Main carousel at ChatGPT developer company OpenAI

Should artificial intelligence software mainly make money or is that in everyone’s interest? This question has been asked by OpenAI for years – apparently with consequences that continue to this day.

ChatGPT development company OpenAI will not see the return of ousted co-founder and boss Sam Altman, according to media reports.

After hours of negotiations over the weekend, the employees were instead presented with another interim boss, according to industry service ‘The Information’ and the Bloomberg news agency. That’s why it’s the co-founder and longtime boss of the gaming-focused streaming service Twich, Emmett Shear.

According to media reports, OpenAI supporters such as Microsoft had previously pushed for Altman, who was fired on Friday, to be reinstated as boss. But the board of directors that made this decision stood firm. He even removed interim boss Mira Murati, who was only appointed on Friday, and is said to have sided with Altman in the meantime.

Dispute over direction leads to divorce from Altman

According to media reports, a dispute over direction at OpenAI led to Altman’s departure. Some leading figures, such as technology chief Ilya Sutskever, believed that Altman was trying to bring the artificial intelligence software to market too quickly and with too commercial an approach. They got the majority of the board of directors on their side.

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit organization with the mission to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of all. However, when it became clear that donations would not generate the necessary billions in investment, a for-profit company was formed with Altman at the helm. He brought Microsoft on board as a major investor, thereby ensuring OpenAI’s access to the necessary computing power. However, the conflict between the two approaches deepened.

The chatbot ChatGPT can formulate sentences at the language level of a human. Its publication about a year ago sparked an AI hype. OpenAI has therefore become a pioneer in the technology. Microsoft made a multibillion-dollar pact with the company to bring its technology into the company’s products. Other tech heavyweights such as Google, Amazon and the Facebook group Meta presented competing software. (sda/awp/dpa)