In Greek myth, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and brought it to Earth. He paid for that by being bound for eternity to a rock face, where an eagle tormented him daily by pecking at his liver. Such was the price of humanity’s first great technology. In the 21st century the story of Sam Altman, the co-founder and boss of OpenAI, has a Promethean ring to it, too. He spearheaded the creation of ChatGPT, which was launched in late 2022, stunning the world: suddenly the revolutionary capabilities and risks of generative artificial intelligence were unleashed. A year later the capricious gods – that is to say, OpenAI’s non-profit board – sought to banish him. Unlike Prometheus, though, Altman emerged unscathed.
This story is the subject of two excellent new books. They explore the murky mix of missionary zeal, rivalry and mistrust at OpenAI in the run-up to the birth of ChatGPT. The tensions are even more apparent in the chaos leading up to the attempt to fire Altman during the abortive boardroom coup in November 2023.
The Economist
