OpenAI has experienced another significant change in its board as former Texas representative Will Hurd recently announced his departure. Hurd, who revealed his candidacy for the 2024 presidential race at the end of June, is the third director to step down from the board this year. This follows the resignation of Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, in March, and Shivon Zilis, an executive at Neuralink Corp. and an associate of Elon Musk.
Hurd, a three-time Republican congressman, served on the OpenAI board as a public policy expert since May 2021. His unique background in both politics and technical knowledge was highly valued by the company. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman commended Hurd's expertise in artificial intelligence and public policy, stating that it was crucial for the successful future of AI.
In a statement regarding his departure, Hurd explained that he decided to resign to fully focus on his political campaign. Expressing gratitude for the privilege of being part of OpenAI's important work, Hurd highlighted the invaluable lessons he learned about fostering innovation and developing responsible AI during his tenure.
The remaining members of OpenAI's board are now evenly divided between employees and non-employees. CEO Sam Altman, President Greg Brockman, and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever represent the company, while the three non-employee members are Adam D'Angelo, CEO of Quora Inc., Tasha McCauley, a tech entrepreneur, and Helen Toner, the director of strategy at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology.
Meanwhile, OpenAI's chatbot, ChatGPT, is currently under scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC is investigating whether the conversational AI bot poses any harm to consumers. This comes after a tech ethics group filed a complaint with the FTC, urging them to halt further commercial deployment of GPT-4, the language model behind ChatGPT.
These recent developments mark a period of change and challenges for OpenAI. With the departure of key board members and the FTC investigation, the company faces the task of navigating these obstacles while continuing to advance their groundbreaking AI technology.