The last 48 hours have made clear that the majority of talent at OpenAI would jump ship for Sam and Greg’s new venture, and they’d have the full support of Microsoft and OpenAI’s other investors. OpenAI would be left with a husk of a company and their chief customer and investor extraditing themselves. This is very much an existential moment.
Ilya, if he is being rational, needs to choose between an OpenAI that he has some continuing involvement in, lead by Sam’s gang, or bankruptcy.
He is fooling himself if he thinks there is a third path here.