Surprise: Sam Altman is back as OpenAI CEO
One of the twistiest tech stories of the year seemingly has a resolution: Sam Altman is once again working for OpenAI.
If you haven’t been following, here’s a quick recap of the events so far. Last week, Sam Altman was unexpectedly fired as OpenAI CEO and replaced (after an extremely brief stint by OpenAI CTO Mira Murati) by Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear.
Microsoft, which owns a large stake in OpenAI, reacted by hiring Altman, alongside OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, for its own research AI team.
But according to Nadella and Altman himself, it appears that Altman will once again return to OpenAI, following a reshuffling of its board.
OpenAI tweeted that it has “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.”
“We are encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board,” Nadella wrote in a tweet. “We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance. Sam, Greg, and I have talked and agreed they have a key role to play along with the OAI leadership team in ensuring OAI continues to thrive and build on its mission. We look forward to building on our strong partnership and delivering the value of this next generation of AI to our customers and partners.”
“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. when i decided to join msft on sun evening, it was clear that was the best path for me and the team. with the new board and w satya’s support, i’m looking forward to returning to openai, and building on our strong partnership with msft,” tweeted Altman.
The news follows reports that some OpenAI investors, members of the board, and employees, have been pushing to reinstate Altman as CEO.
While this now appears as a power struggle resolved, with Altman-unfriendly board members leaving, many questions remain, including whether there was any good reason to fire Altman in the first place. There’s also the question of what happens to Microsoft’s “new advanced AI research team,” which was supposed to be led by Altman. For our sanity’s sake, though, we hope that there will be no more immediate changes at the top of OpenAI, as this is saga is getting impossible to follow.
