OpenAI farce A tech war with no winners

This nearly week-long OpenAI internal "palace fighting drama" that has attracted global attention has finally come to an end temporarily. With Sam Altman (hereinafter referred to as Altman) returning to his post, a new board of directors was also announced, which brought the turmoil in the tech world to an end.

▲ The picture comes from: Internet disclosure

First of all, let's review the beginning and end of this incident:

On November 17, OpenAI issued a press release on its official website announcing that the company's board of directors decided that Altman will resign as CEO and leave the company, and that Mira Murati, the current chief technology officer, will serve as interim CEO, effective immediately.

On November 17, Altman was evicted from the company without any notice. Just last week, he represented OpenAI at an APEC event, and two weeks ago, he also unveiled the powerful GPT-4 Turbo at OpenAI's inaugural developer conference.

On the evening of November 17, he revealed what had happened on his personal social media: Altman and Brockman had both received temporary news of their deposition. As far as he knew, the management team had only known about it not long ago, except for Miramourati, who had learned about it the night before.

On the evening of November 17, three senior researchers, including the director of research, the head of the AI risk analysis team, and a researcher who has been with OpenAI for 7 years, announced their resignations, and two of them expressed their support for Brockman. A person close to OpenAI said that in addition to the senior researchers who left together that day, more departures are in the pipeline.

On November 20, Nadella posted on social media that Altman and Brockman would join Microsoft to lead a new team of advanced AI researchers, and said he was "still committed to working with OpenAI"

Late at night on November 21, the American artificial intelligence company "Open Artificial Intelligence Research Center" (OpenAI) announced on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that it had reached an agreement in principle to return to the company as CEO Sam Altman, the company's co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO), known as the "father of ChatGPT".

So far, this OpenAI internal "palace fighting drama" that affects the entire technology circle has ended in a dramatic way after experiencing a dizzying reversal and reversal, but it leaves some questions that are thought-provoking:

Who is the winner of this farce?

From different perspectives, the winners of this farce are:

Microsoft: Microsoft is OpenAI's largest investor and key partner, with a total investment of about $13 billion in OpenAI and the right to use its existing technology. Although Microsoft does not have the right to operate and manage OpenAI, Microsoft, as a major shareholder, does not have to bear the possible consequences of OpenAI's separation in terms of technology research and development and return on investment.

Ultraman: As the CEO of OpenAI, Ultraman will return after personnel changes and will have "unquestionable" decision-making power.

However, from OpenAI's point of view, there is no winner in this farce. After this "palace fight", OpenAI was greatly damaged, and several people who provoked the war were kicked out of the board of directors. As a leader in the field of artificial intelligence, OpenAI is also not immune to the ups and downs that Silicon Valley startups generally face. The story behind it, like the political struggles that have taken place in human society for thousands of years, is nothing new. Therefore, there is no real winner in this farce.

Reflections on the impact of scientific and technological innovation on society

The OpenAI infighting incident has also raised questions about the impact of technological innovation on society. In this incident, the conflict of interests and values brought about by scientific and technological innovation has become the focus of attention. The development of artificial intelligence may bring some potential threats, which require the joint efforts of governments, enterprises and society to deal with them. The government should strengthen the supervision and management of AI technology, and formulate corresponding laws, regulations and standards to regulate its development and use. Enterprises and research institutions should strengthen the security research and development of AI technologies to improve their safety and reliability. All sectors of society should strengthen the discussion and attention to the ethical and social issues of AI technology, and formulate corresponding norms and guidelines to guide its development and use.

The issue of government regulation and the development of artificial intelligence has also sparked discussions about government regulation of artificial intelligence. With the rapid development of AI technology, whether it is necessary for the government to regulate AI and how to ensure the safety and ethics of the technology are important issues at present. In this case, some experts have suggested that the government should regulate AI to ensure the safety and ethics of the technology.

Overall, this high-level change of OpenAI has made us deeply appreciate the twists and turns and uncertainties in the technology world, as well as the key role of entrepreneurs' decision-making. With the return of Ultraman, we look forward to OpenAI successfully navigating this critical moment and opening a new chapter in the company's development." At the same time, we also look forward to the continued prosperity and development of the field of artificial intelligence in the future, bringing more innovation and value to human society. Although this "palace fighting drama" in the science and technology circle has come to an end for the time being, the thoughts and enlightenment left behind will affect us for a long time.