Microsoft's Hiring of Ousted CEO a 'Poker Move for the Ages'

The drama at OpenAI, the dominant company in the field of artificial intelligence, is apparently not over. The board surprised all of tech by ousting CEO Sam Altman, who was promptly hired by Microsoft. But with most OpenAI employees now threatening a mutiny over the board's actions, it's possible Altman may end up back in charge there, reports the Verge. For that to happen, the four-member board that fired him would likely step down instead. (Already, one of the four, OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has done an about-face on Altman, even though he led the move to fire him.)

• Doesn't matter? Microsoft is OpenAI's main financial backer, and CEO Satya Nadella says it doesn't much matter whether Altman comes to Microsoft or returns to OpenAI because "irrespective of where Sam is, he's working with Microsoft," per Business Insider. Nadella's move to hire Altman quickly—and keep him away from rivals such as Apple or Google—was a "World Series of Poker move for the ages," says Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives, per Investors.com. And Ives thinks it was the right bet.

• The friction: The OpenAI board has been vague about its reasons for firing Altman, but James Broughel at Forbes writes that the movement known as effective altruism—"a philosophical framework rooted in utilitarianism, which aims to maximize the net good in the world"—played a big role. Board members are adherents, "and debates over AI safety likely contributed to Altman's removal," writes Broughel.
• Friction, II: At the New York Times, tech writer Kevin Roose echoes the above. Altman also has expressed concerns about the risks of AI, but he also is confident about the upside and wants to move rapidly to develop it. "That may have put him at odds with the safety-minded board members, whose job is to see that powerful AI is developed responsibly," writes Roose. The Wall Street Journal reports that board members were growing particularly concerned about Altman's "pursuits outside of OpenAI." For example, he was working on a startup to make inexpensive chips with which to train AI models. There "were mounting concerns that OpenAI's intellectual property or technology could be used in ways that made the board uncomfortable," per the story.
• The board: The Journal also has snapshot looks at the four current members of the OpenAI board whose positions are now at risk. The company has an unusual setup: It's technically a nonprofit, per Forbes, but it's still under pressure to make money for its investors, including Microsoft. Roose puts it this way: It "is run by a nonprofit board that controls a for-profit subsidiary and can vote to replace its leaders."

(More Sam Altman stories.)