Sam Altman is back on the conference circuit and touting AI's benefits to humanity, days after regaining the lead at the world's best-known artificial intelligence startup.
OpenAI co-founder makes spectacular return mere days after ousting, with the board that fired him mostly swept away
22.11.2023 - 13:42 / pcgamer.com / Sam Altman / Greg Brockman / Ilya Sutskever
OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman is to return as CEO of the company, mere days after his chaotic firing by a board that seems to have lost all support. A deal has been reached «in principle» for his return that will see new board members appointed, and the agreement comes shortly after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had essentially checkmated OpenAI by offering Altman a job and guaranteeing the role and salary of any OpenAI staff that wished to join him.
This is tech politics at the highest level where, as Bob Dylan would put it, money doesn't talk: it swears. Microsoft has a $13 billion investment in OpenAI and is integrating the company's machine learning tools into its own crown jewels of office and productivity software. Ever since the announcement of Altman's firing on Friday last week, Satya Nadella has been publicly vocal about Altman remaining involved, and obviously has the power to make things happen. OpenAI's climbdown is a total capitulation and raises even more questions about why Altman was so unceremoniously ousted in the first place.
«We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo,» reads OpenAI's statement. «We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.»
At which point, presumably, Nadella put the safety back on the revolver. As well as the pressure from Microsoft, OpenAI faced open revolt from its own staff, with a public letter signed by over 95% of its employees calling for Altman to be reinstated.
The following is lightly edited for clarity. «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,» wrote Altman in response to the news. «When I decided to join Microsoft on Sunday evening, it was clear that was the best path for me and the team. With the new board and with Satya [Nadella]’s support, I’m looking forward to returning to OpenAI, and building on our strong partnership with Microsoft.»
All of which is to say: screw you, board members. Following Altman's firing, his fellow co-founder Greg Brockman and others had resigned, while everyone struggled to understand the exact reason behind the decision, which is still unclear. The board said it had «lost confidence» in Altman because he had not been «consistently candid» with them, but what exactly he dissembled about has not been disclosed.
In a sign of just how chaotic this has been, OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever was one of the four board members behind Altman's firing, before on Monday executing a complete U-turn: Sutskever apologised on social media, before incredibly
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