Firing Altman at OpenAI
Two weeks ago, I published “AI: Sowing the Seeds of Our Own Extinction.” I delineated why AI poses existential dangers that make nuclear bombs look like stink bombs.
But even I had no idea that the mad geniuses developing AI were already engaged in an existential battle. That battle led to the summary and sensational firing of OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman on Friday.
Here is how the New York Times reported on competing visions and values that precipitated his ouster:
Success raised tensions inside the company. Ilya Sutskever, a respected AI researcher who co-founded OpenAI with Mr. Altman and nine other people, was increasingly worried that OpenAI’s technology could be dangerous and that Mr. Altman was not paying enough attention to that risk.
That conflict between fast growth and AI safety came into focus on Friday afternoon, when Mr. Altman was pushed out of his job by four of OpenAI’s six board members, led by Mr. Sutskever. The move shocked OpenAI employees and the rest of the tech industry, including Microsoft, which has invested $13 billion in the company.
(November 18, 2023)
Frankly, Sam Altman and OpenAI reek of the corporate stench Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX left behind…
Microsoft is eating its own for profit
Microsoft wasted no time hiring Altman to head a rival research team. OpenAI’s board barely had time to inform its employees. That speaks volumes. Because those employees promptly issued this extraordinary and irreconcilable ultimatum:
Hundreds of OpenAI staffers are calling for the resignation of the ChatGPT company’s board, and threatening to quit themselves, after a tumultuous weekend that began with the surprise ouster of CEO Sam Altman and ended with Altman being hired by Microsoft.
(CNN, November 20, 2023)
How’s that for forming a circular firing squad?
Thank God for the women at OpenAI
Ilya Sutskever might have played a leading role in public. But my take on the Times report cited above suggests a different dynamic at play behind the scenes.
I gleaned that Altman’s ouster stemmed from concerns women board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley expressed. And that had everything to do with their long-established “ties to the Rationalist and Effective Altruist movements, a community that is deeply concerned that AI could one day destroy humanity.”
Sure enough, today’s headlines vindicate my take. For example, Axios headlined its reports:
- OpenAI’s Sutskever says he regrets board’s firing of Altman
In other words, he’s throwing the women who joined him in ousting Altman under the bus.
We’ll see if board members will cave to the employees’ demand to resign. But, even if they do, there’s no guarantee that Altman will return, emulating Steve Jobs’s famous return to Apple.
After all, Microsoft’s offer looks simply irresistible. He’d be able to practically create an AI fiefdom after all.
Microsoft is banking on Altman staffing it with hundreds of disaffected OpenAI researchers – who are beholden to him and subject only to his AI going all HAL 9000 on him … and us. But, wither OpenAI?
We expect AI researchers to behave rationally and responsibly, as we depend on them to manage our co-existence with AI. So, it does not inspire hope to see them behaving like desperate, backstabbing children from Lord of the Flies.
We have managed to date to defy the fears Robert Oppenheimer expressed about the nuclear weapons he developed. I fear we are tempting fate by defying the fears Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley are expressing about the AI they’re developing. And, if their fears are realized, it’s all she wrote for all of us.
But, let’s be clear: I stand with the women. They’re advocating for caution and responsible development, not doomsday scenarios, as critics would have you believe.
In contrast, Altman emerges as the Pied Piper of AI, relentlessly pushing its commercial exploitation. That’s why I label him and his cohort AI profiteers.
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