Opinion
The People OpenAI Should Consider for Its New Board
The board should include a data ethicist, a philosopher of mind, a neuroscientist, a computer scientist with interdisciplinary expertise and a political strategist.
Sam Altman’s sudden ouster and revolving-door return as CEO of OpenAI was the result of a boardroom power struggle between Altman and board members like Helen Toner who raised concerns about the unbridled power of artificial intelligence. The debacle shows that when a board is not aligned with the objectives of management and investors, chaos ensues.
What comes next for OpenAI will require extreme statesmanship from Altman and surgical implementation of just the right checks to balance the safety risks of AI against the company’s commercial interests. The stakes will only rise as the company continues to pursue its quest for artificial general intelligence, the kind of AI that can learn and think like humans.