Article Source: Titan Media
Author: Lin Zhijia
Editor: Ma Jinman
This article was first published on the Titanium Media App.
The OpenAI board of directors may have tentatively agreed to Sam Altman's return, and most board members, including the key figure in the "coup," Ilya, have expressed willingness to resign. However, many variables still exist, and the decision will be made as early as November 20th Beijing time. The situation is still developing.
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The "father of ChatGPT" that shocked the tech industry this weekend has experienced a major turnaround in just 24 hours.
According to the latest news from the Titanium Media App on November 19th, Sam Altman, the former CEO of OpenAI who was just expelled from the company, may return to the company as CEO.
It is reported that OpenAI's investors and employees have pressured the board of directors to recall Altman as CEO, including major shareholders Microsoft and venture capital firm Thrive Capital, among other OpenAI investors, who are facilitating Altman's return. Currently, the OpenAI board of directors is in discussions with Altman regarding his potential return, but Altman has requested the current board members to resign.
According to Forbes, this comprehensive approach, which includes large-scale protests by senior researchers, withholding Microsoft's cloud computing credits, and potential lawsuits from investors, aims to make the new management of OpenAI accept that their current situation is unsustainable. Faced with this comprehensive pressure, they believe that the management will ultimately have to accept Altman's return, which may lead to the departure of some individuals who are seen as having prompted Altman's departure, including OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever and board member Adam D'Angelo (CEO of Quora).
As of the time of writing, according to The Verge, the board of directors has tentatively agreed to resign and allow Altman and former president Brockman to return to OpenAI. However, Altman is still considering the matter and has exceeded the deadline of 5:00 PM Pacific Time on November 18th (9:00 AM on November 19th Beijing time). If Altman ultimately decides to leave OpenAI and start a new company, OpenAI employees may resign and follow him.
The Titanium Media App has compiled various sources of information and analysis, indicating that the OpenAI board of directors may have tentatively agreed to Altman's return, and most board members, including the key figure in the "coup," Ilya, have expressed willingness to resign. However, many variables still exist, and the decision will be made as early as November 20th Beijing time. The situation is still developing. The latest news is that Altman has just tweeted, "I really like the OpenAI team." He hinted that he may return to OpenAI as CEO.
Follow-up on the OpenAI "coup": Altman starts a new company, various parties pressure the board to request his return
OpenAI, which was at its peak, is now facing its biggest crisis in the eight years since its founding.
On November 18th of this year, the OpenAI board of directors announced that Altman was removed from the CEO position and left the company, and this decision took effect immediately. At the same time, Mira Murati, OpenAI's CTO, was appointed as the interim CEO, and the company stated that it is currently looking for a long-term successor.
The announcement stated that Altman's departure was the conclusion reached by the board of directors after deliberation, as he had not been forthright in his communication with the board, hindering the board's ability to fulfill its duties, and even stating that "the board no longer believes he is capable of continuing to lead OpenAI." (For more details, see the previous article: "The sudden removal of the founder of OpenAI and the radical release of ChatGPT may slow down")
"For insiders, this is like an assassination," said an anonymous AI practitioner.
However, more than 20 hours later, there was a dramatic "reversal" of events. Under pressure and efforts from investment firms, Microsoft, and the employee team, the OpenAI board of directors is in discussions with Altman about his return.
From the various reactions, first and foremost, the investment firms of OpenAI, whether it's Sequoia, Tiger Fund, or Microsoft, are all backing Altman.
It is reported that Altman's "dismissal" caught OpenAI investors off guard. Prior to this, the company's major investors had not received any advance notice of this news. Microsoft, which has invested over $1.3 billion in OpenAI, also only learned of this matter a few minutes before the official announcement.
"This is too crazy," said an investor familiar with the matter.
Ron Conway, founder of investment firm SV Angel and an investor in OpenAI, stated that this is a very dangerous case of corporate management. "What happened at OpenAI today is a boardroom coup that we have not seen since 1985, when Apple's board ousted Steve Jobs." It is known that Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 and eventually led the company to develop hardware devices such as the iPhone 4.
Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham stated that Altman's dismissal reveals the dangers of these particular board structures.
Alfred Lin, partner at Sequoia Capital, stated on the X platform, "I look forward to the next world-changing company created by Altman and Brockman."
According to Bloomberg, currently, investors such as Sequoia Capital and Tiger Fund are pressuring the OpenAI board of directors to recall Altman as CEO. It is reported that Sequoia Capital is also lobbying senior Microsoft executives to assist in the return of OpenAI's management.
It is reported that OpenAI is currently in discussions with investors to raise a new round of financing at a valuation of up to $86 billion (approximately 620.1 billion RMB), selling employee shares to investors, and this "personnel earthquake" is likely to have an impact on this.
Multiple sources indicate that Altman is open to returning to the company, but feels somewhat "conflicted." He hopes that the company's management will undergo major reforms, including all board members resigning, and the final decision will be made as early as November 20th.
As the biggest supporter of OpenAI and its exclusive business partner, Microsoft is also backing Altman.
It is reported that since Microsoft is not a member of the OpenAI board of directors, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was caught off guard by the board's decision and has been in contact with Altman, as well as promising to support his next plan.
In a public statement, Nadella attempted to alleviate concerns that Altman's departure might harm Microsoft's long-term AI plans. "We have signed a long-term agreement with OpenAI, which can fully realize Microsoft's new innovative products, and we will continue to focus on our partnership," he wrote in the statement.
Lastly, the employee team.
If Altman ultimately chooses to leave OpenAI and start a new venture, it is expected that more OpenAI employees may leave—potentially joining Altman's new company project, further jeopardizing OpenAI's position as a leader in the AI market.
According to reports from Reuters and The Guardian, Altman and former Apple senior designer Jony Ive are planning to jointly create a new AI hardware device, with the participation of Masayoshi Son, founder of Softbank. Altman has recently shared plans to establish a new company with investors.
Currently, OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman has announced his resignation from the company. At the same time, OpenAI's research director Jakub Pachocki, head of the team evaluating AI potential risks Aleksander Madry, and researcher Szymon Sidor have also been reported to have resigned. It is expected that more employees will leave OpenAI in the coming weeks.
Reports indicate that Altman's new company is "still in development," and Brockman has already indicated his entry into the company, with the expectation that more OpenAI employees may resign and join this new company.
As of the time of writing, although the OpenAI board of directors has not made a final decision, Altman has released multiple tweets stating, "If I start to leave the OpenAI board, my stock's full value should be traced, I really like the OpenAI team," and more.
"Greater things are coming," Altman and Brockman previously tweeted.
Co-founder Ilya and the current board of directors, where do they go from here?
As the initiator of this coup, OpenAI co-founder Ilya and other board members are also facing a dilemma.
Previously, Brockman tweeted directly, pointing to Ilya as the "central figure" in the event of Altman's dismissal.
"On November 16th, Altman received a text message from Ilya, requesting a discussion at noon on the 17th. Later, during a board meeting, Ilya informed Altman that he would be fired, and the news would soon spread. At 12:23 PM on the 17th, Ilya sent a Google Meet link, and Brockman was informed that he would be removed from the board (but remains crucial to the company and will retain his position), while Altman had been fired. Around the same time, OpenAI published a blog post," said Brockman.
According to Bloomberg, a month ago, Ilya's responsibilities at the company were reduced, reflecting friction between him, Altman, and Brockman. Ilya later appealed to the board of directors and won the support of some board members. It is reported that Ilya is one of the proteges of AI pioneer and Turing Award winner Hinton.
From left to right are the OpenAI co-founding team: new interim CEO Mira Murati, former CEO Sam Altman, former president Greg Brockman, and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever.
In fact, the major investors, including Microsoft, are not members of the OpenAI board of directors. Instead, technical or think tank personnel such as Ilya, Adam D'Angelo, technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and Helen Toner, director of strategy at the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology, are on the list of OpenAI board members.
As of March of this year, the OpenAI board member information (source: The Information).
The ownership structure of OpenAI is very complex and "peculiar." Altman does not have ownership of OpenAI, let alone the control that founders like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have. Altman has always stated that the company will not go public with an IPO. Therefore, it has been speculated by many that Altman could be fired at any time.
As of now, it is not clear how these directors voted to dismiss Altman.
In fact, Altman has been dedicated to rapidly advancing the powerful technology developed by OpenAI, transforming the non-profit company into a commercial giant, leading to increasing divisions between the pro-Altman faction and the safety-focused faction.
Now, with this dramatic reversal of the "coup" initiated by the OpenAI board of directors, where will co-founder Ilya and the current board of directors go from here?
According to The Verge, including Ilya, Adam D'Angelo, and 5 other board members, have tentatively agreed to resign and allow Altman and Brockman to return to OpenAI.
This means that Ilya will be out, but it is not yet certain if the company's interim CEO Mira Murati will resign voluntarily. The latest news from Bloomberg states that OpenAI investors are vying to change the board, with one contender being former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor.
OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap stated in an internal memo that this decision stemmed from miscommunication between Altman and the board, and the company will "fully address this issue, make efforts to propose response measures and explanations, and bring everything back on track."
However, the CEO's lack of control over the board, the company's continuously "fluctuating" attitude, especially Altman's influence affecting the entire company's direction, has made investors wary of the news of the potential reversal.
"When I talk to more mature startups, the first thing I want to know is whether the founder still has control of the board, and when the answer is yes, I will be more optimistic about the company," said Paul Graham.
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