The deal to bring Sam Altman back to OpenAI has fallen apart::After negotiations to bring Sam Altman back as OpenAI’s CEO fell apart, Emmett Shear was named interim CEO by the nonprofit’s board.
"We keep thinking like OpenAI is a company that has a clue what it is doing because they have this amazing product that is getting used everywhere in business. In reality, they are a startup, and startups are going to have startup problems. We cannot treat them or their product like they are established and stable."
-my wife, who leads work at another company with OpenAI tech
I know the above quote is from someone "unimportant" in the industry, but to me it encapsulates exactly what we have seen from OpenAI in the past couple weeks. She became simultaneously reassured and more worried when Satya Nadella, the highly respected CEO of Microsoft, became directly involved. I wonder what she will think of this development when she wakes up.
She rolled her eyes and said, "Well, I'm glad that our contract is only for [a limited period of time].”
It was not a vote against the whole shift, but instead a comment on the volatility of this space. The tech and the associated market is changing so fast that there are no real experts, proven business models, or established long term use cases. Everyone is experimenting, and nothing is set in stone. This change means the dust is not yet settling.