US and UK investigating Microsoft-OpenAI investment after Sam Altman’s drama

Microsoft’s partnership with AI company OpenAI is now under the radar of the US and UK after a dramatized November featuring OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman.

On November 17, the OpenAI board fired CEO Sam Altman pointing out that “the board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI”.

By the end of the month, OpenAI officially announced Altman’s return at the ChatGPT maker along with Bret Taylor as chairman.

At the same time, the AI firm dismissed the entire OpenAI board and came up with new board members including Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo.

In the entirety of this scenario, Microsoft has appeared as a fixer. Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella wrote on X (Twitter) “We’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Gre Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team”.

10 days after this online announcement, Nadella vanished from the conversation and OpenAI set Sam Altman’s return to the company as CEO.

Aside from the company’s board, OpenAI also made new changes and added Microsoft as a non-voting observer. Meanwhile, there are no names announced for this individual or representative who will participate in the voting as an observer.

Investigation:

OpenAI started its journey as a “Non-Profit” organization in 2015. In 2019, the company set up a “for-profit” subsidiary. After that, reports surged that Microsoft owned 49% of the new subsidiary.

However, a company spokesperson argued that Microsoft is only entitled to a share of profits and does not own any portion of the AI company.

A report from Bloomberg reveals that Microsoft has poured over $10 billion in the past three to four years.

There have recently been several developments in the governance of OpenAI, some of which involved Microsoft” said the UK Competition and Markets Authority on Friday.

The CMA is reviewing whether to call for a probe into Microsoft’s investment hurting UK’s competition.

Similarly, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into whether the investment could have violated antitrust laws.

A decision on the probe is still pending but other regulatory could follow the result of such security on OpenAI and other AI companies.

(source – Reuters)