OpenAI is in crisis mode right now, having earlier parted ways with CEO and Co-founder Sam Altman, now the President and Co-founder Greg Brockman just quit. OpenAI has been the leader in the AI space, with ChatGPT exploding onto the scene in late 2022. Since then the company has gone from strength to strength and its valuation has exploded.
Posting on x, Brockman does not go into detail about the resignation, other than to say ‘based on today’s news, i quit’.
He does end the post indicating that he believes in the mission of creating safe AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) that benefits all of humanity.
Given 2 of the 4 original Co-founders have resigned in the span of 24 hours, the company is now in crisis. While we still don’t have details on what caused the board to sack Altman, it seems there are clearly deep issues inside the company. That final line of Brockman’s tweet, suggests there’s been some potential conflict relating to the direction and safety of what the company produces.
With AI Safety a key question, what’s not known is which side of the equation Brockmand and Altman are on. Were they attempting to slow things down, or put the foot on the accelerator? Clearly from the board’s statement, they were not aligned.
It will be important to watch if any other key roles at OpenAI resign.
