Of course, something had to happen to cap off the week just after the weekly links email went out: OpenAI just announced that Sam Altman would be leaving OpenAI and stepping down from the board of directors. (*). From the announcement:
“He was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.“
That certainly doesn’t sound good. It must have been very serious given I think it’s hard to argue that Sam wasn’t a huge contributor to OpenAI’s success so far. He certainly had a contrarian view of the world and it was needed to break through some of the barriers the company broke through. (You can argue it might have been too many but I doubt that’s why the board relieved him of his duties!).
Wishing Mira Murati all the best in steering the ship from here.
(*) hat tip Alessio for sending me the link!
