Sam Altman Reinstated as OpenAI CEO

It's been a... busy four days

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Sam Altman Reinstated as OpenAI CEO
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Published: November 22, 2023

Kieran Devlin

Sam Altman has returned to OpenAI as CEO four days after being ousted by its board.

OpenAI released a statement on Tuesday night Pacific Time saying that an “agreement in principle” for Altman’s reinstatement had been reached. Former President Greg Brockman, who was removed from OpenAI’s board and stepped down from his operational role following the coup against Altman, will also return.

Altman said on X:

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.”

Altman’s reinstatement also includes the introduction of a new OpenAI board comprising former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and Quora Co-founder and CEO Adam D’Angelo. D’Angelo is a representative of the previous board, nominally to represent their interests.

It’s been reported by several outlets that the intention behind this relatively small board is to vet and hire an expanded board of up to nine representatives that will overhaul OpenAI’s governance strategy.

Microsoft, which has invested around $13 billion in OpenAI since 2019 and has vocally backed Altman and Brockman over the course of this saga (not to mention offered them jobs leading an advanced AI research team internally if an OpenAI return proved unfeasible), also wants a seat on the board.

“We are encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on X. “We believe this is the 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.”

During a press tour with CNBC and Bloomberg TV, Nadella also said that Microsoft didn’t want any more “surprises” earlier this week.

OpenAI’s second-largest investor, Thrive Capital, described Altman’s return as “the best outcome for the company, its employees, those who build on their technologies, and the world at large”.

Both parties allegedly agreed to an investigation into the melodrama, which an independent legal firm will presumably conduct.

The reasons why Altman was ousted haven’t been concretely revealed yet in detail, beyond allusions to improper communications and one statement saying he mixed messages in handing the same project to two different researchers. However, The Information reported on Tuesday night that Altman had a conflict with (now former) board member Helen Toner and had been engaging with other board members over potentially removing her.

A Quick-ish Recap of Everything That’s Happened So Far

Altman was ousted as OpenAI CEO last Friday by its bo, followed by Brockman standing down. Following an indignant response from OpenAI investors and employees, Altman and the board discussed a potential return over the weekend before discussions broke down. Microsoft then released a statement saying it had hired Altman and Brockman to manage an advanced AI research team overnight on Sunday.

Over the weekend, OpenAI employees posted heart emojis over social media to suggest they would leave OpenAI to follow Altman wherever he went — which looked set to be Microsoft on Monday morning.

In a letter to OpenAI’s board that was signed by 505 of OpenAI’s 770 employees by the Sunday afternoon it was delivered— and by Tuesday night, it was signed by well over 700 — it was expressed that most OpenAI workers would leave if the board wouldn’t reinstate Altman and Brockman and then step down themselves. Those workers who signed the letter accused OpenAI’s board of compromising their mission and company.

It also stated that Microsoft had promised them jobs if they were to leave: “Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join.”

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff posted a wry comment on X about whether the OpenAI employees might prefer to join his business’s AI teams instead: “Salesforce will match any OpenAI researcher who has tendered their resignation full cash & equity OTE to immediately join our Salesforce Einstein Trusted AI research team under Silvio Savarese.”

Chief Scientist, Cofounder and Board Director Ilya Sutskever was initially the driving force behind ousting Altman but not only reversed his view on the situation but had added his name to the list of letter resignations, galvanised after discussing the predicament with Brockman’s wife — in yet another detail that seems destined to feature in the inevitable Netflix miniseries about this saga, Sutskever officiated Brockman and his wife’s wedding at OpenAI’s Silicon Valley HQ.

Sutskever wrote on X: “I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we’ve built together, and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.” This left the remaining three board members fallible, despite their initial refusal to concede and step down on Sunday night.

Interim CEO Emmett Shear oversaw the negotiations for Altman to return as permanent CEO and reportedly threatened to resign unless the board produced evidence of wrongdoing validating Altman’s firing. Shear had initially replaced Mira Murati as interim CEO, who had also been trying to engineer a return for Altman as CEO — which was the reason for her own removal and Shear’s appointment. So, in effect, OpenAI had three different CEOs over three days, all of whom had lobbied for Altman’s return.

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