It took just five days for Sam Altman to return as OpenAI’s CEO. And with that, there will be changes to the AI company’s board.
The new board, replacing the one that lost confidence in Altman’s leadership and triggered a near-mutiny after ousting him, is an all-male directorship consisting of former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers, and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, the latter being the only previous board member to stay on.
OpenAI is “collaborating to figure out the details” of Altman’s reinstatement, the company said in a post on X.
Taylor, who sat on Twitter’s board, was responsible for overseeing Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform. Summers has largely served in the academic world since leaving government.
The previous board, responsible for Altman’s exit, consisted of OpenAI chief scientist and co-founder Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI president Greg Brockman, and three independent directors: technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley; Helen Toner, a director of strategy at Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology; and Quora’s D’Angelo.
Why did OpenAI’s board oust Sam Altman as CEO?
Beyond accusing Altman of not being “consistently candid in his communications with the board,” the board still has not communicated the details of its reasoning publicly.
Here’s a quick recap of the drama that went down with OpenAI:
Friday, Nov. 17: OpenAI announces that Sam Altman is no longer CEO, and that chief technology Mira Murati is interim CEO, effective immediately. OpenAI president and board member Greg Brockman resigns shortly thereafter, along with three senior OpenAI researchers.
Saturday, Nov. 18: Altman begins an outpouring of affection for his former colleagues on the social media platform X.
Sunday, Nov. 19: Altman posts a photo of himself wearing a guest badge to OpenAI’s headquarters. “first and last time i ever wear one of these,” he writes. Late that night, Satya Nadella announces that Altman and Brockman will join Microsoft to lead an advanced AI research team. Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, is named interim CEO of OpenAI.
Monday, Nov. 20: More than 500 employees threaten to quit unless OpenAI’s board resigns and brings Altman back as their boss. Murati and chief operating officer Brad Lightcap, among other OpenAI employees, post a unified message: “OpenAI is nothing without its people.” Employees share heart emojis on X, and Altman responds with a heart emoji back.
Following the show of support for Altman, Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and chief scientist at OpenAI—as well as one of the now-disbanded board’s members—posts on X: “I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we’ve built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.”
Tuesday, Nov. 21: Late Tuesday night, OpenAI says Altman is back as CEO and with a new board. “Thank you so much for your patience through this,” the company writes on X.
Now, we can all go back to sleep.
What now?
The remarkable and quick return of Altman to OpenAI will make him happy, OpenAI employees happy, OpenAI investors happy, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella happy. (Nadella has said in numerous interviews in the past few days that he is committed to supporting Altman’s decision of where he goes next.)
Of course it helps that as the majority investor in OpenAI, Microsoft will continue to receive the benefits of Altman’s leadership of the team developing OpenAI’s advanced large-language models.