The Sam Altman Saga Demonstrates People Power

You can be forgiven for thinking that the Great Sam Altman Saga of November 2023 is nothing more than a ChatGPT hallucination. But incredible as it may seem, in less than one week, we’ve seen Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, fired by the OpenAI board and then seemingly hired by Microsoft before returning to OpenAI as CEO amid a mass employee revolt over his firing and OpenAI’s failure to appoint a CEO successor who inspired confidence. Oh, and the board that let him go in the first place has been reorganized. And as of this writing, we still don’t know why the board fired Altman hastily on November 17—got all that? Well, despite the convoluted nature of the drama, two simple truths have emerged: the power of people and the fragility of brands.

People Power

The various twists and turns at OpenAI have reminded us that people, not AI, are the heart of the OpenAI brand. After being fired on November 17, Sam Altman was being courted like a coach with 10 Super Bowls under their belt by age 38. (Indeed, watching this saga unfold was like monitoring ESPN the day before an NFL trade deadline.) OpenAI employees openly revolted in a remarkable display of unity and power as the likes of Microsoft, Salesforce, and NVIDIA tried to lure them away. For all the talk about ChatGPT replacing people, OpenAI's people are the stars of this story.

The Fragility of Brands

We’re also reminded of how fragile brands are. Ironically, ChatGPT was unleashed on the public a year ago this month, and within days, the tool became synonymous with generative AI. But all it took was one decision by the OpenAI board on a Friday afternoon for that brand to unravel rapidly. As a result, within days, we saw headlines such as “OpenAI Is a Mess. What Happens to ChatGPT Now?” (Wall Street Journal) and “Sam Altman’s AI ‘Mission Continues’ at Microsoft, future of OpenAI and ChatGPT Uncertain” (ZDNet). It’s ironic: even amid the serious criticisms of ChatGPT’s factual mistakes, questions about copyright risks, and concerns about bias, the future of ChatGPT was not called into question until now.

Brands are built on an emotional connection between people and an intangible entity, a business. And a business needs its people to build a brand although the performance of technology is part of successful brand building insofar as performance builds an emotional response (such as confidence). We’re being reminded of that intangible interplay now. On November 21, ChatGPT experienced an interruption, and Business Insider asked, “Why Is ChatGPT down right now?” No one would be writing that article if OpenAI were humming along without any conflict involving its people. As Business Insider noted, outages are not atypical for the AI chatbot and happen regularly when the company implements new features. But this is not one of those times.

The story is not over. Sam Altman and the board need to demonstrate to OpenAI employees (and their investors) that stability has returned along with Altman. This will take time. Altman’s rehiring is a major step in the right direction. But you can be sure other businesses will continue to court OpenAI employees. Meanwhile, now would be an excellent time for Google to step up its PR campaign around ChatGPT rival Bard – not just the product but the people behind it. Especially the people behind it.