Shenzhen Business Daily · Reading and Innovation Client Reporter Cheng Ruxin
In recent days, the personnel turmoil of ChatGPT's parent company OpenAI has become a hot topic in the technology industry.
Firstly, Sam Altman, the co founder and CEO of the company, was suddenly fired. Some technology professionals believe this is similar to Steve Jobs being forced to leave Apple in 1985, and speculate that OpenAI will rehire Altman.
Subsequently, the incident deviated from industry expectations, and Greg Brockman, co-founder and chairman of OpenAI, resigned and announced his joining of Microsoft together with Ultraman.
On Monday Eastern Time, hundreds of OpenAI employees signed a joint letter, threatening the board of directors to switch jobs with Ultraman to Microsoft. Surprisingly, among the employees who signed the joint letter, there was Ilya Sutskever, the chief scientist of OpenAI and the "pusher" who fired Ultraman.
Affected by this incident, Microsoft's stock price rose by over 2% on Monday, setting a new historical high. The intraday stock price reached $378.87 per share, with a market value close to $2.8 trillion, approaching Apple.
Brotherhood 'broken'
Microsoft may become the ultimate winner
As the core figure of this incident, Ultraman once described the relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft as "the best brotherhood in the technology field". Currently, this relationship is undoubtedly facing a severe test.
Since 2019, Microsoft and OpenAI have been collaborating to develop artificial intelligence systems and have invested $13 billion in OpenAI. However, Microsoft only received news about the dismissal of OpenAI core member Ultraman a few minutes before the announcement.
Just a few hours after Ultraman's sudden dismissal, Microsoft opened its arms and included two former OpenAI executives, Ultraman and Greg Brockman. Microsoft CEO Nadella said, "We look forward to taking swift action to provide them with the resources they need to succeed.
No matter what happens, Microsoft will eventually become a winner, "said Somasega, who previously served as Microsoft Vice President and currently works at Madrona Venture Capital Group
Microsoft, which holds a 49% stake in OpenAI, has been providing OpenAI with the enormous computing power needed to build artificial intelligence. In addition, according to the New York Times, Microsoft has signed an agreement with OpenAI to obtain a copy of OpenAI's cutting-edge technology. With these, Microsoft can rebuild another OpenAI internally without losing too much time and money.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is already establishing a new organizational structure to absorb existing employees of OpenAI. According to insiders, Ultraman and Brockman's departments will report directly to Kevin Scott, Microsoft's Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Artificial Intelligence.
It is uncertain whether Microsoft will absorb hundreds of OpenAI employees. The Wall Street Journal reported that many employees of OpenAI are engineers and researchers from Silicon Valley, who can benefit from the enormous economic advantages brought by OpenAI, with some even earning salaries of millions of dollars. If they work for Microsoft, the economic benefits may be greatly reduced.
Has the position of the "Gong Dou" pusher changed?
Investors are considering suing OpenAI
It is worth noting that Ilya Suskovo's name appeared in the latest joint letter from OpenAI employees.
According to foreign media reports, Ilya Suskovo is believed to be the "behind the scenes" driving out Ultraman. The organizational structure of OpenAI is unique, controlled by the non-profit organization OpenAI non-profit. The board of directors determines the company's leadership, with four members, including the company's chief scientist Ilya Suskovo, former Facebook executive, Quora website founder Adam Dangelo, and Rand's part-time senior management scientist Tasha McCauley Helen Toner of the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technologies, an American technology think tank.
Suskovo and Ultraman had a disagreement in their concepts, and Suskovo was concerned that OpenAI technology could be dangerous, believing that Ultraman was pushing OpenAI software too quickly into the hands of users, while Ultraman did not pay enough attention to this risk.
Sam Ultraman Wears a Work Card and Says Goodbye to OpenAI Image Source Ultraman Social Media Account Screenshot
According to insiders, one factor driving the OpenAI board's decision last week was that board members were not aware of Ultraman's business pursuits outside of OpenAI, and the trust between Ultraman and the board had been severely damaged. In a letter to employees, the OpenAI board stated, "This decision is not related to product safety, development speed, or OpenAI's financial condition. We know that firing someone with high visibility like Sam Ultraman in our industry is shocking, but he has lost the trust of the board
However, just after firing Ultraman, Suskovo wrote on X early Monday morning, "I deeply regret participating in the board's actions. I never thought of harming OpenAI. I love everything we have built together, and I will do my best to bring the company back together
The Wall Street Journal quoted sources familiar with the matter as saying that after intense discussions with OpenAI employees, Susqueville "shed tears" and changed his stance.
In addition, according to the latest news from Reuters, the possible large-scale personnel turnover has prompted some investors in OpenAI to consider filing a legal lawsuit against the company's board of directors.
Due to the unique organizational structure of OpenAI, investors do not have a formal way to participate in decision-making, and many senior leaders, including Ultraman, do not hold any shares in the company. Employees hold a greater stake in putting pressure on the board of directors than investors who provide funds for the company.
Analysts point out that even if investors find a suitable method of prosecution, their reasons may not hold water. According to legal regulations, companies have extensive freedom to make business decisions, even if it is counterproductive.
OpenAI has a long history of chaos
Where will technology prodigy Ultraman go?
In fact, this is not the first time Ultraman has been asked to leave a company. The Wall Street Journal reported that a few years ago, the executives of Y Combinator, a venture capital firm that Altman had previously led, also requested him to resign as president because the company was increasingly concerned that he was spending his time on other business activities.
According to The New Yorker magazine, 38 year old Sam Ultraman grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. At the age of 8, he learned how to program and disassemble computers, earning him the nickname of a "tech prodigy". After studying computer science for two years at Stanford University, he and two classmates dropped out and full-time developed the mobile application Loopt. In 2012, he sold it for $43 million. After selling Loopt, Ultraman founded a venture fund called Hydrazine Capital, raising $21 million. Altman invested 75% of the funds in YC Company and led Reddit's B-round financing.
In 2014, 28 year old Ultraman was selected by Y Combinator founder Paul Graham to succeed him as the CEO.
In 2015, at the age of 29, Ultraman made it to Forbes' list of 30 venture capitalists under the age of 30. In the same year, Ultraman co founded OpenAI with Elon Musk, who was then the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. At that time, this non-profit artificial intelligence company stated that its goal was to ensure that artificial intelligence did not eliminate humans.
In 2018, after Musk and OpenAI parted ways, Ultraman transformed OpenAI into a for-profit company. In the following years, Ultraman raised billions of dollars the company needed to develop products such as ChatGPT.
Renowned technology blogger Casey Newton said, "OpenAI has always been a chaotic company. Musk fell out with the company and eventually left to establish xAI. Another group of people who left OpenAI founded the artificial intelligence company, Anthropic
Where will Sam Ultraman, who left OpenAI this time, go? The current situation is developing in two directions. Firstly, Ultraman officially joined Microsoft and created an "OpenAI" within the company. There is another possibility that the OpenAI board may yield to employee pressure and allow Ultraman and Brockman to return, making significant adjustments to the board. Microsoft CEO Nadella stated that if the second scenario occurs, he can also accept it.
The latest updates on Ultraman's social media show that he has forwarded several OpenAI employee support tweets.
Image source: screenshot of Ultraman's social media account
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