Technology News : Altman 2.0 may weild more power at OpenAI

Altman 2.0 may weild more power at OpenAI 

Technology News : Altman 2.0 may weild more power at OpenAI 

OPENAI’SOPENAI’S  NEW board will boast more experience at the top level and strong ties to both the United States government and Wall Street.

Sam Altman’s return as OpenAI’s chief executive will strengthen his grip on the start-up and may leave the ChatGPT creator with fewer checks on his power as the company intro-duces technology that could upend industries, corporate governance experts and analysts said.

OpenAI is bringing Altman back just days after his ouster as well as installing a revamped board that could bring sharper scrutiny to the start-up at the heart of the AI boom, but strong sup-port from investors including may give Altman more leeway to commercialise the tech-nology .

“Sam’s return may put an end to the turmoil on the surface, but there may continue to be deep gover-nance issues,” said Mak Yuen Teen, director of the centre for investor protec-tion at the National University ofSingapore Business School.

“ Altman seems awfully powerful and it is unclear that any board would be able to oversee him. The danger is that the board becomes a rubber stamp,” he said OpenAI’s new board will boast more experience at the top level and strong ties to both the US govern-ment and Wall Street. The board fired Altman last week with little explana-tion and attempted to move on by naming an interim chief executive officer twice. However, pressure from Microsoft -and the 38-year-old’s strong loyalty among the 700-plus OpenAI employ-ees that caused nearly all of them to threaten to leave the company - led to Altman’s reinstatement.

“ Altman has been invig-orated by the last few days,” GlobalData analyst Beatriz Valle said. But that could come at a cost, she said, adding that he has “too much power now .”

OpenAI on X said it was "collaborating to figure out the details" of the new board. Microsoft declined to comment. 

Some analysts say the recent fiasco will ensure that OpenAI executives proceed cautiously , as the AI start-up will now be subject to more scrutiny . 

— Reuters