By John Ikani
In a surprising turn of events, OpenAI on Tuesday announced that Sam Altman, one of its co-founders, is set to resume the role of CEO.
This comes just days after the board had decided to dismiss Altman from the position.
“We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo,” stated a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Last week, OpenAI’s board took the unexpected step of terminating Altman, and shortly afterward, Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, disclosed that Altman would be leading a new artificial intelligence research team within Microsoft.
However, the narrative swiftly changed as Altman announced on Tuesday that he had secured the support of Nadella for his reinstatement as OpenAI’s CEO.
“With the new board and w Satya’s support, I’m looking forward to returning to OpenAI, and building on our strong partnership with (Microsoft),” Altman expressed on X.
The fallout from Altman’s dismissal was palpable, with hundreds of OpenAI staff members threatening to resign.
In a letter addressed to the media, the majority of the company’s 770-strong workforce indicated their intention to follow Altman, unless the board responsible for his departure stepped down.
Co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who was also part of the four-person board that ousted Altman, expressed regret for his role in the decision.
“I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions,” Sutskever wrote on X on Monday. “I never intended to harm OpenAI.”
Despite pressure from Microsoft and other significant investors to reinstate Altman, OpenAI appointed Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Amazon’s streaming platform Twitch, as its new CEO.
