OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
12:40 PM – Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Following his dismissal from the company by the board of directors, which prompted more than 700 employees to threaten to find other jobs elsewhere, Sam Altman has resumed his role as CEO of OpenAI.
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On Tuesday evening, OpenAI stated that Altman made an agreement with the board of the company in principle for him to return as CEO with a new group of board members, replacing the group that terminated him on Friday.
Altman’s sudden termination from the artificial intelligence (AI) company resulted in the employees protesting against the board’s decision and writing a letter to the board threatening to quit unless the board resigns themselves.
The situation ignited on Friday, when the board of the nonprofit group that overlooks OpenAI announced that it had eliminated Altman as CEO, concluding that he was not “candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.”
“Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities,” OpenAI said in a statement on Friday. “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”
On Sunday, Altman even took on a new position at Microsoft as a result of his termination from OpenAI.
Later on Monday, nearly all 800 employees at OpenAI signed a letter requesting for the resignation of the company’s board and the return of Altman as CEO.
In the letter, the employees threatened to quit and join the newly announced AI department at Microsoft if their demands were not met.
The letter, which was addressed to OpenAI board members, read in part, “Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAI.”
However, Altman took to his original position as CEO at OpenAI on Tuesday after the board who terminated him left the company to be replaced by a new one.
OpenAI shared a post on X, formerly Twitter, announcing that Altman made an agreement with the company about returning to his CEO position.
“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,” the post read. “We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.”
Altman also shared a post regarding his return to OpenAI.
“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,” Altman posted on X (Twitter). “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,” he added.
OpenAI and Altman are continuing to figure out the specific terms of his reinstatement, the company wrote in their post on X (Twitter), “We are collaborating to figure out the details.”
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