The messy human drama behind OpenAI

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

The company behind ChatGPT pushed out its CEO Sam Altman on Friday. OpenAI's board gave the public little insight into its controversial decision. On Sunday, Microsoft announced it was hiring Sam Altman. By Monday morning, hundreds of OpenAI employees are threatening to leave unless the board resigns. Kate Clark, deputy bureau chief at tech publication The Information, says the saga is far from over.

Today on the show, we explore the fault lines below the world of artificial intelligence development, and how the pressure built until a leading CEO was fired.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR. The company behind ChatChi Pee is a complete mess right now. On Friday, Open AI's board made a shock announcement that it was
0:19.2	a ousting its CEO and co-founder Sam Altman.
0:23.0	And the details were scarce.
0:24.6	The board released a note saying that Sam Altman
0:27.4	hadn't been transparent with the board.
0:29.5	And what happened next was a fiasco.
0:32.0	Senior researchers at Open AI resigned that day.
0:35.0	The company went through two changes of interim CEOs.
0:38.0	And last night, Microsoft announced that it was hiring Sam Altman
0:42.0	to lead AI efforts and now hundreds of
0:45.0	open AI staff have threatened to quit in solidarity with Sam unless the open
0:49.9	AI board resigns.
0:51.6	It's a lot.
0:54.0	And working all weekend, talking to sources close to the action was Kate Clark.
0:59.0	Kate is a senior reporter for tech publication, The Information.
1:03.1	I have never seen a weekend this drama filled in technology since I've been writing about
1:08.6	startups ever.
1:10.1	This is the indicator from Planet Money.
1:11.6	I'm Darren Woods. And I'm Darien Woods.
1:12.6	And I'm Whelan Wong.
1:13.7	Today on the show, The Human Drama behind Artificial Intelligence.
1:18.0	Darien will take it from here, explaining the tensions between AI safety and development that's at the heart of this
	...

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