Sam Altman is reinstated as CEO of OpenAI
Sam Altman was reinstated as CEO of OpenAI late Tuesday, successfully reversing his resignation last week by the company’s board of directors after a campaign by his allies, employees and investors, the company said.
The board would be remade without several members who had opposed Mr. Altman.
“We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new board consisting of Bret Taylor (Chairman), Larry Summers and Adam D’Angelo,” OpenAI said in a press release. post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We’re working together to figure out the details. Thank you very much for your patience on this.”
Mr. Altman’s return and possible board overhaul capped a hectic five days that rocked OpenAI, the maker of the ChatGPT chatbot and one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies.
“I love openai, and everything I have done over the last 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 support from satya, I look forward to returning to openai and building on our strong partnership with msft.”
OpenAI’s board surprised Mr. Altman and the company’s employees Friday afternoon when it told him he was being kicked out. Greg Brockman, the company’s president who founded the company with Mr. Altman and others, resigned in protest.
The ouster set off efforts by the 38-year-old Altman, his allies in the tech industry and OpenAI employees to force the company’s board to bring him back. On Sunday evening, after a weekend of negotiations, the board said it would stand by its decision.
But just hours later, in a staggering development, Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor, said that Mr. Altman, Mr. Brockman and others would join the company to start a new cutting-edge artificial intelligence laboratory.
Nearly all of OpenAI’s 700-plus employees signed a letter telling the board they would walk away and follow Mr. Altman to Microsoft if he was not reinstated, putting the startup’s future in jeopardy.
Four board members: Ilya Sutskever, founder of OpenAI; Adam D’Angelo, the CEO of Quora; Helen Toner, director of strategy at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology; and Tasha McCauley, an entrepreneur and computer scientist, had initially decided to push Mr. Altman out.
But as the uprising among employees grew, Mr. Sutskever repented in a post on X: “I deeply regret my participation in the actions of the board.” He also signed the letter.
This is a development story. Check back for updates.