Sam Altman, who suddenly returned in 12 days after retiring as CEO of OpenAI, responds to an interview, but refuses to answer the core question of ``Why was he fired?''
In November 2023, it was announced that
Sam Altman explains being fired and rehired by OpenAI - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/29/23982046/sam-altman-interview-openai-ceo-rehired
On November 17, 2023 local time, OpenAI announced the resignation and retirement of CEO Sam Altman. It is known that this resignation/resignation was not requested by Mr. Altman, but was essentially Mr. Altman's expulsion by the board of directors.
Sam Altman, CEO of AI development company OpenAI, steps down; CTO Mira Murati becomes interim CEO - GIGAZINE
Mr. Altman's resignation received strong opposition from both inside and outside the company, and 12 days after the announcement, Mr. Altman returned to the position of CEO of OpenAI.
Sam Altman returns as CEO of OpenAI - GIGAZINE
At the beginning of the interview, The Verge frankly asks, 'Why do you think you were fired?' However, Altman said, ``The board will conduct an independent investigation, which is very welcome. But I have nothing more to say at this time. I look forward to learning the details.'' He declined to discuss the cause of his expulsion.
When Altman announced his return to OpenAI at X, he said, ``It is clear that there was a major misunderstanding between me and the members of the board.''
The best interests of the company and the mission always come first. It is clear that there were real misunderstandings between me and members of the board. For my part, it is incredibly important to learn from this experience and apply those learnings as we move forward as a…
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 30, 2023
When asked by The Verge what this misconception is, Altman said, 'I'm not ready to talk about that yet. I think it's very important that we go through the investigative process. I'm happy to do anything positive. I will tell you, and I think there will come a time when I will be willing to talk about what happened here, but not right now.” Mr. Altman also said that the reason he cannot talk is because he does not want to interfere with the investigation process.
Furthermore, regarding Ilya Satsukivar, co-founder and chief scientist of OpenAI, who is said to have led Altman's ouster, The Verge asked, ``Why did Satsukivar change his mind to support Altman?'' asks Mr. Altman. However, Mr. Altman replied, 'I don't know. Ask Ilya about that.' Due to Altman's dismissal and reinstatement, Satsukivar is no longer a member of OpenAI's board of directors.
'I love and respect Ilya, and I believe he is a guiding light and a gem in this field. Although Ilya will no longer serve on the board, we look forward to continuing our collaboration and have discussed how he can continue his work at OpenAI. 'We are proceeding with this,' he said.
The Verge then asks, 'What was the main driving force behind your decision to return to OpenAI?' Altman responded, ``It was really interesting. On Saturday morning (November 18th), some of the board members called me and asked me to come back. My first reaction was to rebel. I was like, 'Oh, I'm hurt and angry. This sucks.' And then I realized right away that I really love OpenAI and have spent much more time working on it than I did full-time for four and a half years. I remembered that I had poured my life into the company, and that we had made great progress in the mission that I hold dear to my heart: developing safe and useful artificial general intelligence (AGI). I also remembered that the people at OpenAI and all the partners who bet on us, Mila and the management team, have all worked hard as well. It only took a few minutes for me to get over it and think, ``Of course I want to come back.''
It was clear that OpenAI employees supported Altman during his firing and reinstatement. Regarding this, Altman said, ``Without a doubt, we came out of this situation with a stronger, unified, focused and dedicated team. Previously, I thought we had great faith and focus.'' But now I believe we have much more to offer than that.' 'Throughout all the layoffs and reinstatements, we didn't lose a single employee or customer. 'OpenAI not only maintained the product, but also flawlessly released new features, even under extremely difficult circumstances.' Kudos to the employees who didn't stop.
Asked if he would like to return to the board, Altman said: 'That's not my focus right now. I have a lot of very difficult, important and urgent work to do. I just want to be able to do it well, and it doesn't matter whether I become an executive or not. That's not what I'm spending my time thinking about right now.'
Finally, when asked, ``What lessons have you learned from this incident?'' Mr. Altman answered, ``I definitely have a lot to say, but I'm not ready yet. I can only give you answers,'' he said, avoiding commenting on the incident. However, after the interview, Altman called me and said, ``I learned that OpenAI can function properly without me, which is great. I'm very happy to be back, but don't get me wrong.'' I was able to come back without feeling any stress like, ``I have to do this, the company needs me.'' This is because I have chosen great leaders in the past, This is because I was able to properly guide talented people.It's truly amazing that I feel like the company will be fine without me.''
In Altman's firing and reinstatement, OpenAI's old board intentionally excluded Microsoft from decision-making, believing that employees would support Altman's ouster, The New Yorker reported. Masu. In addition, the former board of directors focused on ``discussions between Mr. Altman and OpenAI regarding the dangers of AI'' and ``the fact that Mr. Altman did not actively provide information,'' and He seemed optimistic that Microsoft, which supports him, would also understand the decision to expel him. However, in reality, OpenAI received more backlash than expected from Microsoft and its employees, and decided to bring Mr. Altman back.
The reason behind OpenAI's former board of directors deciding to expel Mr. Altman is that OpenAI acquired AI from Rain AI , a startup in which Mr. Altman personally invested, for $51 million (approximately 7.5 billion yen). It is also reported that this was because they had entered into a contract to purchase chips. According to a copy of the contract between OpenAI and Rain AI obtained exclusively by WIRED, as of 2019, OpenAI 'purchased the neuromorphing processing unit (NPU) developed by Rain AI for $51 million when it became available. Apparently, he had signed a non-binding contract stating that he would do so. According to investor documents, Rain AI could be able to sell its first NPU as early as October 2024.
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