OpenAI without Sam Altman – The impact on technology and aluminium sector

November 2022 was a significant time in AI research and development history. As a significant milestone in recent technical developments, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, which almost instantaneously became the talk of the tech world. Since then, there have been many important developments around AI developments – the fear, anxiety, and eclectic moments all together only drove the world towards AI.

One year later, the spree came back with a bang. On November 17, 2023, the board of Open AI decided to let the CEO, Sam Altman, go as he had not been open and transparent in his communications with the board. As expected, this triggered several chain events – the chairman of the board and one of the co-founders of OpenAI, Greg Brockman, also declared that he would resign. Mira Murati, the CTO of OpenAI, has been appointed interim CEO. One day later, the group of investors of the USD 80 billion firm started putting pressure on the board. Microsoft holds a significant share of OpenAI (around 49 per cent), and others like Thrive Capital, SVA, and Arrowshare Ventures are among the other shareholders. Sam Altman’s sudden ouster has not been taken positively by many of them. At present, another plan to reinstate Sam Altman as the CEO of OpenAI is also on the cards.

The importance of Sam Altman in OpenAI

For quite some time, Sam Altman has not only been the face of OpenAI but also the face of AI to humankind. He has become the primary spokesperson for AI-related developments, GPTs, the future of the co-existence of AI with humankind, and the possible threats of uncontrolled developments in the domain of AI.

Sam had been a main source of attracting funding to OpenAI. He almost single-handedly allured Microsoft to commit USD 10 billion in OpenAI and took the company from a 20-odd billion USD valuation to a USD 80 billion valuation.

Sam has also been credited with attracting talent to OpenAI from rivals like Google, AWS, etc. Many developers left their cushy jobs to join Altman and OpenAI to be a part of history, as the OpenAI engineers often refer to. Time will tell the reaction of such developers and engineers with Sam not being there as the CEO of OpenAI.

How it will impact the aluminium world

As highlighted by the recent report of AL Circle on the Digital Transformation in the Aluminium Industry, the aluminium world is quickly adopting many exponential technologies. Though the trend is largely limited to the big corporations, the smaller ones consider technology a key driver for their growth. They are leveraging AI in multiple areas, from recruitment to business development to defining process SOPs. Along with ChatGPT, several other players took the AI and GPT journey, one prominent example being Google’s BARD. The turmoil in OpenAI will allow them to progress faster and be closer regarding effectiveness w.r.t. ChatGPT.

The tumultuous time of ChatGPT may also give another set of investors a fresh opportunity to invest in other GPT and AI start-up companies. AL Circle’s recent report on Digital Transformation in the Aluminium Industry also contains the names of such companies. The Investors and Aluminium industry players may also keep their eyes on such companies so that AI adoption is not impacted.