A signal that turbulence may be around the corner comes with the announcement by three top executives that they will be leaving OpenAI last week. So far, these include CTO Mira Murati, Vice President of Research Barret Zoph, and Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew, all independently and on good terms.
The exits leave OpenAI with only three of its original 13 founders still at the helm. In response, CEO Sam Altman has said he'll be reorganizing technical leadership, having the remaining researchers report directly to him. Altman also said during an all-hands that the position of a CTO would not be filled any time soon, as the company is charting a new direction.
After Murati announced her departure, Altman said he planned to flatten OpenAI’s structure by having a number of high-ranking employees in technical roles report directly to him. At an all-hands meeting last week, Altman told employees the company is not looking to replace Murati in the CTO role for now.
The chaos in leadership extends even to the board at OpenAI. All but one of the previous directors, Quora's CEO Adam D'Angelo, was changed as part of the agreement to reinstate Altman.
To date, OpenAI has extended and diversified its board, adding seven new members from business, government, and technology: Bret Taylor, former Salesforce co-CEO; Larry Summers, former U.S. Treasury secretary; and Fidji Simo, CEO of Instacart. It is worth noting that Altman rejoined this March after being cleared.
The leadership changes come amid OpenAI's $6.6 billion fundraising from investors like Thrive Capital and Tiger Global, which skyrocketed its valuation to $157 billion. However, not all is smooth sailing with the massive cash flow. Recently, OpenAI asked investors not to support five specific AI startups, including one from former co-founder Ilya Sutskever.
That request to rein in funding for other AI companies stands in dramatic contrast with OpenAI's founding charter for the beneficial and cooperative development of advanced AI.
Source: Bloomberg
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