The uncertainty hovering around the future of Sam Altman has come to an end as he has officially returned as the CEO of OpenAI. Along with this, the firm has come up with a new board of directors and has replaced most members of the previous board who ousted Altman a few days ago.
Quick Take:
- Sam Altman makes his way back as the CEO of OpenAI, and Mira Murati becomes the CTO again.
- Altman dismisses the previous board of members and adds Microsoft as a non-voting observer.
- OpenAI will look to prioritize AI products and features under Altman’s leadership.
As per the company’s latest blog post, Altman has taken charge as the CEO, and Mira Murati has returned to the position of CTO. Murati was appointed as the interim CEO of OpenAI after the expulsion of Altman by the previous board.
Sam Altman confirmed that the initial new board will consist of the former co-CEO of Salesforce Bret Taylor, Quora CEO D’Angelo, and economist Larry Summers. D’Angelo was also a member of the previous board.
The new board aims at stabilizing the organizational structure and operations at OpenAI while striking a balance in its governance. On the other hand, Altman emphasized that he is aiming to build Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in the company.
The CEO wrote about his redemption in the post and thanked everyone who supported him. He added,
“I have never been more excited about the future. I am extremely grateful for everyone’s hard work in an unclear and unprecedented situation, and I believe our resilience and spirit set us apart in the industry. I feel so, so good about our probability of success for achieving our mission.”
OpenAI Includes Microsoft as a Non-Voting Board Member
As per the latest announcement, OpenAI is making Microsoft a part of its new board. Being a major investor in OpenAI, Microsoft will have a representative as an observer on the board. However, they will not have an official vote on board business and decisions.
While outlining the future plans of OpenAI, Sam Altman highlighted that the company’s priority would be on AI. It would look to invest in AI safety efforts. Altman believes that people should get to experience the best benefits of AI, and they should have the opportunity to shape it accordingly.
Therefore, OpenAI looks forward to leading the way in the industry and showing commitment to coming up with great products. The new board will explore more diverse perspectives to make improvements to the company, as recent events have tarnished its reputation.
The drama started when the old board of OpenAI abruptly dismissed Sam Altman without notifying the majority of the company. It came as a surprise to the whole crypto world. The move also caused backlash from Microsoft and other key company investors.
As a result, the company’s rumored stock sale came at a risk. A large number of employees pledged to quit the firm unless Altman was brought back to the office. The previous board argued that Altman was not consistently candid with the board.
However, the board eventually had to back down, and Altman emerged as the ultimate winner from the whole fiasco. In response to this development, Worldcoin (WLD) has also regained its composure by marking an upward trend after continuous bearish runs.
Conclusively, Sam Altman stated,
“We expect that if OpenAI is as successful as we hope, 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. The way we plan to deal with this is with full disclosure and leaving decisions about how to manage situations like these up to the board.”