OpenAI’s Talent Outflow Paves the Way for Rival Comedy Showdown
“The OpenAI Talent Exodus Gives Rivals an Opening”
“Cards on the table: OpenAI has recently experienced an unusual amount of churn. Four high-profile figures from the research group, Dario Amodei and Samy Bengio, formerly of Google; Daniela Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT; and Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for AI, have all either left the organization outright or deprioritized their work with the group.”
One might wonder if the stir is because OpenAI seems to be losing its ‘open’ label quite ironically or if competitors are just offering better coffee and compensation packages.
The departure of seasoned professionals, like Dario Amodei and Samy Bengio who previously graced the spaces of Google, Daniela Rus, a whiz in her own right from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, and Oren Etzioni, the big cheese at the Allen Institute for AI, does not exactly scream stability.
It can be easier to turn a blind eye, chalk up these exits to coincidence, or unrelatable circumstances. However, the frequency of these departures is superior to your grandma’s secret turkey stuffing recipe.
Amodei and Bengio are undoubtedly elite ‘nerd-warriors’. To have them jumping ships and taking up a role at competitor, Anthropic, underlines their priorities which was described as a “research program around building safe and beneficial AI”.
With their exit, it seems ‘safe AI’, which was once near and dear to their hearts, is now somewhere on the other side of OpenAI, maybe in the vicinity of the photo copiers or the fire exits.
OpenAI, once intended to be a lofty lighthouse, championing the cause of AI research sharing and safety, falls victim to the same corporate influence it attempted to avoid. The ‘open’ in OpenAI is apparently not applicable to information, at least when it comes to matters of proprietary AI developed in-house.
This systematic brain drain brings a new set of issues for OpenAI. Not only is it left without some of its brightest brains, but it also raises questions around the promise to make AI ‘safe and beneficial for all.’ To say it is suffering from an identity crisis could well be an understatement.
So, as the revolving door of OpenAI continues to turn, the tech world watches, some with smirks, others with raised eyebrows. No doubt, the ongoing saga is serving up a steamy plate of irony, just not the fun kind. The only certainty in these uncertain times is change, and for OpenAI, change seems to be the only consistent thing lately.