Sam Altman is having a very few interesting days. Just days after he was let go of his former company, OpenAI, as a CEO of the company, he was invited by Microsoft to join the company.
However, it seems like the workforce of OpenAI didn’t like the abrupt way in which he parted the company and decided to cause concern for the board if he wasn’t rehired. Just a few days later, OpenAI announced that Altman would be rejoining the company.
Altman was let go from his position by the board of directors of OpenAI, who cited his lack of communication with the board to communicate the vision of the company, which led to the decision to oust him from the company.
The driving force behind this decision was thought to be Ilya Sutskever, who is the chief scientist at the company. CTO Mira Murati was promoted to Altman’s former position at the time.
However, Altman didn’t have many days to remain free as Microsoft offered him a position at the company where he would lead the advanced artificial intelligence research team of the company.
But it seems like the rest of the staff at OpenAI were not going to let this slide very easily, and 550 out of a total of 700 employees of the company signed a letter where they threatened to quit the company if Altman wasn’t reinstated at his position as CEO immediately.
It was communicated in the letter that: “The process through which you terminated Sam Altman and removed Greg Brockman from the board has jeopardized all of this work and undermined our mission and company.”
Well, it looks like their ultimatum worked, and just two days after Microsoft announced hiring Altman, OpenAI has backtracked on their decision and rehired him at the company to his former position as CEO.
The company made the announcement official on its X(formerly Twitter) account. The company had also stated that they are working together with Altman to figure out the details, while Altman noted that he was very happy to return to his former company. He also expressed his gratitude to Microsoft and stated that he would be very happy to develop a strong partnership with Microsoft.
Altman isn’t the only former senior figure making his return to OpenAI as Greg Brockman, the former president of the company, who also joined Microsoft along with Altman, has rejoined OpenAI. CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, has supported these moves, saying that it is essential to ensure OpenAI continues to thrive and build on its mission.
Another important development that has been made is that the board of OpenAI has been shifted. Some former members of the board have been removed from their positions, and their replacements have been finalized as well.
Ilya Sutskever, the man who stood by the board to oust Altman, also had a change of heart before Altman rejoined. He stated that he regretted his part in this whole incident and would like to see Altman return to the company. Sutskever has also been relieved from his position on the board, but he is continuing his work as the Chief Scientist of OpenAI.
Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley are the other former board members who were relieved from their positions. Brett Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo are announced as their replacements on the new OpenAI board.
If anyone had any doubts about Sam Altman’s dominating presence in the AI ecosystem, surely those doubts would have been addressed by now after seeing this whole episode where OpenAI’s staff band together to demand his return to the company and Microsoft’s willingness to not be a hurdle in it in any way and releasing him back to his former company without causing any problem.
