A week later, with a steady flow of leaks from tech executives and the former boardroom, it is becoming clear what exactly transpired in OpenAI’s boardroom battle, which triggered an unprecedented tech industry crisis, what is really at stake and why everyone is starting to freak out about AI suddenly.
Last week, I wrote about the fast unfolding drama at OpenAI, an artificial intelligence startup and one of the world’s largest unicorns, or private venture capital-backed companies worth over US$1 billion ($1.3 billion).
OpenAI’s board, which included Chief Scientific Officer Ilya Sutskever, one of the world’s top AI researchers, had summarily fired CEO Sam Altman, who was then swiftly hired by its main backer, Microsoft, to lead an in-house artificial intelligence research lab as well as a staff rebellion which forced the board to resign and the eventual reinstatement of Altman as CEO of the start-up which now has a valuation of US$86 billion.
