OpenAI Staff Forces Altman Comeback
**Article Based on Video Transcription:**
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### **Introduction**
The video transcription delves into a discussion about recent developments at OpenAI, including corporate restructuring, leadership changes, and the implications of Microsoft's involvement. The conversation highlights the complexities of managing advanced AI technologies, the role of board members in governance, and the broader impact on the tech industry.
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### **Corporate Restructuring and Leadership Changes**
The discussion begins with an overview of significant events at OpenAI, including a corporate reorganization led by a reshuffled board of directors. Over 500 staff members had threatened to quit unless Sam Altman returned as CEO. The situation was described as unprecedented, with the stakes being much higher due to the nature of AI technology compared to traditional software companies.
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### **The Role of Board Members and Jesuit Connections**
Key figures in the reorganization were highlighted, particularly Helen Toner, a board member from Georgetown University's emerging technology division. Her role in raising concerns about OpenAI's direction was noted, along with her background in identifying threats posed by new technologies. Despite the Jesuit connection, it was emphasized that there were no nefarious intentions.
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### **Microsoft's Involvement and Strategy**
Microsoft's response to the situation was analyzed, focusing on their investment in OpenAI and their strategic moves to retain influence. The discussion highlighted how Microsoft positioned itself as a hero by leveraging its relationship with OpenAI without directly taking control of the company. This approach allowed them to maintain a strong presence in the AI landscape while avoiding regulatory scrutiny.
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### **Regulatory Concerns and Public Perception**
The conversation touched on potential regulatory issues, particularly if Microsoft had full control over OpenAI's technology. It was noted that the current structure provided a balance between influencing OpenAI without triggering government intervention. The public perception of Microsoft as a hero was also discussed, emphasizing how they capitalized on the situation to enhance their reputation.
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### **Crisis Management and Corporate Flexibility**
The ability of leaders like Satya Nadella to adapt during the crisis was praised. Despite initial missteps, Microsoft's strategic moves were seen as effective in maintaining their relationship with OpenAI. The discussion also highlighted the challenges faced by employees caught in the middle of the corporate shuffle.
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### **Artificial General Intelligence and Conspiracy Theories**
The transcription briefly touches on reports about QAR, a technology that supposedly enabled advanced AI capabilities. While these claims were met with skepticism, they underscored the public's growing fear of artificial general intelligence (AGI). The conversation dismissed the idea of AGI being hidden, suggesting that such advanced capabilities would likely be openly showcased.
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### **Conclusion**
The discussion concludes by reflecting on the broader implications for AI governance and corporate strategy. The situation at OpenAI serves as a case study in navigating complex relationships between investors, employees, and regulators. As AI technology continues to evolve, similar challenges are expected, making this event a significant milestone in tech history.
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This article provides a detailed exploration of the key points covered in the video transcription, offering insights into the corporate dynamics, strategic decisions, and regulatory considerations surrounding OpenAI and Microsoft's relationship.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is Twi Tech break is brought to you by our friends at it pro TV now called ACI learning invest in your current Workforce and fortify your business's future your whole team will love to be entertained while they train visit go. AAR docomo Enterprise solution plan after completing their form based on your team size you receive a properly quoted discount tailored to your needs so Sam mman is back at the helm there's been a corporate reorg um the board of directors has been reshuffled all this after after over 500 staff most of the staff threatened that they will quit and go to Microsoft unless ultman came back now Harry you did a a very good newsletter about this which was basically starting out as sort of okay as of 9:00 this morning this is the situation can you talk us through it yeah I I I wrote that the day before and I I was aware that after a few days of trying to have takes an open AI that there was no Take that would keep fresh for for like 12 hours so I wrote a newsletter where no matter what happened my newsletter would be sort of relevant and uh when I wrote it it looked like Altman might come back to open Ai and by by the next morning we knew he was coming back um but my general take um was just sort of that a lot of the weirdness was because this was AI if this had have been like a file compression software company uh the stakes would have been you know not even a millionth as high and none of this would have happened and therefore I think we will see more unprecedented weird corporate weirdness just as this technology um gets to be everywhere I I don't I'm not sure where we will see many things as strange as this but but I expect we'll see behavior that we have not seen from tech companies in the past yeah I mean i' I've got to say I was surprised you know it's um the having a I haven't can't remember a situation where a large company all the staff threatened to quit you know I mean well okay not all there were a few Hangouts and boy haven't they got to be feeling quite awkward at the moment but um I don't know I mean at the end of the day who has done well out of this apart from ultman himself I mean is it Microsoft you think cuz I'm I'm not sure about this but go go for it uh I think so because in a way when he's there not they've already had the conversation so he knows he has a position no matter what theoretically based off their investment and now based off an allegiance tighter with Sam if it ever came to a point where it needed to be sold for parts Microsoft is going to score the best deal ever on what would have been an extremely valuable and what was it at the time 86 88 M uh billion dollar pickup so that's why I feel like Microsoft scored um yeah I think that's it in nutshell like if it ever had to get so for parts for whatever reason Microsoft was in the position to scoop fastest interesting I mean also Microsoft was able to flex the flex on this was incredible the fact that they were essentially able to say hey look we're just an investor we're a big investor but we're going to hire your former CEO and the former co-founder and we're going to start up our own group over here and that it basically made them rethink their entire existence that that is the biggest Flex in corporate history in the last decade all your employees we'll buy all 500 employees no problem the janitor the the driver guy whatever you got we we'll pay for them all we got this well I mean off tried to jump in and hire people as well so I mean it's like there was a lot of demand for the talent and I guess they knew that Oracle Oracle Salesforce they were they were going crazy they were making offers on Twitter saying hey we'll match anything all your vest all your your invested in uh your investments will match everything we'll match your salary we'll increase it just come work for us and I mean that had to put the fear of God into the open AI Bo because I tweeted Tim Cook hire Sam right away on the first news and so I think I scared everybody because Apple could have did it but they're doing some secret scroll stuff right now but we'll leave them out of it I don't know I was talking to somebody at Microsoft and they were really quite peeved about it because they don't work in this area but they know that a lot of the people who working in who are working in Microsoft AI area aren't getting paid anywhere near open AI salaries right and for them to be offered yes yes we'll match your salary and the rest of it the people who are already there would just like not that Keen on that to be honest unless I get a big pay rise too it's um but I mean has Microsoft come come out of this particularly covered in glory I mean satad did a great TW tweet just like sort of yes it's everything's great and I'm glad it's all back on like and yet they've still got their 49% share but I don't know I don't think Microsoft came out of this looking particularly good it certainly looked like they didn't have a grip on the company beforehand yeah I mean if nothing else it must be a little embarrassing that they let this go on for as long as they did although I think probably in the long run that the fact that's happened now was way better for Microsoft than if it happened a few years from now after the stakes were even higher so um given that um this was a taking time bomb I think that Microsoft did pretty well it was kind of amusing to see it at every stage of this Sacha always got on on Twitter and said we'll be fine you know we're happy to work with whoever is open AI CEO today we have a very strong relationship the next day he said we're going to hire all your employees but the relationship was still going to be strong and then it turned out he's not hiring any of the employees and once again the relationship is really strong so he he couldn't really you know I would love to have to been a fly in the wall and and have seen what he really thought at every step along the day way I do I do think that he did did a pretty Intrepid job of rolling with the punches and positioning himself at every stage to um being as good condition as he could be uh and this this might be when all sudden done the best they could do um they couldn't hire more than 700 people all at once some of them would not have taken those jobs some of them would have taken the jobs but been itching to get out of Microsoft very quickly there there's probably some value and some regulatory uh distance between Microsoft and this technology as opposed to if if Microsoft controlled this the single most important algorithm in the world I think I think uh the regulatory situation would be not great for them yeah no I mean it's I I I can't see a lot of open AI stuff being very happy at Microsoft in the first you know completely different culture uh cultural situation but yeah I mean Sati andela was just trying to be very you know stiff up up about it if I may use the criticism but I mean you're right he must to be a fly on the wall when this all broke I mean can you imagine what it was like in his office he's just like how the hell did we get ourselves into this situation and I see that I from the analyst point of view I I agree with with Harry I I understand why this looks really weird and destabilizing if you're looking at a long-term investment in open AI however look at what SATA and Microsoft got out of it they have been able to take the Mind share even as popular AI already was people now know definitively that Microsoft controls open AI Microsoft can can make open AI do anything it wants even though it's technically only a partial investor that gives them something that they didn't have to pay for they didn't actually have to hire away all that Talent they didn't actually have to make up a new department they didn't actually have to spin off their own division of AI so they got all the benefits of doing that and the pr of doing that without actually having to do that that's why I I really like this I mean yes you can look at this and say Microsoft was just trying to salvage something that had gone terrible but to the average person I mean because we we're starting an AI conference over here tomorrow right and the people who have come in from out of the country to talk about this they're all talking about how open Ai and Microsoft are now the same even though it's not yes I that's why I say they won is because the pr for them they look like Heroes and they didn't have to do anything and I do have to agree with Harry that some of the regulatory stuff or the government slap down would have been crazy it almost would have been back to the old AOL Time Warner merger when I got which I got smashed in um I was writing for Tu aw at the time AOL owned you know blog and at you know you really think about it you're right they look like Heroes and they didn't have to do anything so they were like the guy that just came in at the end and like you know cleaned up and then the owner walks in and see see them with the bucket you know like oh hey you're cleaning up thanks they were just moving the bucket but it looks like they cleaned the whole place over the um uh can can I make can I make one quick disclaimer here before someone finds it and makes it seem like there's a conspiracy theory here uh so Helen toner she's the board member who really kicked this whole thing off she's the one who raised concerns about what the technology was doing and engineered the ouster there actually is a Jesuit connection she works for Georgetown University at their emerging techn ology division so she her training is in recognizing perhaps threats to society with newer Technologies that's that's actually what she does for us uh so just get that out there yes there is a Jesuit connection no it's not nefarious yes we're being very open about it I do feel feel sorry on some level for her and the other folks on the board because if their goal was to accomplish what they were trying to accomplish they got the opposite instead and U maybe if they had been a little bit more um savvy about corporate politics they might have given Microsoft more than one minute's warning or done a better job of explaining exactly why they w't happy with Sam Alman rather than being so vague about it and um it's conceivable I think that at some point in in the indeterminate future we will say this board had you know a point of some sort uh they did they did see issues maybe maybe they did a really bad job of of confronting how to deal with those issues but I don't think that people worrying about how how quickly the world should proceed with AI is going to go away as an issue and an open Ai and Microsoft's relationship is likely to stay at the center of that issue no matter what the relationship is between these companies or who's in charge well this is it when you give someone 13 billion dollars then you expect a certain amount of of of trade but um P you mentioned conspiracy theories now you've seen the reports on qar which was apparently the technology which really kicked all this off how credible do you think that is okay so reading what we've been able to read it sounds like there was some sort of technical documentation of some additional abilities that they had been able to build into an AI model that when interpreted without understanding what the technology actually is sounded like oh my God something's gained senss um I I no I no no like I'm trying to be openminded about this but now it's rubbish no I mean just really I would love it it would be great but no it's we're not we're not there yet um and if if they actually had created something that was that dangerous uh that was that advanced they would be touting it they wouldn't be hiding it um so I I think this is again this is just if someone who didn't have the technical background to actually understand what they were doing it looks like oh this is actual AI I don't think we're there no not an artificial general intelligence no don't what heard an in draw of breath there well no because I it's just making me laugh because you know everyone's so afraid about you know AI taking their jobs I'm like the thing that's going to be crazy when we do read sentence is because our uh other half domestic Partners whatever all assume we have it and we don't and then when this thing does we're the ones that's done you know your job is fine but you might be removed from the home ohthis is Twi Tech break is brought to you by our friends at it pro TV now called ACI learning invest in your current Workforce and fortify your business's future your whole team will love to be entertained while they train visit go. AAR docomo Enterprise solution plan after completing their form based on your team size you receive a properly quoted discount tailored to your needs so Sam mman is back at the helm there's been a corporate reorg um the board of directors has been reshuffled all this after after over 500 staff most of the staff threatened that they will quit and go to Microsoft unless ultman came back now Harry you did a a very good newsletter about this which was basically starting out as sort of okay as of 9:00 this morning this is the situation can you talk us through it yeah I I I wrote that the day before and I I was aware that after a few days of trying to have takes an open AI that there was no Take that would keep fresh for for like 12 hours so I wrote a newsletter where no matter what happened my newsletter would be sort of relevant and uh when I wrote it it looked like Altman might come back to open Ai and by by the next morning we knew he was coming back um but my general take um was just sort of that a lot of the weirdness was because this was AI if this had have been like a file compression software company uh the stakes would have been you know not even a millionth as high and none of this would have happened and therefore I think we will see more unprecedented weird corporate weirdness just as this technology um gets to be everywhere I I don't I'm not sure where we will see many things as strange as this but but I expect we'll see behavior that we have not seen from tech companies in the past yeah I mean i' I've got to say I was surprised you know it's um the having a I haven't can't remember a situation where a large company all the staff threatened to quit you know I mean well okay not all there were a few Hangouts and boy haven't they got to be feeling quite awkward at the moment but um I don't know I mean at the end of the day who has done well out of this apart from ultman himself I mean is it Microsoft you think cuz I'm I'm not sure about this but go go for it uh I think so because in a way when he's there not they've already had the conversation so he knows he has a position no matter what theoretically based off their investment and now based off an allegiance tighter with Sam if it ever came to a point where it needed to be sold for parts Microsoft is going to score the best deal ever on what would have been an extremely valuable and what was it at the time 86 88 M uh billion dollar pickup so that's why I feel like Microsoft scored um yeah I think that's it in nutshell like if it ever had to get so for parts for whatever reason Microsoft was in the position to scoop fastest interesting I mean also Microsoft was able to flex the flex on this was incredible the fact that they were essentially able to say hey look we're just an investor we're a big investor but we're going to hire your former CEO and the former co-founder and we're going to start up our own group over here and that it basically made them rethink their entire existence that that is the biggest Flex in corporate history in the last decade all your employees we'll buy all 500 employees no problem the janitor the the driver guy whatever you got we we'll pay for them all we got this well I mean off tried to jump in and hire people as well so I mean it's like there was a lot of demand for the talent and I guess they knew that Oracle Oracle Salesforce they were they were going crazy they were making offers on Twitter saying hey we'll match anything all your vest all your your invested in uh your investments will match everything we'll match your salary we'll increase it just come work for us and I mean that had to put the fear of God into the open AI Bo because I tweeted Tim Cook hire Sam right away on the first news and so I think I scared everybody because Apple could have did it but they're doing some secret scroll stuff right now but we'll leave them out of it I don't know I was talking to somebody at Microsoft and they were really quite peeved about it because they don't work in this area but they know that a lot of the people who working in who are working in Microsoft AI area aren't getting paid anywhere near open AI salaries right and for them to be offered yes yes we'll match your salary and the rest of it the people who are already there would just like not that Keen on that to be honest unless I get a big pay rise too it's um but I mean has Microsoft come come out of this particularly covered in glory I mean satad did a great TW tweet just like sort of yes it's everything's great and I'm glad it's all back on like and yet they've still got their 49% share but I don't know I don't think Microsoft came out of this looking particularly good it certainly looked like they didn't have a grip on the company beforehand yeah I mean if nothing else it must be a little embarrassing that they let this go on for as long as they did although I think probably in the long run that the fact that's happened now was way better for Microsoft than if it happened a few years from now after the stakes were even higher so um given that um this was a taking time bomb I think that Microsoft did pretty well it was kind of amusing to see it at every stage of this Sacha always got on on Twitter and said we'll be fine you know we're happy to work with whoever is open AI CEO today we have a very strong relationship the next day he said we're going to hire all your employees but the relationship was still going to be strong and then it turned out he's not hiring any of the employees and once again the relationship is really strong so he he couldn't really you know I would love to have to been a fly in the wall and and have seen what he really thought at every step along the day way I do I do think that he did did a pretty Intrepid job of rolling with the punches and positioning himself at every stage to um being as good condition as he could be uh and this this might be when all sudden done the best they could do um they couldn't hire more than 700 people all at once some of them would not have taken those jobs some of them would have taken the jobs but been itching to get out of Microsoft very quickly there there's probably some value and some regulatory uh distance between Microsoft and this technology as opposed to if if Microsoft controlled this the single most important algorithm in the world I think I think uh the regulatory situation would be not great for them yeah no I mean it's I I I can't see a lot of open AI stuff being very happy at Microsoft in the first you know completely different culture uh cultural situation but yeah I mean Sati andela was just trying to be very you know stiff up up about it if I may use the criticism but I mean you're right he must to be a fly on the wall when this all broke I mean can you imagine what it was like in his office he's just like how the hell did we get ourselves into this situation and I see that I from the analyst point of view I I agree with with Harry I I understand why this looks really weird and destabilizing if you're looking at a long-term investment in open AI however look at what SATA and Microsoft got out of it they have been able to take the Mind share even as popular AI already was people now know definitively that Microsoft controls open AI Microsoft can can make open AI do anything it wants even though it's technically only a partial investor that gives them something that they didn't have to pay for they didn't actually have to hire away all that Talent they didn't actually have to make up a new department they didn't actually have to spin off their own division of AI so they got all the benefits of doing that and the pr of doing that without actually having to do that that's why I I really like this I mean yes you can look at this and say Microsoft was just trying to salvage something that had gone terrible but to the average person I mean because we we're starting an AI conference over here tomorrow right and the people who have come in from out of the country to talk about this they're all talking about how open Ai and Microsoft are now the same even though it's not yes I that's why I say they won is because the pr for them they look like Heroes and they didn't have to do anything and I do have to agree with Harry that some of the regulatory stuff or the government slap down would have been crazy it almost would have been back to the old AOL Time Warner merger when I got which I got smashed in um I was writing for Tu aw at the time AOL owned you know blog and at you know you really think about it you're right they look like Heroes and they didn't have to do anything so they were like the guy that just came in at the end and like you know cleaned up and then the owner walks in and see see them with the bucket you know like oh hey you're cleaning up thanks they were just moving the bucket but it looks like they cleaned the whole place over the um uh can can I make can I make one quick disclaimer here before someone finds it and makes it seem like there's a conspiracy theory here uh so Helen toner she's the board member who really kicked this whole thing off she's the one who raised concerns about what the technology was doing and engineered the ouster there actually is a Jesuit connection she works for Georgetown University at their emerging techn ology division so she her training is in recognizing perhaps threats to society with newer Technologies that's that's actually what she does for us uh so just get that out there yes there is a Jesuit connection no it's not nefarious yes we're being very open about it I do feel feel sorry on some level for her and the other folks on the board because if their goal was to accomplish what they were trying to accomplish they got the opposite instead and U maybe if they had been a little bit more um savvy about corporate politics they might have given Microsoft more than one minute's warning or done a better job of explaining exactly why they w't happy with Sam Alman rather than being so vague about it and um it's conceivable I think that at some point in in the indeterminate future we will say this board had you know a point of some sort uh they did they did see issues maybe maybe they did a really bad job of of confronting how to deal with those issues but I don't think that people worrying about how how quickly the world should proceed with AI is going to go away as an issue and an open Ai and Microsoft's relationship is likely to stay at the center of that issue no matter what the relationship is between these companies or who's in charge well this is it when you give someone 13 billion dollars then you expect a certain amount of of of trade but um P you mentioned conspiracy theories now you've seen the reports on qar which was apparently the technology which really kicked all this off how credible do you think that is okay so reading what we've been able to read it sounds like there was some sort of technical documentation of some additional abilities that they had been able to build into an AI model that when interpreted without understanding what the technology actually is sounded like oh my God something's gained senss um I I no I no no like I'm trying to be openminded about this but now it's rubbish no I mean just really I would love it it would be great but no it's we're not we're not there yet um and if if they actually had created something that was that dangerous uh that was that advanced they would be touting it they wouldn't be hiding it um so I I think this is again this is just if someone who didn't have the technical background to actually understand what they were doing it looks like oh this is actual AI I don't think we're there no not an artificial general intelligence no don't what heard an in draw of breath there well no because I it's just making me laugh because you know everyone's so afraid about you know AI taking their jobs I'm like the thing that's going to be crazy when we do read sentence is because our uh other half domestic Partners whatever all assume we have it and we don't and then when this thing does we're the ones that's done you know your job is fine but you might be removed from the home oh\n"