The OpenAI Board Drama
A Thanksgiving Gift For Which We Should All Be Grateful
Volume 1, Issue 13 - November 28, 2023
I alerted you last week in The Economics of Happiness that I’d be taking a break from writing for Thanksgiving and that the next Infophilia will be published Dec. 1st Friday or 2nd Saturday. When I started Infophilia in September I published on Fridays but in October and November I found it more convenient to publish on Saturdays. I’ve decided that Infophilia will continue to be published weekly every Saturday, with additions sometimes like the Tustin blimp hangar fire mid-week, Tuesday Nov. 7. These are special circumstances where an issue needs to be addressed earlier in the week, like now. However, Saturday will remain the standard day of publication.
Today, Nov. 28 is Global Giving Tuesday. I will be donating all of the proceeds from your paid subscriptions to Infophilia to a charity (see who in Notes). Thank you!
Thanks to readers who missed my writing over the holidays! I’d filed my Happiness essay on Nov. 17 by the time I heard the news about the changes in Sam Altman's role at OpenAI. The day before Thanksgiving saw his return to the company. I spent some of my holiday looking into the developments and reflecting on the larger landscape of technology innovation and management. I began to research the interpersonal and governance dynamics at play in the OpenAI board drama in order to provide you with a balanced analysis. Generative (creative) Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an issue that’s impacting global humanity and OpenAI is the company that launched this phase of the AI revolution. I want to encourage rich conversations about responsible AI.
It is a profound and necessary truth that the deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they were found because it was possible to find them. Robert Oppenheimer
The OpenAI board drama, a failed coup for AI doomsayers is a gift for which I am grateful. Don’t get me wrong though! I am grateful because the general public - especially the millions with little to no interest in AI are now more aware