Chaos at OpenAI: Microsoft takes the best AI cracks from the ChatGPT developer

Ultimately, Microsoft benefited from the leadership chaos at ChatGPT developer OpenAI. Deposed OpenAI boss Sam Altman and other employees will work for the software giant in the future.

You will lead a new research team, as Microsoft boss Satya Nadella has announced. Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI and, according to media reports, tried unsuccessfully to return Altman to the top position at OpenAI this weekend, without success.

Now Microsoft is suddenly becoming a stronger player in the race to develop artificial intelligence. As a major investor, the group not only has continuous access to OpenAI’s technology, but now also has a number of its inventors in-house.

Altman was removed from the CEO position of the company he co-founded on Friday. 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.

The interim boss also has to go

OpenAI’s backers, including Microsoft, failed in their attempt to bring Altman back. Instead, the board of directors even removed interim boss Mira Murati, who was only appointed on Friday, and who is said to have sided with Altman in the meantime.

After hours of negotiations, the employees were presented with a new interim boss last weekend, 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 Twitch, Emmett Shear.

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit organization with the mission to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of everyone. 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 an 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)