The biopic on this whole thing is going to be hilarious. The rumors are that the board didn’t like how fast the CEO is moving with AI and they’re afraid of consequences of possible AGI (which I don’t think these new LLMs are even close to) but that doesn’t feel like what modern boards of directors are so I don’t trust it.
It’s just baffling how this golden goose was half way strangled in the nest.
Or this is essentially a hostile takeover by Microsoft. OpenAI is a non-profit with non-shareholders as it's board. They don't have a profit motive to develop AI quickly and without safety measures. But the tech they've developed has quickly become the hottest product on the planet.
Microsoft was clearly prepared to take on all the employees the second this happened.
These will come at a premium. Not only are they high-demand jobs, but they'll absolutely be sued by OpenAI if they hire away half the staff of a company with which they had a business relationship. Those legal fees alone will be 8 figures even if they win.
I'm positive that lawyers will get super involved and a lot will depend on the various contracts which we don't have any visibility into. But from an ethical standpoint, the openai board shat in the bathwater and can't really complain if people get out and move over to a cleaner pool.
Maybe they are not doing it to move to cleaner water but maybe they were promised more fish if they do by certain fisherman conglomerate. But i could be wrong.