Startup OpenAI, which launched the ChatGPT conversation bot, a form of generative artificial intelligence, announced the return of co-founder Sam Altman, four days after his resignation and two days after his announcement from Microsoft.
Microsoft, a minority shareholder in OpenAI with a 49% stake, announced Monday that it had recruited Altman, as well as Greg Brockman, who resigned from OpenAI upon learning of Altman’s resignation.
Now, San Francisco-based OpenAI said it has “reached an agreement in principle on the return of Sam Altman” as executive chairman of a new board of directors, according to a statement released Tuesday.
We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new board consisting of Bret Taylor (Chairman), Larry Summers and Adam D’Angelo.
We’ll work together to find out the details. Thank you very much for your patience with this.
– OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 22, 2023
Altman, 38 years old, is considered a visionary of generative artificial intelligence, technology that creates conversations, texts, audio, music and video.
I love openai, and everything I’ve done these past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together. When I decided to start working at MSFT on Sunday evenings, it was clear that this was the best path for me and the team. With the new board and the support of Satya, I am…
-Sam Altman (@sama) November 22, 2023
The board will also include former co-CEO of North American technology company Salesforce Bret Taylor, former United States Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and the leader of question and answer portal Quora, Adam D’Angelo.
we will be right back pic.twitter.com/YcKwkqdNs5
-Greg Brockman (@gdb) November 22, 2023
OpenAI’s previous board of directors, which included D’Angelo, declined to disclose the reasons for Altman’s dismissal, it announced Friday, leading to internal conflict at the company and mounting pressure from investors.
At the time, management said only that Altman “was not consistently honest in communications,” which affected his ability “to discharge his responsibilities,” and therefore “no longer has confidence in his ability to continue to lead OpenAI.”
On Monday, the majority of OpenAI’s top executives demanded the resignation of the board of directors over Altman’s surprise departure, they said in a letter published by several media outlets.
The OpenAI crisis, a symbol of generative artificial intelligence since the launch of the ChatGPT conversation bot a year ago, took Silicon Valley, the main technology ecosystem in the United States, where Altman is seen as a prodigy, by surprise.
Last week, Altman attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco and said artificial intelligence will be greater than “any of the great technological revolutions” recorded to date, but also acknowledged the need to protect humanity against the future threat of artificial intelligence.
The US government is particularly concerned about the role that generative artificial intelligence could play in the 2024 election campaign. The technology enables the creation of hyper-realistic montages (‘deepfake’) and fake content and can therefore facilitate disinformation campaigns.
Source: DN
