On the afternoon of November 22nd, following a series of controversies involving resignations and terminations, OpenAI officially announced that they had reached an agreement with Sam Altman and had reappointed him as CEO. Notably, OpenAI also stated that they would replace the board of directors as per Sam Altman’s request.
Shortly thereafter, Sam Altman quickly expressed his perspective on the social media platform X: “I love OpenAI. Everything I’ve done in the past few days has been to maintain the integrity, team, and mission of the company. When I decided to join Microsoft on Sunday, it was the best path forward for me and my employees. Now, with a new board and the backing of Mr. Nadella, I hope to continue working with OpenAI and further develop the relationship with Microsoft.”
Showing respect for Sam Altman’s decision, Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, also expressed confidence in OpenAI: “Changes in the leadership structure of the company will make governance more stable, transparent, and effective.”
Summary of the OpenAI Dismissal Drama Over the Past 4 Days:
- On November 18th, the OpenAI board of directors decided to terminate Sam Altman, which sent shockwaves through both the OpenAI internal community and the tech industry.
- Explaining their decision, the company stated that the OpenAI board had lost confidence in Sam Altman’s leadership. The former CEO was not forthright in communications and obstructed the board’s ability to function effectively.
- Notably, both Sam Altman and Greg Brockman stepped down from their positions on the board. This led to speculations of internal strife within the top Silicon Valley AI company.
- Prior to the news of Sam Altman stepping down as CEO, Elon Musk, the renowned tech mogul with investments in SpaceX and Tesla, also broke his silence and offered his perspective.
- Elon Musk dismissed the notion that money and profit were important aspects of the future of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). The billionaire also stated that if he were to return as the CEO of OpenAI, the board would need to be completely overhauled (similar to what he did with Twitter).
- However, the situation escalated as a slew of OpenAI employees voiced their support for the former CEO and threatened to resign if the board did not clarify the reason for the termination.
- On November 19th, Sam Altman had discussions with the company’s leadership to resolve the differences, but they fell apart. OpenAI subsequently announced the appointment of former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear as CEO.
- On the same evening, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella posted a startling announcement, revealing that Sam Altman would return to lead an AI research unit for Microsoft.
- In the following days, the community witnessed conflicting information, from OpenAI’s leadership indicating a potential sale of the company to a competitor, Anthropic AI, to CEO Shear threatening to resign. OpenAI employees continued to post supportive messages for Sam Altman on social media, to which he responded warmly.
- Ultimately, on the afternoon of November 22nd, the drama concluded with the announcement of Sam Altman’s return as the CEO of OpenAI.