Sam Altman – Credit Chen Galili
Sam Altman will not be returning to OpenAI, the company that he founded. Instead, both Altman and Greg Brockman, a fellow co-founder of OpenAI who quit the firm after Altman’s firing, have both signed on with Microsoft.
Altman and Brockman will head an advanced research lab at Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor. Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear was named the new CEO of OpenAI.
Microsoft, however, does not expect there to be any problems with their relationship with OpenAI due to its hiring of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.
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Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation, issued a statement saying, “We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners.”
Nadella went on to say that Microsoft “looks forward to getting to know Emmett Shear and OAI’s new leadership team and working with them.”
Microsoft, he said, is “extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team. We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success.”
The board of OpenAI released a memo saying that it does not regret firing Sam Altman.
“The board firmly stands by its decision as the only path to advance and defend the mission of OpenAI,” it read. “Put simply, Sam’s behavior and lack of transparency in his interactions with the board undermined the board’s ability to effectively supervise the company in the manner it was mandated to do.”
The above is what was said to be the reason behind Altman’s removal as the company’s CEO, but the specifics behind the decision remain unclear.
Sam Altman was born in St. Louis Missouri to a Jewish family in 1985. Altman studied computer science at Stanford, but never completed his B.A. When he was only 19-years-old, Altman co-founded Loopta location-based social networking mobile application, and managed to raise $30 million for the new company at such a young age.
Altman is a vocal advocate for responsible AI development. He has argued that AI has the potential to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, but that it is important to develop AI in a safe and ethical way.
