After resignation: Sam Altman returns to head ChatGPT developer OpenAI

A few days after his surprising resignation, Sam Altman will again become head of ChatGPT developer OpenAI. In addition, the board of directors will be renewed, OpenAI announced on Wednesday evening.

Altman was only forced out by the old board of directors on Friday and decided to go to OpenAI investor Microsoft on Sunday. Afterwards, about 700 of OpenAI’s 770 employees threatened to follow him – which would have effectively spelled the end of the company.

According to media reports, a dispute over direction at OpenAI led to Altman’s departure. Some executives, 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. Meanwhile, Sutskever also switched to Altman’s camp and publicly regretted his involvement in his dismissal.

OpenAI was originally intended as a non-profit organization

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.

(dsc/sda/awp/dpa)