The Strange Case of Altman V Board at OpenAI revealed

The New Yorker article on the drama at OpenAI has uncovered, not only the timeline but the dynamics of the drama. It was a plot worthy of an episode in Succession. Kendall Roy is Sam Altman, a charismatic, persuasive and experienced tech entrepreneur. Logan Roy is Microsoft, looking to get some zest into the business, as it has lost its mojo. Then there are the bit players, the winners and losers. 

Helen Toner, was the 'Effective Altruism' academic, with no real AI or technical experience, who had to apologise to the board for writing opinion piece articles criticising the organisation in which she was a board member. She apologised but Altman clearly had no time for her antics. He tried to get her ousted from the Board, playing them off against each other. It happens – I’ve seen it. Some on the board were inexperienced in business and couldn’t cope with the pressure, clearly tangled up in academic debates about AGI, an insider said “Every step we get closer to A.G.I., everybody takes on, like, ten insanity points.” The board felt threatened, panicked and sacked Altman. BIG MISTAKE

Establishing that there was “no malfeasance” Microsoft went apeshit, Altman took Brockman with him, the staff revolted in favour of Altman. This was a battle between lightweight academics and experienced AI and business brains. Used to ruling the roost in the their world, and with more than a little of the arrogance that comes with academic status, they completely misjudged the situation and overplayed their hand. In the end it was a rout. The board “agreed to leave” (cough), Altman was reinstated, and the usual inquiry was ordered (always a sop). As one tech journalist noted "A clod of a board stays consistent to its cloddery.”

Two other fascinating characters in all this are Kevin Scott, the Microsoft AI guy, and Mira Murati, the ex-Tesla Albanian, tech savvy  and known to be unflappable. They both came from tough, poor backgrounds and hold the belief that this tech really is a leveller - we'll see. They steered all of this to its conclusion. 

The board all went, apart from Adam D’Angelo, co-founder and CEO of Quora. A computer scientist and hugely successful entrepreneur.

Larry Summers was brought in. Fascinating choice, ex-academic, president of Harvard but sacked during an early salvo in the culture wars and now soaked in economics, politics and business. He’s one of the best connected figures in America.  

The board has also been considerably expanded with a range of professional expertise; 

Bret Taylor is the Chair, a real heavyweight:

Creator of Google Maps

CTO at Facebook

Chair of Twitter

Co-CEO at Salesforce. 

He has brought in:

Sue Desmond -Hellman Former CEO of Gates Foundation, physician and experienced corporate board member

Nicole Seligman heavyweight global lawyer

Fidji Simo and other tech entrepreneur 

....and, of course, the King is dead Long live the King!

.....Samuel Altman.

One figure lurks behind all of this, the genius that is Ilya Sutskever. He knows more about AI than anyone there and created the software yet survives as he IS OpenAI. Like the mad-genius Oracle, sitting quietly in the middle watching all of this, above all of these petty squabbles. He is now back to his day job – changing the world. 

PS

Thanks to Peter Shea for helping me with this piece.

also original article - well worth a read but paywalled 
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/11/the-inside-story-of-microsofts-partnership-with-openai?fbclid=IwAR2kmNi0LLc3FaXY6s2C08YCaDS88hD4mBFauylAIJCgzJ4lBnHqyZ-ts6Y