OpenAI’s board of directors recently approached Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, regarding the possibility of replacing Sam Altman as Chief and exploring a potential merger between the two AI startups. However, Amodei reportedly declined both propositions.
The news, initially reported by The Information on Monday, comes amid efforts to find a successor for Altman, who was ousted by OpenAI’s board. The organisation has not provided official comments on the situation, and board member Adam D’Angelo has yet to respond to inquiries.
In response to Altman’s departure, the board extended an offer to former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear to serve as interim chief, a role that he accepted. Meanwhile, Altman agreed to join Microsoft, one of OpenAI’s key backers, along with other essential personnel. However, the move resulted in significant unrest within OpenAI, with nearly all of its 700-plus employees, including a board executive, threatening to resign by Monday.
Notably, Anthropic’s co-founders, who were previously executives at OpenAI until 2020, had parted ways with the organisation due to disagreements over the safe development and governance of AI. Anthropic has secured investments from tech giants Google and Amazon, and its Claude AI models have been competing for prominence with OpenAI’s renowned GPT series.
