Sam Altman Returns To OpenAI 11/22/2023

After several days of drama, OpenAI said late Tuesday it had reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return as CEO to lead the company he built through advancements in AI. The new board will be chaired by former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor.

OpenAI posted on X that the company had reached an agreement in principle for Altman to return as CEO with a new initial board and will collaborate to work out the details.

"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," Altman wrote on X. "when i decided to join msft on sun evening it was clear that was the best path for me and the team."

Others on the board now include Larry Summers, the former U.S. treasury secretary, and Adam D’Angelo, the chief executive of Quora and one of the board members who voted to oust Altman, OpenAI said in the post.

"We are so back," Open AI President Greg Brockman shared in a post with photo of him and employees.

The agreement includes a plan for an independent investigation into the events that led up to the originally ouster of Altman. The non-profit board stunned the technology industry on Friday with the announcement that it had fired Altman for not being "consistently candid in his communications." The goal was to have OpenAI CTO and board member Mira Murati step in as interim CEO.

Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft and one of OpenAI's biggest investors, wrote on X: "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."

Late Sunday, Microsoft announced that Altman, along with Brockman, who quit after the firing, would join the tech giant as it creates a new AI division.

The goal was for the two to lead the new AI division at Microsoft, but with their return to OpenAI it now leaves the Redmond, Washington-based company with something to explain. Will it still create a new AI division and if so, who will run it?

Another unsolved challenge will be the hiring of an interim CEO -- Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear.

Despite the drama, when OpenAI employees threatened to quit, there were plenty of suitors. Companies had begun attempts to lure OpenAI engineers to work for their company. Salesforce Founder Marc Benioff wrote on X that he would "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. Send me your cv directly to ceo@salesforce.com. Einstein is the most successful enterprise AI Platform completing 1 Trillion predictive & generative transactions this week! Join our Trusted AI Enterprise Revolution."