Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in San Francisco, California, U.S. November 16, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Credit: REUTERS/CARLOS BARRIA
Last Friday, Sam Altman was unceremoniously fired and what followed was a series of dramatic scenes with several senior engineers threatening to quit if their former CEO was not reinstated.
Late Sunday night, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, which has made significant investment on OpenAI, offered a lead position for Altman to run the company's own Artificial Intelligence team.
Now, OpenAI on platform X (formerly Twitter) has announced that Sam Altman is back as CEO to the tech startup. And, along with him, new members Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo are joining OpenAI board and will be headed by chairman Bret Taylor.
Sam Altman responded the message with a heart and salute emoji, confirming his return to OpenAI.
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. when i decided to join msft on sun evening, it was clear that was the best path for me and the team. with the new board and w satya’s support, i’m looking forward to returning to openai, and building on our strong partnership with msft.Sam Altman (on X platform)
"We are encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board. We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance. Sam, Greg, and I have talked and agreed they have a key role to play along with the OAI leadership team in ensuring OAI continues to thrive and build on its mission. We look forward to building on our strong partnership and delivering the value of this next generation of AI to our customers and partners," said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft.
Other than his lack of candor and its need to defend OpenAI's mission developing AI to benefit humanity, the board on Friday (November 17) had given few details explaining Altman's firing,
Altman's dismissal also brought uncertainty for OpenAI and Microsoft alike, which had moved quickly to control damage over the weekend by vowing to hire him and Greg Brockman, president of the startup.
As noted earlier, almost all of OpenAI's 700 plus-staff on Monday (November 20) had threatened to leave unless the board stepped down and reinstated Altman.
Following this show of solidarity, Altman wrote on X: "we have more unity and commitment and focus than ever before."
Now, Altman's return caps a tumultuous weekend that saw him agree to head a new research team at Microsoft, which has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and given it the computing power necessary for its technology.
In a post on X, former OpenAI interim CEO Emmett Shear celebrated the late-night outcome Tuesday, said "~72 very intense hours of work. This was the pathway that maximized safety alongside doing right by all stakeholders involved."
Brockman, who had quit after Altman was ousted, said in a post on X that he was "getting back to coding tonight."
With inputs from Reuters.