The Rise and Fall... and Rise of Sam Altman has Grave Implications for AI Research and Humanity
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Welcome to this week's edition of the TECH Uncensored newsletter!
Observing the events from the sidelines during the weekend of November 17, a cascade of unrestrained occurrences took place, setting the tone for the following days. This period was deemed tumultuous, marked by a sequence of unanticipated developments, each holding its own relevance to the repercussions for both OpenAI and its staff.
As the world witnessed this unfolding drama online, the eventual sequence of events in the following days held unforeseeable outcomes. This included the termination of Sam Altman, the resignation of OpenAI President Greg Brockman, and the potential resignations of 700 OpenAI employees. The situation escalated to the Board's requested resignation, followed by the hiring of Brockman and Altman as new Microsoft employees. Finally, within a span of just 5 days, the resolution emerged: Altman was reinstated as the CEO of OpenAI, accompanied by the appointment of new board members.
The unfolding events involving OpenAI and Microsoft have conveyed significant implications for the AI community, its researchers, and, most importantly, for the broader societal impacts that AI aims to address. The situation prompts reflection on what these developments signify—when a nonprofit entity, devoid of financial motives, faces challenges in removing an executive due to genuine safety concerns, and when a framework established to mitigate the risks of unilateral control of advanced AI is essentially overridden by the same capitalistic forces it was intended to prevent.
This week, Hessie Jones spoke with Christoph Schuhmann , co-founder of LAION.AI, a large-scale Artificial Intelligence Open Network, a non-profit organization, that has a large community of volunteers, data scientists, researchers, and practitioners developing applications in this field, to weigh in on the events of November 17-21, 2023 and what it means to the AI Community.
Watch the full episode here!