近日,人工智能领域的巨头OpenAI迎来了一系列重大人事变动和可能的结构调整,引发业界广泛关注。多位公司高层相继宣布离职,同时公司进行了大规模的领导层重组,这些变化可能标志着OpenAI即将进入一个新的发展阶段。
根据OpenAI CEO Sam Altman的内部通知,长期担任首席技术官(CTO)的Mira Murati已决定离职。Mira在OpenAI工作了6.5年,对公司从一个鲜为人知的研究实验室发展为重要的AI公司做出了巨大贡献。在她的离职声明中,Mira回顾了在OpenAI的时光,特别提到了最近发布的语音到语音技术和OpenAI o1,认为这些标志着交互和智能的新时代已经开启。
除Mira外,另外两位元老高层领导首席研究官供职8年的McGrew Bob和研究副总裁Barret Zoph也决定离开公司。Sam Altman强调,这三人的离职决定是独立且友好的,但由于时间巧合,公司决定一次性公布这些变动。
更令人惊讶的是,据可靠消息源透露,OpenAI的总裁兼联合创始人Greg Brockman正在进行长期休假。另一位联合创始人兼关键领导者John Schulman已经加入了由前OpenAI研究人员创立的竞争对手Anthropic。此外,去年才加入OpenAI的产品负责人Peter Deng也已离职,他此前曾在Meta Platforms、Uber和Airtable领导产品开发。
公司的VP Research Post-Training负责人Barret Zoph同样宣布离开。他在离职声明中表示,这是一个基于个人职业发展考虑的决定,并对公司给予的机会表示感激。他特别提到了自己加入ChatGPT项目之初的经历,以及在Bob的领导下工作的愉快时光。
为应对这些变动,OpenAI宣布了一系列人事调整:
Jakub Pachocki，卡内基梅隆大学理论计算机科学博士学位，本科毕业于波兰华沙大学，并在哈佛大学进行了为期一年的博士后研究。2017年加入OpenAI，也是他第一份工作。他曾先后担任Dota组、推理组以及深度学习科学团队的研究负责人，研究总监。领导开发了GPT-4和OpenAI Five，此外他还参与了大规模强化学习（RL）和深度学习优化的基础研究。
Josh Achiam曾是OpenAI安全团队的研究科学家，加州大学伯克利分校Pieter Abbeel的博士生。
Kevin Weil 于今年 6 月加入 OpenAI ，曾任 Instagram 产品副总裁和 Twitter 产品高级副总裁。
Srinivas Narayanan于2023年加入，担任工程副总裁，领导OpenAI工程工作，包括ChatGPT、开发者平台以及相关基础设施支持工作。曾在 Facebook 担任工程副总裁。曾就读于威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校。
Matt Knight于2020年加入OpenAI，领导安全、IT以及安全隐私方面研究及工程工作。2018年曾作为联合创始人加入Agitator。
Sam Altman表示,这些领导层变动是公司快速发展过程中的自然现象,尽管这次变动相对突然。他计划在未来将更多时间投入到公司的技术和产品方面。
与此同时,据路透社独家报道,OpenAI正在酝酿一项重大的结构调整。报道称,公司计划将其核心业务重组为追求盈利的公益公司,这意味着非营利董事会将不再控制盈利部门。这一变动可能使公司对投资者更具吸引力,同时也可能影响公司未来管理AI风险的方式。
值得注意的是,此次重组后,Sam Altman可能首次获得OpenAI的股权。据悉,重组后公司估值可能达到1500亿美元,较2021年的140亿美元估值大幅增长。
OpenAI发言人回应称:"我们仍然专注于构建对所有人有益的AI,并正在与董事会合作,确保我们处于最佳位置以实现我们的使命。非营利组织仍是我们使命的核心,并将继续存在。"
这些变动发生在OpenAI经历了去年11月的董事会风波之后,当时Sam Altman曾短暂离职后又重返公司。如今,公司似乎正在经历一次更大规模的人事震荡和可能的结构调整,这无疑将对公司未来发展产生深远影响。
作为ChatGPT的缔造者,OpenAI在全球AI领域扮演着举足轻重的角色。此次的高层变动和潜在的结构调整,引发了业界对公司未来发展方向的广泛讨论。一方面,这些变化可能使OpenAI更像一家典型的科技创业公司,增强其商业竞争力;另一方面,也有人担心这可能影响公司在AI安全和伦理方面的坚持。
随着事态的进一步发展,我们将继续关注OpenAI的动向,以及这些变革对整个AI行业可能带来的影响。无论如何,OpenAI的这一系列变动都将成为AI行业发展史上的重要一页。
以下是SamAltman回应全文：
i just posted this note to openai:
Mira has been instrumental to OpenAI’s progress and growth the last 6.5 years; she has been a hugely significant factor in our development from an unknown research lab to an important company.
When Mira informed me this morning that she was leaving, I was saddened but of course support her decision. For the past year, she has been building out a strong bench of leaders that will continue our progress.
I also want to share that Bob and Barret have decided to depart OpenAI. Mira, Bob, and Barret made these decisions independently of each other and amicably, but the timing of Mira’s decision was such that it made sense to now do this all at once, so that we can work together for a smooth handover to the next generation of leadership.
I am extremely grateful to all of them for their contributions.
Being a leader at OpenAI is all-consuming. On one hand it’s a privilege to build AGI and be the fastest-growing company that gets to put our advanced research in the hands of hundreds of millions of people. On the other hand it’s relentless to lead a team through it—and they have gone above and beyond the call of duty for the company.
Mark is going to be our new SVP of Research and will now lead the research org in partnership with Jakub as Chief Scientist. This has been our long-term succession plan for Bob someday; although it’s happening sooner than we thought, I couldn’t be more excited that Mark is stepping into the role. Mark obviously has deep technical expertise, but he has also learned how to be a leader and manager in a very impressive way over the past few years.
Josh Achiam is going to take on a new role as Head of Mission Alignment, working across the company to ensure that we get all pieces (and culture) right to be in a place to succeed at the mission.
Kevin and Srinivas will continue to lead the Applied team.
Matt Knight will be our Chief Information Security Officer having already served in this capacity for a long time. This has been our plan for quite some time.
Mark, Jakub, Kevin, Srinivas, Matt, and Josh will report to me. I have over the past year or so spent most of my time on the non-technical parts of our organization; I am now looking forward to spending most of my time on the technical and product parts of the company.
Leadership changes are a natural part of companies, especially companies that grow so quickly and are so demanding. I obviously won’t pretend it’s natural for this one to be so abrupt, but we are not a normal company, and I think the reasons Mira explained to me (there is never a good time, anything not abrupt would have leaked, and she wanted to do this while OpenAI was in an upswing) make sense. We can both talk about this more tomorrow during all-hands.
Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication.
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