OpenAI’s internal crisis has come to a head: Sam Altman is finally back as CEO, while the Board of Directors has resigned. To celebrate the end of the war, the company is announcing a long-awaited new feature for ChatGPT…
After a few days of chaos at OpenAI, the crisis finally seems to be over. Late in the evening of Tuesday November 21, 2023, the startup behind ChatGPT announced that Sam Altman returns as CEO after being briefly dismissed by the Board of Directors.
An agreement has been reached, and the board of directors will be replaced by a new one.. This should calm the winds of revolt that had been blowing through the company, with more 90% of employees threatening to quit.
Sam Altman fired for fear of AI rebellion against humans?
As a reminder, it all began on Friday November 17, 2023, when the board of the non-profit group that oversees OpenAI fired the CEO on the grounds that he ” is not always clear in its communications with the board “.
Following this radical decision, two interim CEOs have been appointed successively, Altman was briefly hired by Microsoft, and employees massively signed a threatening letter.
On the real reason for this why the board decided to fire Sam Altman. The company’s COO, Brad Lightcap, himself sent a memo to employees on Saturday November 18, evoking total surprise at the dismissal.
According to him: “ we can definitively say that the board’s decision has not was not made in response to malfeasance or anything related to our privacy, security or financial practices “.
However, Tuesday November 21, the New York Times revealed that a conflict had been raging within the firm for more than a year over the responsible development of AI, and in particular at what pace to deploy this technology while ensuring that humans do not lose control.
Source, Sam Altman wanted things to go this fast as possible. The board didn’t…
CEO back, board replaced
In the end, common ground was found and Altman won his case. On X, OpenAI announces that the new board will consist of three members former Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor, former White House advisor and Harvard University president Larry Summers, and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo.
The latter was already on the board. On the other hand, entrepreneur Tash McCauley, chief scientist Ilya Sutskever and Georgetown University research director Helen Toner have packed their bags.
Still on the X network, the firm declares via its official account that “ we are working together to determine the details. Thank you very much for your patience “.
For his part, Sam Altman expressed his delight at returning to his post: ” I love OpenAI, and everything I’ve done over the past few days has been aimed at keeping this team and its mission together. “.
With this new board in place, he also hopes to ” to build on our strong partnership “with Microsoft. By the way, Satya Nadella shared his satisfaction to see the OpenAI board replaced.
According to him, ” this is an essential first step on the road to more stable, well-informed and effective governance “. OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman also announces his return.
ChatGPT voice, available to all!
In parallel with Sam Altman’s comeback, OpenAI has announced that ChatGPT’s voice functionalities are now available free of charge to all users.
All you have to do is press the headphones icon on the mobile app to talk to the chatbot using its voice and get an oral response.
This feature had already been available since September 2023 for paying ChatGPT Plus users, but is now available to everyone, even on the free version.
In the demo of this novelty shared on X, OpenAI jokes about conflict internal conflict. As an example, a user asks ChatGPT: “ it’s been a long night for the team, and we’re hungry. How many 16-inch pizzas should I order for 778 people? “
A direct reference to the firm’s employeesa large majority of whom threatened to leave if the board did not resign…