flâneur

Quick Essay: A Short History of OpenAI

chamath.substack.com · 1,189 words · saved by 1 readers

Understanding the corporate structure that led to Sam Altman's removal

On Friday, OpenAI ousted its co-founder Sam Altman as CEO. While OpenAI cites a lack of consistent candor in Altman’s dealings with the board as the key reason for his removal, there is widespread speculation about other motives behind his termination. These range from disputes concerning the profit vs nonprofit motives of the company to the discovery of artificial general intelligence, a type of AI that can surpass human intelligence for most tasks. We wanted to look back at the history and corporate structure of OpenAI to understand how we got here. Here’s the story: Inception and Early…

related reading