Sam Altman’s ouster from OpenAI this weekend (18-19 November, 2023) is surprising. The Board tacitly says about Altman’s communications with the Board being not candid. It affects the Board’s ability to exercise its responsibilities. It is so ambiguous.

There was OpenAI DevDay. OpenAI announced buid-your-own ChatGPT and also announced GPT-4 Turbo. Microsoft too had restricted the use of ChatGPT of late, but soon lifted it. Altman too announced that OpenAI pauses signups for ChatGPT Plus due to capacity challenges. Were the new releases having some security concerns?

OpenAI’s future too has been compartmentalised into two distinct visions — a commercial approach and not-for-profit approach (seconded by Ilya Sutskever).

On November 17, Altman joined a Google Meet at the instance of Ilaya where the news of his removal as CEO was broken. President Brockman too was informed through another Google Meet by Ilaya about this news. Brockman was also told that he no longer remains the chairman of the Board.

It is not at all clear why the ouster happened now, and the reasoning behind it. But the decision has wider implications — both in terms of the future direction of the company and the future of AI as technology.

The future of the company will be shaped by Ilaya and the remaining five Board members. Security of the products would be a priority rather than fast release of new features and commercialization.

Microsoft as the financial investor came to know about Board’s decision just a minute before the public announcement. Since its own direction will also be affected by the developments, in future it it likely to be more involved in governance of OpenAI. Microsoft’s competitors will take advantage of this situation. Perhaps, there is more reliance on one company and one product.

Agreed, Sam Altman was a public face of OpenAI. Both Altman and Brockman are not novices. They could get support from some other industry stalwarts.