Sam Altman returns to OpenAI as CEO, with new board members

It’s been a crazy few days at OpenAI’s camp. Sam Altman, co-founder and (former) CEO who’d been fired last Friday, is now back at the company as the CEO alongside Greg Brockman, OAI’s president who then resigned in solidary. 

“We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this,” says the company in a tweet.

we are so back pic.twitter.com/YcKwkqdNs5

— Greg Brockman (@gdb) November 22, 2023

Altman was fired by the company’s board of directors last week, citing that the AI wizz had not been “candid” in his communication with them. 

Then, in a dramatic chain of events, Microsoft and its CEO Satya Nadella moved quickly “employed” Altman, Brockman, and OpenAI employees for Microsoft’s “new advanced AI research team.” More details on this will be unveiled, but as Altman takes back the CEO position at OpenAI, it sure will be a lot more complicated.

Over half out of 700 employees at OpenAI then signed an open letter, threatening mass exodus to Microsoft’s new team unless Altman was reinstated and the board resigned. A lot of them also took to X (fka Twitter) to protest the decision, tweeting, “OpenAI is nothing without its people.”

The company states that the original board will consist of three directors—Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo. Ilya Sutskever, the co-founder and board member allegedly responsible for the ousting—will depart, followed by Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley.