OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will return to the board of the company which is behind popular artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. The development comes after a boardroom drama that saw Altman being fired in November last year.
Altman will join the board with three new directors – Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, former president of Sony Entertainment; and Fidji Simo, CEO of Instacart.
“I am excited to welcome Sue, Nicole, and Fidji to the OpenAI Board of Directors,” said Bret Taylor, chair of the OpenAI board.
They will join ex-Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor and former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
“I’m very happy to welcome our new board members: Fidji Simo, Sue Desmond-Hellmann, and Nicole Seligman, and to continue to work with Bret, Larry, and Adam, Altman posted on microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter).
“I’m thankful to everyone on our team for being resilient (a great openai skill!) and staying focused during a challenging time,” he added.
Altman also thanked OpenAI’s CTO Mira Murati for “her leadership during the drama” and Greg Brockman who plays “a special leadership role without which OpenAI would simply not exist.”
“I learned a lot from this experience. one thing I’ll say now: when I believed a former board member was harming OpenAI through some of their actions, I should have handled that situation with more grace and care. I apologize for this, and I wish I had done it differently. I assume a genuine belief in the crucial importance of getting AGI right from everyone involved,” Altman said in his post.
“We have important work in front of us, and we can’t wait to show you what’s next,” he added.
OpenAI’s board had fired Altman without any clear reason in November last year. He returned as the CEO just days after his ouster.
OpenAI said it has “full confidence” in Altman’s leadership after the conclusion of an outside investigation into the events that led to his brief termination in November.
Also read | The OpenAI board which fired Sam Altman
Altman’s ouster was a “consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust” between him and the prior board, OpenAI said in a summary of the findings Friday, according to a report by AP.
Elon Musk’s Lawsuit
Recently, Elon Musk, who cofounded OpenAI as a non-profit, filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing Altman and top executives of betraying the original nonprofit status of the company.
Also read | OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla spars with Elon Musk over lawsuit
Musk’s suit alleges that OpenAI was now effectively a subsidiary of Microsoft, arguing that this was a breach of contract.
OpenAI responded to the lawsuit in a blog post on Tuesday, saying Musk signed off on the company’s decision to become a for-profit entity. OpenAI also released emails Musk had sent to people at the company, saying the billionaire had endorsed its fundraising efforts.