The Story of Sam Altman and OpenAI
(This article was first published on Zhihu, written on November 19, and has not been modified since then. More detailed retrospective articles will be written later.)
It is said that Sam Altman and Greg had a dispute with the technical team and the board’s investor representatives. Sam Altman wanted to quickly make products to earn money, but the chief scientist Ilya, representing the technical team, was more focused on the goals of AGI and AI Safety.
The company’s resources are limited. The business faction led by Sam Altman wanted to use more GPUs for the inference services of GPTs Store and ChatGPT, while the research faction led by Ilya wanted to use more GPUs for the development of core technologies such as GPT-5, Agent, and research on AI Safety, with Ilya being particularly interested in alignment (AI Safety).
At the same time, Microsoft wanted to have more control over OpenAI, while Sam hoped OpenAI could operate more independently. The launch of GPTs Store at OpenAI dev day was the spark that intensified the contradictions. Microsoft’s idea was to have OpenAI provide APIs, which Microsoft would package into products to sell, essentially using AI as a tool. OpenAI’s idea was to directly create an Agent Marketplace, essentially using tools to call AI, which would weaken Microsoft’s position in this ecosystem.
It is precisely because of the tug-of-war between the business-oriented Sam and Greg, the technology-oriented Ilya, and Microsoft that OpenAI’s commercialization process has been slow, with profits not meeting expectations and product design needing improvement. If it were an internet company, a variety of to C and to B products would have been fully launched by now.
Since the beginning of October, the conflict between Sam Altman and chief scientist Ilya had already become public. After early October, Ilya did not retweet any of OpenAI’s tweets, not even about OpenAI dev day. This time, Ilya joined forces with the board to launch a “coup” that ousted Sam and Greg.
It is normal for there to be disputes over values within a company, but it is rare for them to become as ugly as they have today. According to Greg’s revelations, Ilya called Sam and Greg into a Google Meet meeting separately, announcing their dismissal and removal from their positions, and the press release was published very quickly. This was the chief scientist driving out both the CEO and the chairman of the board, and the press release was very unkind, saying that Sam Altman was disloyal and dishonest to the organization.
If Sam really leaves, OpenAI’s commercialization will definitely become more conservative, possibly focusing on developing Safe AGI, becoming a beacon for human civilization, but the most profitable business might not be OpenAI anymore.
Today, the board wants to bring Sam back, but even if Sam returns, after this incident, how can Ilya and Sam coexist in the company?
It is said that Sam and Greg’s condition for returning is to restructure the board. Without Sam, there’s no way to do business; without Ilya, there’s no leader for technology. So, this dispute has a huge impact on OpenAI. If OpenAI splits because of this, it would be a loss for the entire AI industry.
We investors have long said that what startups fear most is founder disputes; other problems are easier to solve, but founder disputes are the hardest. Technical and business leaders are the most likely to disrespect each other and have disputes.
Half a year before OpenAI was established, in 2015, I and my then-girlfriend also created a course review community at USTC. Her and my roles were similar to Sam and Ilya. Although we have broken up, we have never had a founder dispute in 8 years.
External investors have no emotional attachment to the company and can easily make decisions that harm the company’s long-term interests for short-term gains. Sam Altman, as the company’s founder without sufficient voting rights, is easily ousted.