According to multiple reports, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman flatly denied accepting a large stake in the startup worth billions of dollars as part of a corporate restructuring.
Mr. Altman, 39, said Thursday that a Bloomberg report said OpenAI's board was discussing giving him a 7% stake as part of the pioneering AI company's transformation into a for-profit entity. It reacted several hours later.
Altman, the company's co-founder, called reports that he might receive such a large amount of information “ridiculous” during an all-hands meeting with OpenAI employees in Italy. Information reported.
The OpenAI boss reportedly added that investors are asking him to receive shares to ensure his interests remain aligned with the company.
OpenAI Chairman Brett Taylor also denied the report in a previous statement, saying that the board had “discussed whether compensating Sam with stock was beneficial to the company and our mission, but could not provide specific numbers.” has not been discussed and is not being debated.” Have any decisions been made? ”
OpenAI confirmed Wednesday that it plans to reorganize as a for-profit corporation. This means the nonprofit board of directors that has overseen operations for years will no longer have control.
Plans have not yet been finalized, and OpenAI maintained that the nonprofit organization “remains core to our mission.”
OpenAI was originally founded in 2015 as a nonprofit organization with the goal of creating secure artificial general intelligence (a term used to describe AI with human-level or higher cognitive abilities).
Meanwhile, the Microsoft-backed company's management remains in disarray. Three executives, including Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, announced their resignations this week, just as reports of a possible restructuring emerged.
At Thursday's all-hands meeting, Altman was reportedly adamant that his sudden resignation was unrelated to the board's discussions.
“Most of what I saw was completely wrong,” Altman said. According to CNBC. “But the board has been thinking about that independently for almost a year as we consider what we need to do to move forward.”
“But I think this is just people getting ready for a new chapter in life and a new generation of leadership,” Altman added.
Murati, who has worked closely with Altman, said in a message to OpenAI staff that he is “retiring because I want to create time and space for my own exploration.” For now, my main focus is to maintain the momentum we've built while doing everything we can to ensure a smooth transition. ”
Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew and top researcher Barrett Zoff also resigned, following a mass exodus of OpenAI executives since the beginning of the year.
OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman announced last month that he would be taking a sabbatical until the end of the year. Another co-founder, John Schulman, left for OpenAI rival Anthropic.
Co-founder Ilya Sutskeva and researcher Jan Reike took over after OpenAI disbanded its Superalignment team in May, which was responsible for overseeing the secure development of advanced AI.
