Just five days after his unexpected termination, Sam Altman has been reinstated as the head of OpenAI, the company responsible for the construct of the conversational bot, ChatGPT.
The emoji that has been used most commonly on my work chats today is the one depicting an exploding head.
Despite our lack of knowledge as to why, the executives at OpenAI found something so reprehensible that they swiftly took action to terminate him without making much noise.
They suggested in their statement that he had not been completely open with them, accusing him of not offering "constant candor" in his dialogues.
Although the circumstances were serious and two new CEOs were appointed in such a short period, what ensued was an incredible outburst of confidence in Mr. Altman from his colleagues - and it has been successful.
Almost every single employee of the organisation endorsed a document expressing their intention to possibly step down if Mr Altman was not reinstated. This was in addition to Ilya Setskover, the head researcher of the team that made the initial ruling, who was among the signatories. Later, Setskover posted a statement on X (formerly Twitter) regretting his involvement in the ousting of Altman.
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Many workers, including Mira Murati who was the interim CEO at the time, shared the phrase "OpenAI is nothing without its people" on X. The post was accompanied by coloured hearts, creating a similar sentiment to the one felt last year when the Silicon Valley was rocked by the shake-up at Twitter (now X) after Elon Musk's takeover. The laid-off Twitter staff also made their feeling known then by sending a coded message using an emoji salute.
Altman wasted no time. On Monday, he had taken up a new role at Microsoft, which is the largest financier of OpenAI.
A few people whispered to me about Microsoft essentially accomplishing a takeover without actually attempting a takeover: within two days, the Seattle company had hired Mr Altman, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, and Kevin Scott, the Microsoft chief technology officer, stated in a post on X that the firm was available to accept anyone from OpenAI who wanted to come on board - sorry, join them.
He has returned; Sam Altman seems to be able to do the impossible with the support of the company. A person informed me that one can move through the wall of a large corporation, like in the movie "Matrix," if they are desired. It looks that is precisely what he has carried out here.
Why is this soap-opera significant?
We could be discussing the originators of pioneering technology, yet we should all be concerned due to two very human reasons: economic gain and control.
Opening with money, OpenAI was appraised at $80bn last month with many investments coming in. Despite this, its outgoings are rather high. Someone described to me that it costs the organization a few pence whenever someone inputs a query into ChatGPT, this is due to the computing power required.
A researcher from the Netherlands informed me in October that if Google search queries possessed a cost similar to those related to a chatbot, then Google, regardless of its financial capability, would not be able to keep its search engine operation going.
It is therefore understandable that OpenAI sought avenues of profitability in order to maintain the support of its investors.
Though money brings power, let's not be sidetracked by this popcorn-snatching distraction, and instead focus on the real goal: OpenAI is crafting a technology which could have enormous global implications.
The rate of AI advancement is accelerating, making it a more substantial concern. Recently, Mr Altman expressed that the OpenAI model for next year is going to be much more sophisticated than the current ChatGPT, which has already demonstrated the ability to pass a trainee-level lawyer's bar exam.
Few people are responsible for the extremely disruptive technology that is Artificial Intelligence, and Sam Altman is one of them. AI has the potential to make the future more intelligent and efficient if utilized in a positive manner, yet can bring destruction if not managed properly. The past five days have demonstrated the capacity of the people to create something revolutionary, but it also demonstrates the potential for humans to cause destruction through the same means.
I will conclude this episode with a quote from quantum physics professor Andrzej Dragan on X: "It appears that those creating [artificial general intelligence] are unable to conjecture what the consequences will be three days ahead."
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