Of all the stories circulating about the power struggles that have turned OpenAI upside downthe San Francisco company he created ChatGptthere is one reported by Wall Street Journal which has nothing to do with the artificial intelligence of a machine. But with the real tears of a woman.
The protagonist of the story is Ilya Sutskeverthe scientific director of OpenAI who initially eliminated Sam Altman and who then, instead, he “regretted”.
It seems that Sutskever changed his mind following a confrontation with Anna Brockmanwife of one of Altman’s loyalists: Greg Brockman. The latter resigned as president of OpenAI on November 17, immediately after Altman’s surprise dismissal.
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According to what the WSJ writes, Anna Brockman tearfully asked Sutskever, who was part of the OpenAI board, to backtrack.
The woman’s words and tears would have had a bearing on the rethinking of the computer scientist who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 together with Altman and Brockman.
In fact, between Sutskever and the Brockman family there is a deep bond that borders on private life. Sutskever officiated the civil wedding between Anna and Greg.
The ceremony took place in 2019 in San Francisco, in the OpenAI offices. A robotic hand handed over the rings.
Behind the couple, as shown by the images taken at the time and shared by Brockman on social media, there were colorful flowers that formed the OpenAI logoa sort of stylized hexagon.
After the confrontation with Anna Brockman, Ilya Sutskever signed – together with more than 700 OpenAI employees – the letter threatening mass resignation if Sam Altman was not reinstated as CEO. Seeing how he had behaved with Altman, the signature of the Russian-born computer scientist it certainly weighed more than the others.
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The story told by the WSJ may seem nonsense, almost a gossip. But in its small way it is yet another demonstration of profound human involvement in a story that appears extremely technological.
An AI, in Sutskever’s place, would not have been moved by pity.