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OpenAI, Still Haunted by Its Chaotic Past, Is Trying to Grow Up

New York Times. September 3, 2024.

OpenAI, the often troubled standard-bearer of the tech industry’s push into artificial intelligence, is making substantial changes to its management team, and even how it is organized, as it courts investments from some of the wealthiest companies in the world.

Over the past several months, OpenAI, the maker of the online chatbot ChatGPT, has hired a who’s who of tech executives, disinformation experts and A.I. safety researchers. It has also added seven board members — including a four-star Army general who ran the National Security Agency — while revamping efforts to ensure that its A.I. technologies do not cause serious harm.

OpenAI is also in talks with investors such as Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia and the investment firm Thrive for a deal that would value it at $100 billion. And the company is considering changes to its corporate structure that would make it easier to attract investors.

The San Francisco start-up, after years of public conflict between management and some of its top researchers, is trying to look more like a no-nonsense company ready to lead the tech industry’s march into artificial intelligence. OpenAI is also trying to push last year’s high-profile fight over the management of Sam Altman, its chief executive, into the background.

But interviews with more than 20 current and former OpenAI employees and board members show that the transition has been difficult. Early employees continue to leave, even as new workers and new executives pour in. And rapid growth hasn’t resolved a fundamental question of what OpenAI is supposed to be: Is it a cutting-edge A.I. lab created for the benefit of humanity, or an aspiring industry giant dedicated to profits?

Today, OpenAI has more than 1,700 employees, and 80 percent of them started after the release of ChatGPT in November 2022. Mr. Altman and other leaders have led the recruitment of executive hires, while the new chairman, Bret Taylor, a former Facebook executive, has overseen the expansion of the board.

“While start-ups must naturally evolve and adapt as their impact grows, we recognize OpenAI is navigating this transformation at an unprecedented pace,” Mr. Taylor said in a statement emailed to The New York Times. “Our board and the dedicated team at OpenAI remain focused on safely building A.I. that can solve hard problems for everyone.”

A number of the new executives played prominent roles in other tech companies. Sarah Friar, OpenAI’s new chief financial officer, was the chief executive of Nextdoor. Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s new chief product officer, was the senior vice president of product at Twitter. Ben Nimmo led Facebook’s battle against deceptive social media campaigns. Joaquin Candela oversaw Facebook’s efforts to reduce the risks of artificial intelligence. Now, the two men have similar roles at OpenAI.

OpenAI also told employees on Friday that Chris Lehane, a veteran of the Clinton White House who had a senior role at Airbnb and joined OpenAI this year, would be its head of global policy.

But of 13 people who helped found OpenAI in late 2015 with a mission to create artificial general intelligence, or A.G.I. — a machine that can do anything the human brain can do — only three remain. One, Greg Brockman, the company’s president, has taken a leave of absence through the end of the year, citing the need for time off after nearly a decade of work.

“It is pretty common to see these kinds of additions — and also subtractions — but we are under such bright lights,” said Jason Kwon, OpenAI’s chief strategy officer. “Everything becomes magnified.”

Since its earliest days as a nonprofit research lab, OpenAI has struggled with arguments over its goals. In 2018, Elon Musk, its primary backer, departed after a dispute with its other founders. In early 2022, a group of key researchers, worried that commercial forces were pushing OpenAI’s technologies into the marketplace