Altman looks to calm nerves on OpenAI shake-up amid fundraising

After two days of shock developments that caught OpenAI staff and the larger artificial intelligence community completely off guard, Sam Altman is in image management mode.

The OpenAI chief has, over the past 24 hours, issued a series of denials to write off some of the most critical concerns stemming from news that has emerged about the company since Wednesday.

He has also proclaimed that the ongoing shake-up will only make OpenAI “stronger”.

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At stake for OpenAI — a start-up that literally triggered a global AI frenzy with ChatGPT — is fundraising worth $6.5 billion that could give the company a valuation of $150 billion.

That fundraising is not yet closed.

Amid that, the series of worrying developments at OpenAI began on Wednesday afternoon, when Mira Murati, its Chief Technology Officer, announced she was leaving the company ‘to do her own exploration’.

I shared the following note with the OpenAI team today. pic.twitter.com/nsZ4khI06P

— Mira Murati (@miramurati) September 25, 2024

Murati’s announcement reportedly left even OpenAI staff blindsided. She had worked at the firm for over six years, including as CEO for a brief period in November when the OpenAI board fired Altman.

Murati reportedly played a key role in Altman’s short-lived firing, raising concerns about his management of a firm developing technologies that could have a profound effect on the world.

Alongside Murati, two other top technical leaders at the firm — Vice President of Research Barret Zoph and Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew — also announced their resignations.

Their departures immediately raised questions, considering a series of top executives have left OpenAI this year. Multiple safety and governance researchers have also quit the firm citing doubts about the firm’s commitment to safely developing artificial general intelligence (AGI).

“It is a *statement* for Mira and the head of research to resign during a fundraise,” Managing Partner & CIO at investment firm Atreides Management, Gavin Baker, wrote on X.

“They are likely prohibited from saying anything negative if they want to keep their equity, so the timing of their departure is the most powerful statement they can make.”

String of denials

Hours after Murati’s decision to quit, Reuters reported on Wednesday that OpenAI was working towards restructuring its core business into a for-profit benefit corporation that will no longer be controlled by its non-profit board.

CEO Altman will also receive equity for the first time in the for-profit company, the report added.

On Thursday, OpenAI Chair Bret Taylor confirmed the board was considering compensating Altman with equity, but added that no decision had been made.

And yet, at an all-hands meeting on the same day, Altman denied there were any such plans. Any reports claiming otherwise were “just not true,” he said.

Later, speaking at the Italian Tech Week conference in Turin, he also denied there was any link between Murati and other’s departures and the planned restructuring.

‘Just totally wrong’

Praising the departing executives, Altman said their decisions to leave were only due to personal reasons and any speculation otherwise was “totally not true.”

“A lot of the stuff I saw was also just totally wrong, but we have been thinking about [restructuring], our board has, for almost a year, independently, as we think about what it takes to get to our next stage,” Altman said.

He added he was excited to “flatten out” the company’s structure and work more closely with technical staff.

“This will be, hopefully, a great transition for everyone involved, and OpenAI will be stronger for it, as we are for all our transitions,” he added.

Sam Altman says OpenAI will be “stronger” following the recent staff departures and he wants to get more involved in the tech and flatten out the organizational structure pic.twitter.com/tONdn1YewK

— Tsarathustra (@tsarnick) September 26, 2024