Firing Sam Altman has thrown the AI race back open

Until this week, OpenAI seemed like an unstoppable force. In the space of little more than a year, the San Francisco-based organisation was transformed from a research unit on the fringes of the tech industry to the world’s number one dominant AI business. 

Every newspaper on the planet seems to have covered the rapid rise of ChatGPT, its flagship AI product. Everyone from software engineers to the local cabbie seems to be using it, with the site attracting in the region of 1.5 billion visits per month. 

Such was the might of OpenAI that Microsoft quickly wanted in, committing an eye-watering $10 billion (£8 billion) in funding for a stake in the business. And such was the international fame that its star CEO, Sam Altman, had attracted, that Rishi Sunak was desperate to be pictured brushing shoulders with him at Bletchley Park during the PM’s AI safety summit at the start of the month.