22 November 2023 , 08:29
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Chaos at ChatGPT developer OpenAI has continued this week as previously ousted CEO Sam Altman was coaxed back to the role just days after being removed.
“We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board," the company said in a statement. A new board will also replace the one that let Altman go last week.
Co-founded by Altman as a nonprofit with a mission to safely build so-called artificial general intelligence that outperforms humans and benefits humanity, OpenAI later became a for-profit business but one still run by its nonprofit board of directors. It's not clear yet if the board's structure will change with its newly appointed members.
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Over 500 employees threatened to leave the company after Altman was ousted (Downdetector)Altman said: "with the new board and (with) Satya's support, I'm looking forward to returning to OpenAI, and building on our strong partnership with (Microsoft)." He was referring to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella - Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and has rights to its current technology.
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OpenAI’s previous board of directors, which included D'Angelo, had refused to give specific reasons for why it fired Altman, leading to a weekend of internal conflict at the company and growing outside pressure from the startup's investors.
The San Francisco-based tech group was founded by Alstman with a self-state mission to become a transparent and safe approach to AI development. Since, OpenAI has become a for-profit business but is still managed and run by a nonprofit board of directors.
“We are collaborating to figure out the details,” OpenAI posted on X. “Thank you so much for your patience through this.”
As for OpenAI's short-lived interim CEO Emmett Shear, the second interim CEO in the days since Altman's ouster, he posted on X that he was “deeply pleased by this result, after (tilde)72 very intense hours of work.”
“Coming into OpenAI, I wasn't sure what the right path would be,” wrote Shear, the former head of Twitch. “This was the pathway that maximized safety alongside doing right by all stakeholders involved. I'm glad to have been a part of the solution.”
Shear had vowed to investigate the firing of co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, one of the world's most sought-after experts on AI. “It’s clear that the process and communications around Sam’s removal" were handled "very badly,” wrote Shear, who co-founded Twitch, an Amazon-owned livestreaming service popular with video gamers. He said he also plans in the next month to “reform the management and leadership team in light of recent departures into an effective force” and speak with employees, investors and customers.
Previously, hundreds of OpenAI workers urged the company's board to resign after Altman was pushed out. Former OpenAI President Greg Brockman, also a co-founder, quit in protest.
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