Altman was ousted on November 17 due to the board's claim that he was not consistently candid in his communications. However, he was reinstated after the company's chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, and other staff threatened to quit. Altman's return was also supported by Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella. OpenAI's immediate priorities will be filling out its board, improving its products, and advancing its research.
Key takeaways:
- Sam Altman has returned as CEO of OpenAI, with changes to the company's board including a new non-voting seat for Microsoft, the startup's primary investor.
- Altman was ousted on November 17 due to a loss of trust from the board, but was reinstated after almost the entire staff threatened to quit. The board that ejected him included the company’s chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, who later recanted.
- The new all-male board will be chaired by former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, along with former Treasury secretary Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo, CEO of Quora. Previous board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley have resigned.
- Microsoft's non-voting seat on OpenAI's board comes after the company's CEO Satya Nadella expressed disapproval for how Altman was removed. Microsoft first invested in OpenAI in 2019, providing $1 billion, and expanded its commitment to $13 billion after the launch of ChatGPT.