OpenAI is now back to where it was a week ago. The board has since been reconstituted, Altman is back in the saddle as CEO and his loyal staffers are back to work with him. Microsoft has abandoned its ambitions to create an in-house AI lab. Yet, AI has fundamentally changed over the past week.
The tech world had its most turbulent week in history starting Nov 17. At the start of the gripping soap opera, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the pre-eminent Artificial Intelligence start-up, was summarily fired by the board because he was not consistently candid in his communications.
That led to a massive staff rebellion, with 97% of the 770 staffers publicly choosing to back their CEO, forcing the board’s hands and paving the way for Altman’s reinstatement even though just a day earlier, software giant Microsoft had hired him to run its ambitious new AI Lab and bring all his loyal 747 teammates with him.
