We Only Got To Know About ChatGPT From Twitter: Former OpenAI Board Member Sheds Light On Sam Altman

Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI continues to raise doubts about his position and authority in the company. Recently, we heard about one of the main scientist leaving OpenAI, claiming the company is now focused on the shiny products. And now, another former executive at OpenAI has publicly shared her experience of working with Altman and most of the views don’t paint a rosy picture about the OpenAI chief.

Helen Toner, one of the former board members at OpenAI has mentioned that the company only learned of the existence of ChatGPT when they saw it on Twitter. Toner was talking candidly in an interview on ‘The Ted AI Show’ podcast that aired earlier this week.

Toner provided her first detailed account of the backstory behind the dramatic firing and rehiring last November of OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman, painting a picture of a manipulative executive who fostered a "toxic atmosphere".

The former board member said that one of the biggest reason for Altman’s ouster was linked to the situation where two OpenAI executives reported instances of "psychological abuse" to the board.

"They were really serious, to the point where they actually sent us screenshots and documentation of some of the instances they were telling us about…" she was quoted saying.

OpenAI wad quoted about this development by Reuters stating, “We are disappointed that Miss Toner continues to revisit these issues…The review concluded that the prior board's decision was not based on concerns regarding product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI's finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners.”

The admission from Toner shows Altman in a different light, especially when you think about the time when over 70 people from OpenAI were willing to leave with him and join the Microsoft AI Research team which never happened.

So, what resulted in Altman’s quick fire-and-return saga and what made the company take this call. On the podcast, Toner attributed Altman's swift return to employees being told that the company would collapse without him. Additionally, once a potential return seemed likely, employees feared retaliation from Altman if they did not support him, she said.

These statements come just a week after Jan Leike, AI researcher at OpenAI quit earlier this month, and talked about the problems at the company and where they focus lies these days. He has talked about being skeptical of OpenAI’s approach towards the technology and how they plan to go about building these futuristic use cases without giving heed to the security and concerns posed by AI to humans. He also talked about the disagreement with OpenAI over their roadmap which seems to have fast tracked his decision to leave the company.

I joined because I thought OpenAI would be the best place in the world to do this research. However, I have been disagreeing with OpenAI leadership about the company’s core priorities for quite some time, until we finally reached a breaking point,” he mentioned in the post.

(With Reuters inputs)