Sam Altman returns to the OpenAI Board of Directors

OpenAI said Friday that Sam Altman, its high-profile CEO, would rejoin its board of directors, more than three months after he was briefly ousted from the company.

The move comes ahead of a long-awaited report from a law firm hired by OpenAI’s board of directors to investigate Mr. Altman and his sudden resignation from the company in November.

In reinstating Mr. Altman to the board, the nonprofit’s independent board members expressed their confidence in him and indicated that the upcoming report could address concerns about his leadership style.

Mr. Altman returned as CEO just five days after being ousted and agreed to an investigation into his conduct and the board’s actions. Two members who voted for his impeachment agreed to resign; their replacements, from outside the company, oversaw the investigation by law firm WilmerHale.

OpenAI also moved to address concerns about a lack of board diversity by adding three women as directors: Sue Desmond-Hellmann, the former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, Sony’s former general counsel; and Fidji Simo, the CEO of Instacart.

(The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in December for copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems.)

This is a development story. Check back for updates.