Business
OpenAI Has ‘Full Confidence’ In CEO Sam Altman After Investigation, Reinstates Him To Board
OpenAI has reinstated CEO Sam Altman to its board of directors and stated that it has “full confidence” in his leadership following the completion of an outside review into the company’s troubles.
The ChatGPT creator hired the law firm WilmerHale to investigate what caused the company to abruptly fire Altman in November, only to rehire him days later. After months of research, it discovered that Altman’s dismissal was a “consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust” between him and the previous board, according to an OpenAI summary of the conclusions released Friday. The whole report still needs to be released.
OpenAI also announced that three women have joined its board of directors: Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellman, former Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, former Sony general counsel; and Fidji Simo, CEO of Instacart.
OpenAI Has ‘Full Confidence’ In CEO Sam Altman After Investigation, Reinstates Him To Board
The moves are an attempt by the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence startup to demonstrate to investors and consumers that it is working to overcome the internal tensions that nearly wrecked it last year and made global headlines.
“I’m pleased this whole thing is over,” Altman told reporters Friday, adding that he has been dismayed to see “people with an agenda” releasing material to hurt the firm or its goal and “pit us against each other.” At the same time, he stated that he has learnt from the experience and apologized for a disagreement with a former board member that could have been handled “with more grace and care.”
In a parting shot, two board members who voted to remove Altman before being forced out themselves wished the incoming board well but emphasized the importance of accountability when developing technology “as potentially world-changing” as OpenAI.
“We hope the new board does its job in governing OpenAI and holding it accountable to its mission,” ex-board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley said in a joint statement. “As we told the investigators, deception, manipulation, and resistance to thorough oversight should be unacceptable.”
For over three months, OpenAI provided scant information about what prompted its then-board of directors to remove Altman on November 17. A declaration that day stated that Altman was “not consistently candid in his communications” in a way that hampered the board’s ability to carry out its duties. He was also removed from the board, along with its chairman, Greg Brockman, who resigned as the company’s president.
Much of OpenAI’s disagreements have stemmed from its unconventional governance structure. Founded as a nonprofit to securely develop futuristic AI to benefit humanity, it is today a fast-growing major business run by a nonprofit board dedicated to its original mission.
The investigation determined that the preceding board operated within its authority. However, it also concluded that Altman’s “conduct did not mandate removal,” according to OpenAI. It stated that Altman and Brockman remained the appropriate leaders for the company.
“The review concluded there was a significant breakdown in trust between the prior board and Sam and Greg,” the board’s chair, Bret Taylor, told reporters on Friday. “And similarly concluded that the board acted in good faith, that the board believed at the time that its actions would mitigate some of the challenges that it perceived and didn’t anticipate some of the instability.”
The founders and leaders of OpenAI have long debated the threats posed by stronger AI systems. However, citing the law firm’s conclusions, Taylor stated that Altman’s firing “did not arise out of concerns regarding product safety or security.”
Taylor stated that it was not about OpenAI’s money or representations made to investors, customers, or business partners.
OpenAI Has ‘Full Confidence’ In CEO Sam Altman After Investigation, Reinstates Him To Board
Days after his surprise dismissal, Altman and his supporters, with support from the majority of OpenAI’s workforce and close business partner Microsoft, orchestrated a comeback that returned Altman and Brockman to executive positions while forcing out board members Toner, a Georgetown University researcher; McCauley, a scientist at RAND Corporation; and another co-founder, Ilya Sutskever. Sutskever retained his position as chief scientist and publicly regretted his involvement in dismissing Altman.
“I think Ilya loves OpenAI,” Altman said Friday, expressing hope that they will continue to collaborate. However, he declined to comment on Sutskever’s present status at the business.
When Altman and Brockman returned to the company in November, they were not reinstated on the board. However, an “initial” new board of three men was constituted, led by Taylor, a former Salesforce and Facebook executive who previously chaired Twitter’s board before Elon Musk took over. Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, the sole remaining member of the previous board, are the others.
(Quora and Taylor’s new business, Sierra, has AI chatbots that use OpenAI technology.)
After hiring the law firm in December, OpenAI stated that WilmerHale interviewed dozens of the company’s previous board members, current executives, advisers, and other witnesses. The corporation also stated that the law firm examined thousands of documents and other corporate acts. WilmerHale did not immediately reply to a response request on Friday.
The board also announced that it will make “improvements” to the company’s governance structure. It stated that it would implement new corporate governance principles, enhance the company’s procedures against conflicts of interest, establish a whistleblower hotline that would allow workers and contractors to submit anonymous reports, and form more board committees.
The company still faces difficulties, such as a lawsuit Musk filed against it. Musk co-chaired OpenAI’s board after its founding in 2015 and contributed to funding its early years. Musk claims that the corporation is abandoning its founding objective of chasing profits.
OpenAI Has ‘Full Confidence’ In CEO Sam Altman After Investigation, Reinstates Him To Board
Legal experts have doubt that Musk’s arguments, which rely on an alleged breach of contract, will hold up in court.
However, it has already sparked internal debate within the company about its unusual governance structure, how “open” it should be about its research, and how to pursue what is known as artificial general intelligence, or AI systems that can perform as well as — or better than — humans in a wide range of tasks.
Taylor said Friday that OpenAI’s “mission-driven nonprofit” structure will remain unchanged as it pursues its aim of artificial general intelligence that benefits “all of humanity.”
“Our duties are to the mission, first and foremost, but the company — this amazing company that we’re in right now — was created to serve that mission,” said Taylor.
source – (ap)
Business
Boeing Orders Tumble As Troubled Aircraft Maker Struggles To Overcome Its Latest Crisis
Another sign of Boeing’s predicament is the fact that canceled sales outweighed falling orders in April.
Boeing announced Tuesday that it received orders for seven planes last month, which is an exceptionally low figure. That wasn’t enough to overcome canceled sales for 33 planes, 29 of which were due to the closure of Lynx Air, a cheap Canadian airline that ceased operations in late February.
Boeing Orders Tumble As Troubled Aircraft Maker Struggles To Overcome Its Latest Crisis
As expected, deliveries of new Boeing jetliners were low, at 24 in April, putting the American company further behind its European rival Airbus.
In the first four months of the year, Airbus delivered 203 commercial jets, compared to 107 for Boeing. Deliveries are a key source of cash for businesses.
Boeing Orders Tumble As Troubled Aircraft Maker Struggles To Overcome Its Latest Crisis
The Federal Aviation Administration is halting the construction of new Boeing 737 Max jets as the firm works to enhance manufacturing quality.
The production halt came when a piece known as a door plug burst out of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, in January. The pilots were able to safely land the plane, but the incident has plunged Boeing into its most serious crisis since the fatal crashes of two Max jets in 2018 and 2019.
Current and former Boeing employees have accused the firm of cutting corners on safety, and the FAA, National Transportation Safety Board, and Justice Department are all looking into the matter.
Boeing Orders Tumble As Troubled Aircraft Maker Struggles To Overcome Its Latest Crisis
While Boeing’s April results were disappointing, the company said it achieved a milestone last month when it delivered the 1,500th 737 Max to Ireland’s Ryanair.
SOURCE – (AP)
Business
Bumble’s Billboard Ads Sneered At Celibacy As An Alternative To Dating — And The Company Got Stung
SAN FRANCISCO — Bumble received backlash after airing billboard commercials that appeared to mock celibacy as an alternative to meeting people online.
On Monday, the company apologized for ads that said, “You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer” next to an introduction to “the new Bumble.” The app announced a brand revamp in April, hoping to recover dwindling user enthusiasm.
Bumble’s Billboard Ads Sneered At Celibacy As An Alternative To Dating — And The Company Got Stung
Women on social media chastised the corporation for suggesting that celibacy isn’t a legitimate personal choice. Some online critics interpret the tagline as representing patriarchal beliefs that women must be willing to have sex with males even if they do not want to.
Bumble’s Billboard Ads Sneered At Celibacy As An Alternative To Dating — And The Company Got Stung
Bumble apologized on Instagram for eliminating advertisements that it described as a poor attempt to “lean into a community frustrated by modern dating.” The corporation has long advocated for women and their ability to “fully exercise personal choice,” but it conceded that the ad campaign did not reflect those beliefs and regretted “the harm it caused.”
The corporation will also make payments to the National Domestic Violence Hotline and other groups to support global efforts to “support women, marginalized communities, and those impacted by abuse.” The corporation stated it would also provide billboard space to these organizations for their chosen advertisements.
Bumble did not answer concerns about the number of billboards used in the campaign or where they were positioned. It is unclear whether the adverts appeared in other media.
Bumble’s Billboard Ads Sneered At Celibacy As An Alternative To Dating — And The Company Got Stung
The dating app company has been experiencing difficulties. Its stock has plummeted significantly since last July, about 45% over doubts about its capacity to engage younger people. In February, it fired off 350 employees, or nearly 30% of its personnel, as it revealed plans to update its app to make it more appealing to Generation Z.
SOURCE – (AP)
Business
Open AI Launches GPTo, Improving ChatGPT’s Text, Visual And Audio Capabilities
SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI’s most recent version to its artificial intelligence model can emulate human cadences in spoken responses and even attempt to discern people’s emotions.
The effect is reminiscent of Spike Jonze’s 2013 film Her, in which the (human) main character falls in love with an artificially intelligent operating system, which results in some issues.
Open AI Launches GPTo, Improving ChatGPT’s Text, Visual And Audio Capabilities
While few will find the new model appealing, Open AI claims it performs quicker than earlier versions and can reason across text, audio, and video in real-time.
GPT-4o, which stands for “omni,” will power Open AI’s popular ChatGPT chatbot and will be available to everyone, including those using the free version, in the coming weeks, the company revealed during a brief live-streamed update. CEO Sam Altman, who was not a presenter at the event, put the word “her” on the social networking platform X.
During a presentation with Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati and other executives, the AI bot interacted in real time, adding emotion — especially “more drama” — to its voice when asked. It also helped guide through the processes required to solve a simple math issue without initially spitting out the answer, as well as a more difficult software coding challenge on a computer screen.
It also attempted to predict a person’s emotional state by analyzing a selfie video of their face (deciding he was pleased because he was smiling) and translated English and Italian to demonstrate how it could help people who speak different languages communicate.
Open AI Launches GPTo, Improving ChatGPT’s Text, Visual And Audio Capabilities
Gartner analyst Chirag Dekate said the upgrade, which lasted less than 30 minutes, created the impression that Open AI is catching up to larger competitors.
“Many of the demos and capabilities showcased by Open AI seemed familiar because we had seen advanced versions of these demos showcased by Google in their Gemini 1.5 pro launch,” Dekate stated. “While OpenAI had a first-mover advantage last year with ChatGPT and GPT3, when compared to their peers, especially Google, we now are seeing capability gaps emerge.”
Open AI Launches GPTo, Improving ChatGPT’s Text, Visual And Audio Capabilities
Google plans to have its I/O developer conference on Tuesday and Wednesday, which will likely reveal upgrades to its own Gemini model.
SOURCE – (AP)
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