Sense & Signal: Leading Through Sensemaking

In this micro episode of the Sense & Signal leadership and sensemaking podcast, Jodah and Dan explore the sudden firing of Sam Altman from Open AI, the organization that brought the world ChatGPT. While Dan cheers this move by Open AI, Jodah wants to dig deeper. They discuss two fundamental tensions that may have led to Sam Altman’s firing from Open AI. The first is the governance structure of Open AI. Is it sustainable for them to try to be a mission driven nonprofit and a for profit tech company at the same time? And how will they reconcile the tension between people who want to accelerate getting artificial intelligence products like ChatGPT to the public versus those like Ilya Sutskever and Mira Murati who are on the cautious and safety side of the debate. They also discuss whether Open AI’s board may be spooked by a sudden advancement in artificial intelligence, Open AI’s recent Dev Day event as an inflection point, and a possible deal with the Chinese to develop a new AI chip as possible causal factors for Sam Altman’s firing by the Open AI board.