, which justified the decision with its lack of transparency, without adding further details.
Another CEO was appointed in his place. Meanwhile, Microsoft, investor and minority partner of OpenAI, announced that it has hired Altman to lead a new business unit dedicated to artificial intelligence. However, things were by no means resolved.
The OpenAI management team rebelled against the decision to fire Altman: they asked in vain for explanations on the real reasons for the dismissal and had no evidence of the alleged misconduct that the 38-year-old had committed. 650 employees (out of 700) threatened to resign and called for the reinstatement of Altman and other members of his team
The final twist was, in fact, the reinstatement of Altman and his closest collaborators, supported by an almost entirely renewed board in which the name of Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary, stands out.
As the colossal psychodrama of Silicon Valley aired, all observers searched for rational explanations. It was said that the clash between techno-optimists and AI apocalypticists was taking place, that the affair was the expression of a conflict between the reasons for profit and the ethics of the beginnings of the technological community, profound philosophical and tensions between incompatible managerial styles.
These are all elements present in the background of the discussion. But as the days passed, it became increasingly clear that Vance's emotional explanation missed the mark more than other logically dominated hypotheses.
The meaning of Altman's sudden expulsion and incredible reinstatement is to be found in the dimension of whim, ego, envy and resentment, it is part of a dynamic that recalls elementary school arguments more than the professional operations of a multinational.
As new details of the story emerge, hurt feelings, personal accusations, offensive positions and widespread resentments are discovered. A question of emotions that come and go.
Today the CEO gives off negative vibrations and is fired, tomorrow the vibrations become positive and he is put back in his place. The day after tomorrow who knows. It is certainly interesting to know that the mother of all technological problems affecting the future of the human species depends on the whims of capricious billionaires who are unable to manage the "vibes".
(Excerpt from the newspaper Domani, full article here )
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/sam-altman-reintegro-openai/ on Sat, 25 Nov 2023 06:46:52 +0000.