OpenAI can win back the trust it lost by being more transparent

livemint.com:

The board scandal that employees of OpenAI now call “The Blip" now threatens to live up to its nickname. The company recently announced the findings of an independent legal review of CEO Sam Altman’s firing last November and framed the result as exonerating its actions, largely. OpenAI’s new board “expressed its full confidence" in Altman’s leadership based on the law firm’s analysis.

Much of the US tech industry has moved on, but the scandal was no blip and the probe’s findings are worth examining. OpenAI said the lawyers confirmed its board hadn’t fired Altman because of concerns about product safety or business finances. Instead, there had been a “breakdown in trust" between itself and Altman, and that his conduct “did not mandate removal." This is still a damning reflection of the broader cloak of secrecy that OpenAI has wrapped itself in as it releases powerful AI models.

Trust is becoming ever more critical as a handful of opaque technology firms including Google and Microsoft control some of the most transformative innovations seen in years. OpenAI’s own communications have undermined its trustworthiness. In response to a lawsuit from Elon Musk, it released early emails from executives that included an admission by its chief scientist that OpenAI was sharing details about its technology “for recruitment purposes" instead of a desire to serve humanity.

Perhaps OpenAI knows its public framing is largely seen as a mirage. But Altman could change that, repairing trust with not just his board, but with the public, and put the ‘open’ back in OpenAI. First, make the company as transparent as its name suggests, particularly around the data that it uses to train its models.