The channel reacts to this week's OpenAI drama

The battle between not for profit vs profit and the story of governance, six channel players weigh in on all that went down at OpenAI

The founder will always prevail and is it a not for profit or for profit company, these are the top talking points from channel partners after Sam Altman's Hokey Cokey dance at OpenAI this week.

Altman seemingly had a new home at Microsoft after getting the boot from the OpenAI board for not being "consistently candid in his communications".

This caused a revolt within the company behind ChatGPT when 747 employees signed a letter threatening to quit and join Altman at Microsoft if the board failed to reverse their decision.

So now Altman is back at OpenAI and while we wait for the book The most dramatic week in AI history to be written, CRN quizzed channel partners for their initial thoughts on the drama.

Rob Pooley, solutions director, Saepio

"My instinctive reaction is that in a short space of time, Open AI has moved from non-profit, to capped-profit to being almost ‘absorbed' into a profit driven tech firm (Microsoft).

"The race to profit from AI is a risk to humanity, especially as AGI or Strong AI is on the horizon.

"The traditional tech mentality of ‘move fast and break things' is a dangerous culture for AI development.

"I expect the safety concerns arising from profit driven tech firms is a point of debate in the saga that's unfolding at OpenAI.

"Whatever the outcome, I very much hope stringent AI development governance is firmly implemented and no corners are cut in the desire to lead the AGI race."

Read on to hear from Sapphire, Infinity Group and more...

The channel reacts to this week's OpenAI drama

The battle between not for profit vs profit and the story of governance, six channel players weigh in on all that went down at OpenAI

Nikhil Sehgal, co-founder & CEO, Neo

"Shocked. There is clear breakdown in board governance here for such a move to occur without any clarity on the reason.

"I think everyone was surprised; given the way OpenAI were executing, it seemed as though there was no stopping the company.

"Given that 90 per cent plus employees signed a letter to the board demonstrating their commitment to join Sam & Greg, it'd be hard for the company to continue with a new leadership team."

The channel reacts to this week's OpenAI drama

The battle between not for profit vs profit and the story of governance, six channel players weigh in on all that went down at OpenAI

Rob Young, CEO, Infinity Group

"My instant reaction was one of surprise, I'm not sure we will ever know what went on in the boardroom but I don't think anyone was expecting it, they seemed to try and backtrack and Microsoft seemed to act pretty instinctively and stepped in to secure both Altman and Brockman's undoubted talent

"Microsoft was put in a position where they had to act quickly, don't forget they own half of OpenAI, but by doing so they secured two of the most talented individuals in this space.

"They also offered to match pay for anyone else that wants to come across and continue there great work, so from Microsoft's point of view it's a win win.

"I think the reaction from the staff was also telling. Very quickly they came out and voiced their opinion, Altman is obviously loved by his team who came out in a united front.

"People like Altman are a once in a generation talent who is driving change in our world at a speed we have never seen before, it's easy to forget a year ago they were a start-up and now he is thrust into this position of power with so many outside influences. They're going to make mistakes."

Up next, Cloudsmiths, Sapphire and MyWave.ai...

The channel reacts to this week's OpenAI drama

The battle between not for profit vs profit and the story of governance, six channel players weigh in on all that went down at OpenAI

Tom Fowler, chief technology officer, Cloudsmiths

"It's been a whirlwind, hasn't it? There are clearly ongoing machinations in the boardroom.

"All that we know is that there was a board that took a set of decisions, who were clearly disconnected with their workforce.

"It begs the question around the structure that OpenAI have - they have a somewhat unique structure where they're not for profit, owning their for profit arm and that is interesting, if nothing else, but certainly begs the question.

"If there's an alignment between their workforce and the direction that the board wanted to take and the governance that the board wanted to have in that organisation, without knowing what the underlying reasons were, and as far as I'm aware we still don't really have any definitive reasons as to why he was asked to step down.

"But he seems to be back in and that's a hell of an interesting thing. I think Sam Altman has been a net positive in the industry. He's been around in the industry for a very long time, and I'm really interested to see what he continues to do with OpenAI.

"He built an incredible product with an incredible team and has changed the shape of an industry and forced all the other big players to play catch up and be incredibly disruptive. So I'm keen to see what he does next with OpenAI. It will be interesting one way or the other."

The channel reacts to this week's OpenAI drama

The battle between not for profit vs profit and the story of governance, six channel players weigh in on all that went down at OpenAI

Geraldine McBride, CEO & director, MyWave.ai

"I'm not surprised. People join the company because of the founder. They have a vision and they have a passion. And clearly something broke down between the founder and the board.

"The board is there for governance, they're not there to run the company.

"Altman's right, chips are not powerful enough for AI systems. His vision around founding a new chip company that's fit for purpose for AI is not a crazy idea at all."

The channel reacts to this week's OpenAI drama

The battle between not for profit vs profit and the story of governance, six channel players weigh in on all that went down at OpenAI

Chris Gabriel, chief strategy officer, Sapphire

"What looks like happened is tension exploded in terms of the not for profit, change the world and do good remit, with spending a billion quid a month on computing power.

"Now he's back, he's gained the OpenAI bit, but the shackles of commercialisation have been loosened.

"In reality OpenAI was founded on a model that was not sustainable when AI became the most profitable technology on the planet.

"The thing that sticks out for me was the four board members. The future of humankind was in the hands of four people somewhere in the States deciding what happens. I thought that wasn't sustainable and it scared the crap out of me to be honest."

Mark Wheeler, chief product officer, Sapphire

"In a previous life, I founded a FinTech company. It was small and got to Series A, and I found that lack of governance in that environment, in the mid tens, quite scary.

"The Sam Altman story for me is indicative of the importance of strong corporate governance in such a nascent technology such as AI.

"It feels like a moment where we're seeing the governance story unfold. And guess who's winning? The founders are winning again because people want the next big return and they want to be on the coattails of that founder.

"I think the capital flows in this are going to be so important and I don't know the specifics of that scenario. But that would be if anything, it puts a spotlight on that area, which I think it's got to be so central to the debate. It's AI as a societal thing, so Sam Altman should be the subtext right not the headline."