I made a private vow last week that I would take a break from artificial intelligence. There are loads of other great, techy things to talk about. The profitability of fintech companies, Monzo getting a fresh influx of cash (what are they planning?), or even (God, forbid) central bank digital currencies.
But no — the AI world decided to hand us one humdinger of a soap opera when the board of OpenAI, the home of ChatGPT, sorta, kinda (well they did) ousted their CEO Sam Altman.
What could I possibly write that hasn’t been written elsewhere? I realised no one is really writing anything. I could find no insight, no clue, no candlestick in the library evidence that would shed light on these corporate shenanigans.
The New York Times wrote that this firing of Mr Altman was due to a difference between people who want to manage the potential dangers of AI and those who want a piece of the estimated $15tn worth of pie that AI might represent in the global economy. (The NYT actually talked about commercial interests versus concerns about AI, but $15tn is enough to sway even the most authentic effective altruist — we’ll talk about that later.)
I posted on LinkedIn asking if anyone had any clue what was going on:
My LinkedIn collaborators tried to help.
Then I started singing.
Whenever I start thinking about a blog post, I try to let the fintech muses (I call her Esmerelda) pop a film scene, a novel quote or a song lyric into my brain to allow me to start writing. It’s kinda like the I Ching, but it all exists in my head and there are no sticks to throw.
I started singing songs from The Little Mermaid. The 1990 animated Disney film became a household favourite among my friends at university for reasons I fail to remember. But you can’t fault the songs. Composer Alan Menken was on fire.
‘Part of your World’ — sung near the start of the film by the eponymous little mermaid — is one of my go-to karaoke songs. Now, stay with me for the next part.
Poor Ariel (here, AI or Mr Altman) doesn’t think she’s dangerous or disruptive, she just wants to gather up things (data), learn how to use a fork (not hallucinate), and hang out with Satya Nadella (I mean Prince Eric).
However, Ariel’s father, King Triton (regulators, tech experts, government officials) who is older and wiser and wants to keep AI safe and controlled: ‘Under the Sea’. Meanwhile, there is a Sea Witch who claims she is just here to “help poor unfortunate souls” (effective altruism), but she works outside the traditional, legacy palace walls and really wants to steal Ariel’s voice and replace it with her own — a voice firmly in the ‘how much of that $15tn-worth of AI is mine?’ camp.
Are you still with me?
If Mr Altman’s sole motivation was commercial, and he clashed with a board who, supposedly (I guess) have more altruistic aims, then he easily could have left to start his own company. Superstar flavours of the year like Mr Altman only need to stand on a street corner in Palo Alto singing “I’ve got large language models a plenty, I’ve got whosits and whatsits galore”, and there will be a pile of cash at his feet in no time.
This little mermaid ran to Microsoft. No matter what you think of the big tech firm, you’ve used one of their products. You may be the most hardcore Apple Mac person, or built your PC in a shed using metal from an old typewriter and steam engine, but you’ve been forced on a Teams call. You’ve written in MS Word. You’ve sat through a 75-page PowerPoint presentation. You’ve clicked for the umpteenth time: ‘Do not make Edge my default browser.’
Microsoft is where the people are.
As I write this, the drama is still unfolding. OpenAI have named a Twitch streamer as new CEO, 500-plus employees may leave in protest, and it’s not entirely confirmed whether Mr Altman has sealed his new relationship with the house that Bill Gates built with a kiss or not.
However, if the deal gets done and the spell is broken, and most of the talent and staff at OpenAI move to Washington state, Microsoft may have pulled off one of the most dramatic and cheapest acquisitions in history.
In true dramatic twist fashion, it seems like Mr Altman will remain at OpenAI (as of November 22, 2023). Whether that means Microsoft wasn’t attentive enough to break the spell, or OpenAI’s board was replaced by ChatGPT, who knows. But I’ll be dancing the calypso until we find out.
You can connect with Liz on LinkedIn, or follow her on Bluesky @lizlum.bsky.social.
Register to sign up to Digital journeys, our new weekly newsletter, as well as the four other pillar newsletters that constitute The Banker.
