SAN FRANCISCO - Mr Sam Altman has been reinstated as OpenAI’s chief executive officer, days after his ouster by the company’s board on Nov 17, after a campaign waged by his allies, employees and investors.
In addition to Mr Altman’s return, OpenAI agreed to partly reconstitute the board of directors that had dismissed him.
Mr Bret Taylor, formerly co-CEO of Salesforce, and former US treasury secretary Larry Summers will join Quora CEO and current director Adam D’Angelo. Mr Taylor will act as board chairman, the company said.
OpenAI called the new board its “initial” board, indicating it could expand.
“I love OpenAI, and everything I’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together,” Mr Altman said in a post on X. “With the new board and with Satya’s support, I’m looking forward to returning to OpenAI, and building on our strong partnership with msft,” he added, referring to Microsoft and its CEO Satya Nadella.
The return of Mr Altman and the likely remaking of the board capped a frenetic five days that upended OpenAI, the maker of the ChatGPT chatbot and one of the world’s highest-profile artificial intelligence (AI) companies.
OpenAI’s board surprised Mr Altman and the company’s employees on Nov 17 when it told him he was being pushed out.
The ouster kicked off efforts by Mr Altman, 38, his allies in the tech industry and OpenAI’s employees to force the company’s board to bring him back. On the evening of Nov 19, after a weekend of negotiations, the board said it was going to stick with its decision.
But in a head-spinning development just hours later, Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor, said that Mr Altman, Mr Greg Brockman, the company’s president who co-founded the company with Mr Altman, and others would be joining the company to start a new advanced AI lab.
Nearly all of OpenAI’s more than 700 employees signed a letter telling the board they would walk out and follow Mr Altman to Microsoft if he wasn’t reinstated, throwing the future of the start-up into jeopardy.
Four board members – Dr Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI founder; Mr D’Angelo; Ms Helen Toner, a director of strategy at Georgetown’s Centre for Security and Emerging Technology; and Ms Tasha McCauley, an entrepreneur and computer scientist – had initially decided to push Mr Altman out.
But as the employee revolt grew, Dr Sutskever repented in a message on X: “I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions.” He also signed the letter.
Determining the composition of the board slowed down the decision to let Mr Altman return, according to sources. Some directors pressed for certain concessions from Mr Altman, including an independent investigation into his leadership of OpenAI.
In the end, Ms Toner and Ms McCauley agreed to step down from the board because it was clear that it needed a fresh start, a source said. If all of them stepped down, they worried that it would suggest the board erred even though they collectively felt they did the right thing, this person said.
The deal to restore Mr Altman ushers in a potentially new era for the non-profit which long juggled concerns among staff about AI’s dangers and its potential for commercialisation. The reshuffle on Nov 21 appeared to favour Mr Altman and its chief financial backer Microsoft, which is rolling out OpenAI’s technology to business customers globally.
In a statement on X, Mr Nadella welcomed the changes to OpenAI’s board. “We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed and effective governance.”
Following the show of solidarity, Mr Altman wrote on X: “We have more unity and commitment and focus than ever before.”
Mr Brockman, who had quit in protest after Mr Altman was ousted, said in a post on X that he was “getting back to coding tonight”.
OpenAI employees celebrated a return to normalcy on Nov 21, after five days of uncertainty. Workers had been given the week off for Thanksgiving, but many remained in the office or glued to their screens to follow the drama. “Thank God,” one employee said. “We’re so back,” said another. NYTIMES, REUTERS
