Looking at the series of dismissals from OpenAI of now influential figures in the field of artificial intelligence who were at the origins of this startup, one would think that from the initial composition of the company there were no more than two people left on its staff. Meanwhile, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, who took an extended leave of absence in August, recently returned to his duties.
Image source: OpenAI Developer Forum
As the experience of Raja Koduri, who several years ago, after a long vacation, switched from AMD to rival Intel, shows, such breaks in the active work of managers do not always end favorably for employers, but in the case of Greg Brockman, everything worked out. Bloomberg was able to confirm with OpenAI representatives that Brockman recently returned to his duties as president of the company. The startup’s employees received the corresponding notice this week.
Along the way, Brockman told OpenAI employees that he and CEO Sam Altman were working to define a new role within the company that would allow her to better deal with the technical challenges that come her way. Brockman played an important role in the events of last fall, when the OpenAI board of directors decided to fire Altman from his resignation. Brockman then left the company for a time to protest Altman’s dismissal, but returned after Altman was reinstated as CEO. Brockman took a long vacation in August of this year to recuperate and try to relax for the first time since founding OpenAI nine years ago.
Some time ago, former technical director Mira Murati and leading researcher Ilya Sutskever left OpenAI, who had already founded their own startups in the field of artificial intelligence. John Schulman, who also left OpenAI, has not yet been noticed in any new activity in this area. In total, three people remain on the company’s staff from OpenAI’s original founding group, including Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.