Databricks Ceo Ghodsi Considered For Openai Board Position
Last month, OpenAI’s Adam D’Angelo approached Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi for a possible board seat, despite Databricks’ opposing stance on AI development. The move hints at potential board disruptions and challenges for OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Altman, rehired in November after a brief layoff, navigates a complex dynamic between OpenAI’s for-profit goals and its nonprofit mandate.
D’Angelo’s initiative coincides with the nonprofit’s goal of minimizing AI-related social harms. OpenAI, valued at $86 billion and with monthly revenues of more than $130 million, grapples with the dichotomy of its nonprofit mission and the expansion of its for-profit arm, including potential funding increases and AI advances. The board, which includes D’Angelo, Summers and Taylor, is also considering other candidates such as Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang and Nat Friedman, a former Microsoft executive.
Amid these developments, the company is considering structural changes to align its nonprofit and for-profit entities, possibly mimicking models such as the Lego Foundation. These changes are intended to balance profit generation with broader AI security and accessibility goals, a difficult task for a company at the forefront of AI innovation and commercial success.
