OpenAI’s firing of Sam Altman followed wide-ranging disagreements between the chief executive officer and his board — in particular Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI co-founder and the company’s chief scientist — according to a person familiar with the matter.
The debates included differences of opinion on AI safety, the speed of development of the technology and the commercialization of the company, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
Altman’s ambitions may have also played a role in the divorce. Altman has been looking to raise tens of billions of dollars from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to create an AI chip startup to compete with processors made by Nvidia Corp., according to a person with knowledge of the investment proposal. Altman was also courting SoftBank Group chairman Masayoshi Son for a multibillion-dollar investment in a new company to make AI-oriented hardware in partnership with former Apple designer Jony Ive.