OpenAI has announced that Sam Altman will be returning as CEO and new board members will be appointed, following the threat of mass resignations from nearly all of its employees. The company revealed in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that an agreement in principle has been reached for Altman to resume his position as CEO, with Bret Taylor as Chair of the initial board, joined by Larry Summers and Adam D’Angelo. The details of the agreement are still being worked out.
Sam Altman confirmed the news and expressed his excitement about returning to OpenAI. He stated, “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. I’m looking forward to returning to OpenAI and building on our strong partnership with Microsoft.”
Following Altman’s decision, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who had recently welcomed Altman into the company, stated that they have discussed the matter and agreed that this is a crucial step towards establishing a more stable and effective governance structure at OpenAI.
Altman was dismissed by OpenAI’s board on Friday due to disagreements regarding the pace of AI development and monetization. However, negotiations for his return were initiated, but hit an impasse on Sunday. The disagreement partly stemmed from pressure from Altman and others for existing board members to resign. Instead, the board appointed former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear as the new leader, while Microsoft announced its plan to hire Altman to lead a new in-house AI team.
Altman gained recognition with the launch of ChatGPT last year, which sparked a race in AI research and development, along with significant investments in the sector.
