Why Are the Most Notable Workers

at OpenAI Leaving?

17/8/2024,

“If OpenAI is right on the verge of AGI, why do prominent people keep leaving?”

Top talent at OpenAI is leaving, indicating serious internal conflict at the company that created ChatGPT.

President Greg Brockman is taking a leave of absence, while cofounder John Schulman revealed this week that he was leaving the firm to join competitor AI startup Anthropic. Peter Deng, vice president of consumer products at OpenAI, also resigned, signalling significant changes at the top.

The primary goal of the Sam Altman-led business is to achieve safe artificial general intelligence the as-yet-completely-speculative state at which AI can outperform humans in a broad range of cognitive tasks.

However, the extent to which the business has succeeded in doing so is still hotly contested; detractors point out that OpenAI is bolstering billions of dollars in investment through false claims, creating an “AI bubble” that might soon collapse.

Is it possible that the recent exits indicate the company is having difficulty realising its long-term goals, let alone making money with generative AI?

The brain drain issue with OpenAI, according to critics, may just be the canary in the coal mine.

Prominent AI sceptic Gary Marcus tweeted, “Calling it.” “August 2024 will be known as the month in which the Generative AI bubble burst.”

“The three dramatic OpenAI departures which would be inconceivable if AGI or even just major profitability were close will be the last straw,” he stated.

“Investors will lose confidence, valuations will fall.”

Some detractors questioned OpenAI’s continuous assertions that artificial intelligence (AGI) is imminent.

“If OpenAI is right on the verge of AGI, why do prominent people keep leaving?” Benjamin de Kraker, an AI developer, tweeted.

A significant amount of talent has already departed OpenAI, and the three recent departures are just the latest in this list. Ilya Sutskever, the previous head of OpenAI’s “Superalignment” AI safety team, departed the company in May. The team was completely disbanded by the firm shortly after, raising concerns about its dedication to creating countermeasures for rogue AI.

William Saunders, a former employee and member of the Superalignment team, disclosed last month that he had left the company after learning that it was prioritising profit before safety.

He told YouTuber Alex Kantrowitz at the time, “I didn’t want to end up working for the Titanic of AI, which is why I resigned.”

We are left with only conjecture as to why so many senior executives are quitting the organisation at this point. Are they becoming more worried that OpenAI is creating the AI equivalent of Pandora’s Box, or have they lost faith in the company’s capacity to deliver on its promise of realising AGI?

Brockman may be just trying to find a way to get some much-needed sleep in this situation.
“First time to relax since co-founding OpenAI nine years ago,” he wrote on Twitter. “The mission is far from complete; we still have a safe AGI to build.”