Sam Altman has officially resumed his role as CEO of OpenAI after the recent organizational turmoil. Following a week of upheaval and a board shake-up that attempted to remove Altman before Thanksgiving, the company has now replaced most of the board members.
The previous OpenAI board members without informing the majority of the 770-person workforce, removed Altman, leading to widespread discontent. The reported disputes revolved around OpenAI in different ways, with the board citing a loss of confidence in Altman’s leadership and lack of consistency. Altman also faced criticism over his handling of safety concerns and the rushed launch of AI-powered features.
In a post published on the OpenAI blog, Altman announced that Mira Murati, who briefly served as interim CEO under the previous board, would return to her position as CTO. The reconstituted board members now include Bret Taylor, former co-CEO of Salesforce; Adam D’Angelo, CEO of Quora and a previous board member; and economist and political veteran Larry Summers.
Microsoft, one of the major investors in OpenAI, with a 49% stake in the for-profit OpenAI entity, will have a non-voting observer on the board. The identity of this observer is still unknown, but one thing is clear, they won’t be participating in official board voting.
In his excitement, Altman expressed his gratitude for the collective effort, distinctive resilience, and support in OpenAI. Altman outlined the company’s future priorities which will focus more on advancing research plans and increased investment in AI safety initiatives.
OpenAI intends to expand the board with diverse perspectives, implement unspecified improvements to governance, and oversee an independent review of recent events. Altman stated the importance of users, customers, partners, and governments worldwide, reiterating the commitment to ensuring their input shapes the development of AI.
Sam Altman on X responded to reports suggesting D’Angelo’s potential conflict of interest running Quora and Poe while being on the OpenAI Board played a role in Altman’s removal.
Altman stated that D’Angelo has always been very clear with him and the Board about the potential conflict and doing whatever he needed to do (recusing himself when appropriate and even offering to leave the Board if we ever thought it was necessary) to appropriately manage this situation and to avoid conflicted decision-making.
Quora is a large customer of OpenAI and found it helpful to have customer representation on Board. If OpenAI is as successful as hoped, it will touch many parts of the economy and have complex relationships with many other entities in the world, resulting in various potential conflicts of interest.
Altman plan to achieve this with full disclosure and leaving decisions about how to manage situations like these up to the Board.