After a chaotic few days of back-and-forth reports and speculations, its has been announced that Sam Altman will return to lead OpenAI.
News that the OpenAI founder and CEO was suddenly fired from his position stunned Silicon Valley on Friday. But now, an agreement "in principle" has been reached, involving appointment of new board members, the tech company revealed in a post on X social media platform (formerly Twitter).
Screenshot of X post by OpenAI.
© Photo : OpenAI/X
OpenAI added that the board will be chaired by Bret Taylor, ex-co-CEO of Salesforce. Alongside existing director, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, the former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will also be joining the board. As to any further details, the sides were said to be "collaborating."
Altman, whose sacking triggered threats of mass staff resignations, also went on X to comment on his imminent reinstatement as boss.
"I am looking forward to returning to OpenAI," Altman said, adding he was "looking forward to returning to openai, and building on our strong partnership with msft."
Screenshot of X post by Sam Altman.
© Photo : sama/X
Over the weekend, reports surfaced claiming there were efforts to bring Altman back to Open AI, led by its largest investor, Microsoft. At the time, US media reported that the entrepreneur and investor might be considering a return to OpenAI under the condition that the board that ousted him would be replaced. Furthermore, on Sunday Satya Nadella, the CEO of the software giant, announced that Microsoft had offered Altman a job leading "a new advanced AI research team."
Much is still fuzzy about Altman's firing and re-hiring. Originally, OpenAI’s board members said in a statement that they had lost confidence in him, making the decision to part ways after “a deliberative review process” that found he had not been “consistently candid in his communications.” However, according to sources cited in US media reports, the OpenAI board members disagreed with CEO Sam Altman on issues of safety and commercialization of technology. Altman reportedly urged pushing forward with AI development more aggressively.
Set up in 2015, OpenAI was geared to research “safe and beneficial” artificial intelligence technology, with the goal of developing “highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work.” However, rapid strides in the development of AI technology have triggered concerns. Some sceptics have even warned of an existential threat of artificial intelligence, equating its potential risks to pandemics and nuclear war.