“The firing and reappointment of Sam Altman was the biggest news of the year in business and artificial intelligence. Here In the United States, it had daily front pages in almost every major media outlet. “To such an extent that it unfortunately completely overshadowed the Global AI Safety Summit in the UK, which for the first time put the extreme risks of this technology at the center of public policy consideration.”

He talks about this in statements, Independent, Stuart J. Russell Professor of Computer Science and Smith-Zadeh Professor of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. But in fact, this is the opinion of the majority among world experts on earthquake that rocked Silicon Valley this week. And it took everyone by surprise.

Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT and is a leader in the artificial intelligence industry, was fired by surprise but rehired shortly thereafter. In between were five days that seemed forever, with constant script twists that shook the technology and business landscape around the world. And they leave many unknowns.

But to understand the significance of what happened, you first need to understand who Sam Altman is. “On a personal level, he is very similar to Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook. He has the profile of a Silicon Valley engineer focused on developing the best technologies. I met him when he arrived in Madrid and I thought he was a brilliant man and his ideas were very clear. I looked like a robot“Says Miguel Angel Roman, co-founder of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence.

Roman had the opportunity to witness two conferences that Altman held in Spain in May of this yearvisiting to express to our country, where he also managed to meet with Pedro Sanchez. The first was a private conversation for developers. And the second is a meeting with students of the Business Institute.

“He wanted to hear from developers of tools that use OpenAI technology as a foundation. He asked us what we thought, what we were asking, in what direction we would like to develop… I was very concerned about the impact this would have on society. all this, and specifically in Spain,” says the expert.

A leader for his employees

However, Roman believes that the fame that Altman gained was due to the popularity that his technology has gained in recent months, more than with special charisma on a personal level. “The fact that he is present in the media is due to his achievements because he has managed to master artificial intelligence even beyond Google, whose research department consists of thousands of people. He’s extremely smart, so he went ahead with much less expense.” ” He says.

But, in spite of everything, Roman is convinced that “Altman is only the visible face of the company.” Behind this, he assures, “there are many people who have contributed to taking AI to new heights.” In particular, a team of more than 700 people, most of whom came to his defense when he was fired.

“The fact that almost all OpenAI employees the fact that they will resign unless Altman is reinstated is clear evidence of their importance to the company.” says Russell. “I can’t talk about him as a programmer, researcher or innovator because we don’t know to what extent he was involved in those aspects. But as a businessman, he certainly turned out to be effective,” the expert says.

As he explains, played a key role in Microsoft investment negotiations, allowing OpenAI to “stay afloat” in 2018 and 2019 when it otherwise might have gone bankrupt. And, in his opinion, it was the company’s business strategy under Altman’s leadership that made ChatGPT a household name when we talk about artificial intelligence. “OpenAI continued to work while Google cautiously remained on the sidelines. And it paid off,” Russell concludes.

The Power of OpenAI

“The fact is that We all witnessed the palace drama of Altman’s dismissal from the audience. and we can’t do much to show how much power they have. This is a danger to democracy,” says Mark Köckelberg, a philosopher and professor at the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences in Prague (Czech Republic).

And, in the absence of AI regulation, development companies have full control. They are the ones who can decide what this technology becomes, and now that it has become a hot topic, we can only hope they step on the gas pedal. In this context, the figure of Altman as the CEO of a leading company in the industry takes on special significance. Today we are in your hands.

This is precisely what worries Kuckelberg: “AI can contribute to the common good, but if we allow it to develop only within the framework of American-style capitalism, then it is unlikely to do so. We’ll have to decide.” if we allow people like Altman to make decisions about what is good for humanity. Because the CEOs and billionaires of big tech companies will choose a definition that suits their interests, and the rest of us will remain helpless spectators to what happens in the court of AI kings.

But you don’t have to wait to see the power of OpenAI. Russell explains: “ChatGPT, based on GPT-3.5, was the first to gain a large global user base and it changed the conversation in many ways. They are not intelligent objects of the human form, I think it is fair to say that they are humanoid: “They are superficial, fallible, amazingly inventive, can write in any of a thousand styles, and are extremely knowledgeable because they have read thousands more texts than any human being.”

The expert is convinced that as this technology spreads to more languages, all people connected to the Internet will have access to it. “It’s as if we added five billion intellectually human objects in the world within a few months. And this is a preview of what it would be like to live in a world where we can tap into an unlimited supply of intelligence. In that sense, they served as a valuable wake-up call,” Russell says.

In the midst of it all there’s still to be seen if OpenAI’s commercial subsidiary eventually absorbs the company’s original parent company, which in its charter established the goal of developing artificial intelligence that will benefit humanity. Altman’s triumphant return could bring this opportunity closer, as he seems more inclined to accelerate the development of this technology. The exact opposite of Emmett Shear, who was appointed as the new CEO after Altman left and assured that AI is a danger to humanity and we must stop before it is too late. We will never know what would have become of OpenAI and artificial intelligence under its leadership.

“Recent events have shown that even if a company is legally duty to protect the interests of humanity may be outweighed by financial considerations. And to this we must add that in the case of other companies, the interests of humanity are not taken into account at all in their legal obligations,” explains Rusell.

“This completely refutes the idea that voluntary self-regulation is sufficient to ensure the safety of superhuman artificial intelligence systems. There is no doubt that only governments can protect the interests of humanity by requiring developers to demonstrate the safety of their systems, just as we demand it from aircraft manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and nuclear companies,” the teacher adds.

Consequences of the earthquake

Just a few days ago Financial Times published a long article in which All the details of Altman’s departure and return to OpenAI were described in detail. The British newspaper managed to talk to several people who were direct witnesses of the entire process and anonymously told interesting details.

“Altman’s superpower is getting people on his side.They “probably underestimated” the power of Altman’s “PR campaign.”

Be that as it may, he is now back at his post. “The only bill they will have to pay for all this is losing a week of work. It’s as if everyone went on vacation because there was no time for anything to break,” says Roman. “However, Altman comes out fully empowered. Everyone at OpenAI came out in droves to support him and were willing to go with him. And now, perhaps, the people who were most against him have left the board of directors and could be behind this coup. So he will have all kinds of support,” he adds.

There’s a question on the horizon. How different would the future history of AI have been if Altman had remained at Microsoft? According to Russell, the answer is that it depends on the situation. “My understanding is that OpenAI is still governed by its bylaws, which state that the original non-profit organization controls the subsidiary for-profit organization. The board was replaced, but the rules did not change. In this sense, it’s better… because from the point of view of the interests of humanity continue to work at OpenAI within this structure, rather than at Microsoft., where the legal framework corresponds to a commercial company. But if the new OpenAI board ignores the charter, this will not matter much,” the expert concludes.