Father of ChatGPT’ Ultraman suddenly stripped of office Several signs have emerged since the developer conference.

Ultraman, the Innovator behind ChatGPT, Suddenly Removed from Office Details Emerge Following Developer Conference

Author: Ji Zhenyu; Source: Tencent News “Qian Wang”

On November 17th, US time, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI and known as the “Father of ChatGPT,” was suddenly dismissed by the board of directors.

In an official statement released by OpenAI on that day, the board of directors initiated a special investigation, concluding that Altman had not been completely honest during the communication with the board, leading to a loss of confidence in his leadership. Therefore, the board decided to replace Altman with Mira Murati, the Chief Technology Officer, as the interim CEO until the next permanent CEO is found.

The statement also indicated that Greg Brockman, the former Chairman of the Board, would step down from his position but remain in the company to report to the interim CEO, Mira Murati. However, shortly after, there were reports that Brockman had also resigned.

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This news undoubtedly shocked everyone. Just two weeks ago, at OpenAI’s first-ever Developer Conference, Altman, as the CEO and spokesperson of the company, made high-profile announcements of a series of product updates and significant progress. Through demonstrating their technical capabilities and predicting future trends at the conference, OpenAI once again established its leading and core position in this wave of AI frenzy surrounding large language models.

Currently, Altman has only provided a brief response without giving detailed explanations for his departure. However, he hinted that there is more to be said in the future, leaving many mysteries behind.

In fact, since the Developer Conference, OpenAI has gone through a series of major and minor events in the past few days, reflecting the existence of internal problems within the company, which are gradually magnifying and becoming public. Altman’s departure has become the final focal point in this series of events.

During his tenure as the CEO of OpenAI, Altman served as the company’s de facto spokesperson. Many people directly associated him with OpenAI or GPT. His unexpected departure will undoubtedly have a significant impact on OpenAI and even the entire AI industry. Following this news, OpenAI will hold an all-hands meeting on the same day to stabilize morale. Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest partner, immediately expressed its commitment to continue the collaboration, but the extent of its involvement and the role it will play in the process remain to be seen. Other companies are merely observing from the sidelines. This event may become a turning point in redefining the power structure and repositioning the development direction of the AI industry in the future.

A Sudden Expulsion: Equivalent to the “911 Event” in the Technology Industry

On November 17th, US time, OpenAI officially announced that the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, would no longer serve as CEO. During the search for the next successor, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) would act as the interim CEO. Meanwhile, the former Chairman of the Board, Greg Brockman, would also step down from his position but remain at the company to report to the new CEO.

According to OpenAI’s official statement, Ultraman did not voluntarily resign, but rather due to the board of directors launching an investigation, concluding that Ultraman was not completely transparent during communication with the board, which shook the board’s confidence in his continued leadership of the company.

Shortly after this news was released, Ultraman himself made a brief response through his personal Twitter account, stating that he loved his time working at OpenAI and that it was a transformative experience for him personally. He hoped that this period of time also had a transformative meaning for the world, and most importantly, he loved collaborating with a group of talented people. At the end of the statement, Ultraman mentioned that he would have more to say about what he would do next.

Ultraman’s sudden dismissal by the board undoubtedly sent shockwaves through the tech industry, with some even likening it to a “911 event” in the tech industry.

The importance of Ultraman to OpenAI is undeniable. As one of the earliest founding members, Ultraman served as the CEO of OpenAI full-time starting in 2020. Subsequently, OpenAI focused on developing the large language model GPT, which quickly gained popularity with the release of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, leading the current wave of AI centered around large language models. As the CEO and spokesperson of OpenAI, Ultraman led the company to maintain rapid growth and a leading position in the industry even a year after the official release of ChatGPT. Just two weeks ago, OpenAI held its first-ever developer conference, where they announced a series of updates, including GPT-4 Turbo and the GPTs and corresponding GPT store, further pushing the industry towards the direction of democratizing and customizing GPT for everyone.

Ultraman himself has even been hailed as the new “king of Silicon Valley,” a title that is not exaggerated. In May of this year, Ultraman embarked on a global tour, meeting with heads of states and leaders from various countries, including the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and France, as well as the Prime Minister of Singapore, who all lined up according to Ultraman’s schedule to discuss AI ethics and regulatory frameworks.

In this rise of OpenAI, another important player is Microsoft. Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019, and in 2023, after the exceptional capabilities demonstrated by ChatGPT, Microsoft increased its investment to $10 billion, providing significant support to OpenAI for the massive funding and computing power required in the development of large models.

Taking advantage of the hype surrounding generative AI centered around large language models, OpenAI, as the core leading company, has seen its valuation skyrocket, reaching nearly $90 billion, making it one of the most valuable unicorns in the world.

After the news of Ultraman stepping down as CEO, many people in the tech industry have expressed their opinions. Former Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said on his personal Twitter, “Ultraman is my personal hero. He built a company from scratch to a valuation of 90 billion, and has forever changed our world. I can’t wait to see what he does next. Billions of people, including myself, will benefit from his future work. It’s incredible. Thank you for everything you’ve done for us.”

Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky said Ultraman is one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time and has made unprecedented contributions to our industry.

Microsoft, the largest investor in OpenAI, released a statement after the news, stating that they will continue their partnership with OpenAI. Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw said, “We have a long-standing relationship with OpenAI, and Microsoft remains committed to working with the new CEO and her team to bring the next generation of AI to our customers.”

Were there signs since the developer conference?

The news of Ultraman being dismissed from the OpenAI board came as a surprise. Aside from the board’s public statement mentioning “communication issues” with Ultraman, there hasn’t been any concrete information. However, looking back at the various events OpenAI has experienced in recent times, perhaps there were subtle hints leading up to this incident.

On November 6th, OpenAI held its inaugural developer conference where they announced GPTs, customizable GPT tools for everyone, along with the corresponding GPT store. OpenAI also released a series of customized GPT tools, which caused many developers to express frustration, feeling that their applications built on OpenAI’s API were instantly disrupted.

On November 8th, ChatGPT experienced a large-scale outage, and many users reported that the service was not available. An OpenAI spokesperson responded that this failure was due to a deliberate DDoS attack, where the attacker overwhelms the target’s resources with a massive amount of traffic, causing the normal flow of traffic to the designated server to be disrupted.

On November 9th, Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor, prohibited its employees from using ChatGPT, citing “security concerns.”

On November 15th, Ultraman announced on his personal Twitter account that ChatGPT Plus, the paid version, would temporarily suspend new registrations because the usage after the developer conference exceeded OpenAI’s current processing capacity. The company wanted to ensure that the experience of existing users was not affected.

On November 17th, Ultraman was ousted from the CEO position by the board.

These series of events may reflect some internal problems within OpenAI. At least after the developer conference, these issues escalated and gradually became public. Some analysts speculate that there were significant differences in the future direction between Ultraman and “major investor” Microsoft, and these differences were not properly resolved.

According to the statement, Ultraman resigned as CEO, and his close partner, former chairman Greg Brockman, will also step down as chairman and instead report to Mira Murati, the former CTO and current interim CEO. However, it was soon revealed that Brockman also announced his resignation, meaning that the company’s core executives have been purged by the board of directors.

According to public information, the members of OpenAI’s board of directors, in addition to the two mentioned above, also include OpenAI’s chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, GeoSim Systems CEO, and Helen Toner from Georgetown’s Center for Security and Technology.

Interestingly, just two days ago at a public event, the chief scientist of social media giant Meta and Turing Award winner Yan LeCun had a debate with Microsoft President Brad Smith. Smith stated that Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI, as a non-profit organization, should be more trustworthy compared to profit-driven companies like Meta.

However, this statement was criticized by many, who argued that OpenAI is currently not a non-profit organization and lacks any openness. In response, OpenAI had to release another statement on the company’s structure, stating that Microsoft did not invest in OpenAI but in the subsidiary company that generates profits under OpenAI.

According to the investment agreement signed between Microsoft and OpenAI, Microsoft’s profit share is limited to the period before achieving AGI, which stands for Artificial General Intelligence.

Once OpenAI’s parent company’s board of directors announces the achievement of AGI, Microsoft will no longer be entitled to any profit sharing from OpenAI.

The board of directors, consisting of the aforementioned six individuals, decides whether OpenAI has achieved AGI. However, now the board has already fallen apart, with Ultraman being expelled, the former chairman stepping down, and only four members remaining. It is unclear whether the board will be supplemented or adjusted after a permanent CEO is appointed.

The future direction of OpenAI may cause a huge shock in the industry.

There is no doubt that Ultraman’s departure will bring significant shocks to the company and the industry. When the news was released, Microsoft’s stock price plummeted by nearly 2%. As the events unfold, more and more impacts are gradually emerging.

The most direct impact is on OpenAI itself, a startup that is currently thriving in the field of generative AI. Sudden changes in the CEO position are never a good thing for any company. The latest news suggests that OpenAI will hold an emergency meeting convened by the newly appointed interim CEO on the 17th. The specific information about this meeting is currently unknown to the public.

Recently, OpenAI has been in contact with potential investors and plans to allow some employees to cash out at a valuation of nearly $90 billion. However, it is still uncertain whether this unexpected event will affect the financing process.

Currently, on social media, many people have compared Ultraman to the Jobs of that year. Jobs was ousted by the board of directors, but later returned and led Apple to its peak. Whether Ultraman will replicate this path is still unknown, but at least from his brief response on Twitter, the story is far from over.

For OpenAI, the ambitious plan to build a new AI ecosystem has been clouded with more uncertainty by this sudden event. At the first developers conference of OpenAI, which ended earlier this month, Ultraman, then CEO, outlined the future direction of the industry that OpenAI envisions. By continuously lowering the threshold for developing GPT applications and decentralizing GPT’s generative capability to ordinary people, OpenAI aims to lead the formation of a new industry ecosystem as a platform.

The greater impact lies in the entire artificial intelligence industry. Currently, a new wave of generative AI driven by the popularity of ChatGPT is in full swing. OpenAI, as the core and benchmark of this wave, is the focus of attention and pursuit by countless people. However, the sudden removal of the CEO by the board of directors caught the entire industry off guard. Although Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest partner, has expressed its commitment to continue future collaboration, it is not ruled out that there may be more changes in the development direction of OpenAI itself and its relationship with Microsoft after a change in the management team in the future.

For other companies, they are now more “watching from the sidelines.” The OpenAI of the Ultraman era will definitely be different from the post-Ultraman OpenAI, which means that the future pattern of the AI industry and the development direction of the entire industry may undergo new changes. This event is an important turning point for a series of future changes.

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