Sam Altman has officially returned to the role of CEO of OpenAI after a week of turmoil and change. OpenAI officially has a new board of directors, replacing most of the board members who tried to oust Altman in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.
In a message distributed internally at OpenAI and later published On the OpenAI blog, Altman announced that Mira Moratti, who was briefly appointed interim CEO by the previous board, would return to her role as CTO, and confirmed that the initial new board will consist of Brett Taylor, former co-CEO of Salesforce; Quora CEO D’Angelo, who served on the previous board; and veteran economist and politician Larry Summers.
Microsoft will also have representation on the board of directors in the form of a non-voting observer. (Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI, with a 49% stake in the for-profit OpenAI entity controlled by a non-profit to which the board of directors belongs.) It wasn’t immediately clear who that controller was — just that they wouldn’t. To have an official voice in the work of the Board of Directors.
“I have never been more excited about the future,” Altman wrote. “I am so grateful for everyone’s hard work in an uncertain and unprecedented situation, and I believe our resilience and spirit set us apart in this industry.”
In the letter, Altman outlines OpenAI’s priorities moving forward, mainly developing an OpenAI research plan and “continuing to invest” in AI safety efforts. Initial board members will also work to build a board that includes “diverse viewpoints,” Altman promised, make unspecified “improvements” to OpenAI’s governance structure and oversee an independent review of recent events.
“It is important that people experience the benefits and promises of AI, and have the opportunity to shape it,” Altman said. “We still believe great products are the best way to do this. I will work with [OpenAI leadership] To ensure clarity in our unwavering commitment to users, customers, partners and governments around the world.
The latest tumultuous saga at OpenAI began when the old board — Altman, OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI president Greg Brockman, tech entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, D’Angelo and Helen Toner, director of Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technologies — abruptly fired Altman. Without notifying almost anyone, including the bulk of OpenAI’s 770-person workforce. The move angered Microsoft and other investors in OpenAI, putting the company’s rumored stock sale in jeopardy and leading the vast majority of OpenAI employees, including Sutskever, to pledge to quit unless Altman is quickly brought back.
There were reportedly disagreements between the previous board and Altman over the direction of OpenAI. This council publicly accused Altman of “no.” [being] “Consistently frank” with board members. Altman was private It was said that it was Toner was criticized for a paper she co-authored that cast OpenAI’s approach to safety in a critical light frustrated Sutskever by accelerating the launch of AI-powered features at OpenAI’s premier developer conference, DevDay.
in mail On[done] Everything he has to do…to avoid making conflicting decisions. (Quora’s Poe chatbot aggregation service is viewed by some as competing with OpenAI’s products.)
“We anticipate that if OpenAI achieves the success we hope for, it will touch many parts of the economy and have complex relationships with many other entities in the world, creating various potential conflicts of interest,” Altman continued in the post. “The way we plan to handle this is full disclosure and leaving the decisions about how to manage situations like this to the board.”