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OpenAI is falling apart.
What remains will still be an extremely consequential AI developer with a big bunch of the best talent in global AI – but not genius.
Microsoft is now in full control – commerce including with the US power handlers is now on top and the founding principles are out.
There is no chance Ilya can realize his visions in OpenAI anymore. No way.
Everyone from tech industry insiders to average bystanders marveled over the past week at how some of the brightest minds in Silicon Valley managed to briefly turn the world’s leading AI company into a laughing stock.
The drama that unfolded at OpenAI nearly a year to the day after the institute first captured people’s imagination with the release of ChatGPT is now over—or at least paused—with co-founder Sam Altman reinstated as CEO.
But experts now believe OpenAI crossed the Rubicon and there is no going back to the way things were, even if Altman’s in-house rivals, among them Ilya Sutskever, wish for nothing more. (Fortune, November 24, 2023)
The Dilemma for Ilya Sutskever Is Acute
The meaning, rationale, governance, principles, and power in OpenAI have changed completely. Even if Ilya stays, he will still no longer work for the company he helped create and led scientifically to its achievements. The new OpenAI will not give a damn about an “AI that loves humanity.” This is not only tough but impossible for Ilya.
If Ilya leaves with some of the best and most loyal talent, they will probably be a minority with less developers and bereft of some intellectual rights of their creation. But new talent and the right kind of individuals will love to go there. Tough, but possible.
Breaking things down and starting over sometimes even creates a breakthrough.
Ilya has to leave and realize his visions by starting his own.
There is no other way.
OpenAI will just be an ordinary big commercial AI company – a little better but fundamentally no different from Google. Not nearly the room like before for Ilya to work, and Ilya cannot change that. Ilya, on his side, does not need OpenAI or depend on Microsoft. Ilya will always attract the right talent, the right kind of people with that talent (crucial), and the right kind of capital partners with his conditions.
Ilya starting his own company will be even more successful than before.
Go, go, go!
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Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image: OpenAI headquarters, Pioneer Building, San Francisco (Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)
