Sam Altman Exposes the Charade of AI Accountability
The OpenAI founder will find it harder to convince the world he is working for the good of humanity, and not for the good of shareholders. He is now just another Big Tech executive.
As attempted coups go, what happened at OpenAI was a colossal failure.
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images
When the news hit late Friday afternoon that OpenAI had forced out founder and Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, almost immediately the comparisons to Apple Inc. ousting Steve Jobs were making the rounds. In other words, this was a catastrophic miscalculation to unseat a tech visionary. Although history may come to see it that way as well, the passing of time might also offer another, maybe more important reflection.
As attempted coups go, what happened at OpenAI was a colossal failure. As I write this, the latest twist is that Altman and his OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman have been hired by Microsoft Corp. to lead a newly-created in-house artificial intelligence division. More than 500 OpenAI employees are threatening to jump ship and join them. Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella must think he is dreaming: Over the course of one whiplashy weekend, he went from watching the company’s $10 billion investment in OpenAI become jeopardized to managing to make the software giant’s position in AI look even stronger. Investors agree, sending the Redmond, Washington-based company’s shares to a record high.