On 17 November, 2023, OpenAI’s board dismissed Sam Altman, its CEO, due to disagreements over the pace of developing and monetising artificial intelligence. Following his unexpected ouster, almost all the employees of OpenAI had threatened to quit if he wasn’t brought back and if the current board members failed to resign. Altman himself had indicated that he would consider returning if the board that had fired him was dissolved. However, OpenAI had appointed Emmett Shear as new interim CEO. Altman, in the meantime, was roped in by Microsoft to head their inhouse AI team. Many employees from OpenAI were reportedly considering joining him there.
The resignation threat seemed to have worked. OpenAI has now agreed to reinstate Altman as CEO and appoint new board members.
Altman has reportedly given his consent to return to OpenAI as the CEO, accompanied by a new board consisting of Bret Taylor, Larry Summers and Adam D’Angelo. OpenAI is currently working on finalising the details of this agreement. Altman of course is said to be excited by the turn of events and is looking forward to continuing his work to further build a strong partnership with Microsoft.
Post Altman announcing his return to OpenAI as CEO, Satya Ndella, CEO, Microsoft — who had only just welcomed Altman to his AI team— is now seeing this as a crucial step towards establishing a more stable and effective governance structure at OpenAI.
Altman had gained prominence with the launch of ChatGPT, sparking increased AI research and development efforts and substantial investments in the sector.
