Yes, the model weights were developed by OpenAI. They are licensed exclusively and irrevocably to Microsoft, and operated by Microsoft, not OpenAI. If you are building with these APIs and concerned that consuming them from OpenAI (which also runs them on Azure, but managed by OpenAI staff) because of the drama there, you can de-risk by consuming from Azure directly.

> They are licensed exclusively and irrevocably to Microsoft, and operated by Microsoft, not OpenAI.

No wonder why CEO got fired.

Let me guess: Ilya and his team had developed GPT5, decided it very-nearly had consciousness, and then Sam immediately turned around and asked Microsoft what they're willing to pay for a copy to use and abuse.

If folks care enough to move to Azure, I think they might as well derisk entirely from OpenAI models, despite its quality?

Microsoft doesn't "use" the APIs, they host them on their own servers and have a license to do so and re-license to Azure users. If something goes wrong with OpenAI (given that it sounds like many key employees are leaving), Azure will stay up and you can keep using the APIs from MS.

That may provide short term stability, but medium term (which in this field is a few months) how will Azure's offering move forward if OpenAI is in such crisis? I guess it really comes down to OpenAI's ability to continue without Altman and Co. I don't believe that Microsoft's license allows them to independently develop the models? Wouldn't this become a stale fork pretty quickly while the rest of the industry moves on (llama2 etc ..)?

I agree that medium term is up in the air and highly dependent on what happens next. If many OAI employees defect to Sam's new company, maybe that becomes the thing everyone migrates to...

Or ... cut the middleman: Sam Altman and Greg Brockman joining MS to start a new AI unit - https://twitter.com/satyanadella/status/1726516824597258569

Or, to say it another way, they are cooperating with OpenAI - OpenAI uses Microsoft's cloud services, and Microsoft incorporates OpenAI's products in its own offerings. But the worries people have are not about OpenAI's products suddenly vanishing, it's about the turmoil at OpenAI affecting the future of those products.

Actually the exodus of talent from OpenAI may turn out to be beneficial for the development of AI by increasing competition - however it will certainly go against the stated goal of the board for firing Altman, which was basically keeping the development under control.

The current models would presumably be accessible for customers regardless of OpenAI’s state. If OpenAI were to hypothetically somehow vanish into thin air, products and features built on their products could still be supported by Azure’s offering.

Sure, but what's the point on building a product on top of a stable API that exposes a technology that won't evolve because it's actual creators have imploded? It remains to be seen whether OpenAI will implode, but at this point it seems the dream team is t getting back together.