Sam Altman has officially become OpenAI’s CEO again. The company had announced that it had reached an agreement in principle for Altman to return, and now the deal has been completed. In the statement made by ChatGPT developer OpenAI the other day, it was officially announced that Microsoft will join the company’s board of directors.
Happy ending for OpenAI
Following Sam Altman’s checkered turn as CEO of OpenAI, the company announced on the eve of ChatGPT’s one-year anniversary that it would now include Microsoft on its board as a non-voting observer. The question of why the company’s largest investor was not on the board in the first place is still unclear, but this move could be a new beginning for Microsoft.
While German will be joined by co-founder Greg Brockman, who will continue to serve as President, Mira Murati, who served as interim CEO for a very short time during the drama, will also return to her role as CTO.
The announcement also appointed a new board of directors consisting of former Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor (chairman), former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo, who is also Quora’s co-founder and CEO. It was rumored behind the scenes that Altman’s departure was influenced by D’Angelo’s apparent conflict of interest, as OpenAI was developing a potential rival to Quora’s Poe service. Altman added that D’Angelo “has always been very clear about potential conflict and has done everything he needs to do, including offering to leave the board if necessary,” noting that Quora is one of his biggest customers.
However, OpenAI co-founder and principal researcher Ilya Sutskever was a former board member who allegedly led Altman’s dismissal. Sutskever later publicly admitted that he “deeply regrets my participation in the board’s actions” and has since voiced his support for Altman to return as CEO. “Although Ilya will no longer serve on the board, we hope to continue our working relationship and are discussing how he can continue his work at OpenAI,” Altman said.
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