What the heck is going on at OpenAI?

The announcement of a new wave of key management departures at OpenAI, among them Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew and Head of Post-Training Barret Zoph, has caused further disruption, sparking speculation about the future of one of the world’s most influential companies under the leadership of Sam Altman.

The departure of these key figures add to those of Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike from the Alignment and Security team, Gretchen Krueger from Policy Research, Daniel Kokotajlo and William Saunders from Security, John Schulman, company co-founder and ChatGPT Architect, and Greg Brockman, co-founder and president. Some of them have left to create their own initiatives, others have joined competitors such as Anthropic, and some have yet to announce their next move. It’s clear that coming from a company like OpenAI opens all doors and allows people to leave without any fear of a vacuum.

The ongoing exit of senior people at OpenAI appears to be driven by a combination of internal and external factors, reflecting the tensions within the company as it expands its operations. Apparently, one of the main problems is the transition from its initial modus operandi as a non-profit research outfit to a more commercially oriented one. This shift toward making money has caused friction between managers more focused on the ethical…