After six gruelling dramatic days of what seems to have been a corporate chess game, the abrupt dismissal of Sam Altman and reshuffling of OpenAI’s board members took a 360-degree turn, when Open AI released a statement disclosing the “agreement in principle” to reinstate Altman as Chief Executive Officer of OpenAI on Wednesday 22 November.
We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo.
We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 22, 2023
While the reason for Altman’s dismissal is unclear concerns about matters relating to governance and the board’s loss of confidence in him for not being candid, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities, are among the reasons most circulated.
Another reason that may be worth exploring is one alleged by Mike Isaac, New York Times Tech Journalist, who explained in an interview on PBS News Hour,
“Microsoft that has a strong partnership with OpenAI was using Sam Altman as a bargaining chip to keep OpenAI alive, because it is an important AI company for Microsoft, with a lot of money and investors tied to it. They would have rather used an independent OpenAI partnership rather than build a whole new thing within Microsoft – it was a bargaining and negotiation between Microsoft and OpenAI’s small board of directors versus Sam Altman and his allies…”
While it is certain that Microsoft has a strong partnership with OpenAI, the board refused to give specific reasons regarding Altman’s dismissal.
In a series of multiple press statements released by Microsoft, Whilst Mira Murati was serving as interim CEO in Altman’s absence, Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft confirmed the strong ties with OpenAI, “As you saw at Microsoft Ignite this week, we’re continuing to rapidly innovate for this era of AI, with over 100 announcements across the full tech stack from AI systems, models, and tools in Azure, to Copilot.
“Most importantly, we’re committed to delivering all of this to our customers while building for the future. We have a long-term agreement with OpenAI with full access to everything we need to deliver on our innovation agenda and an exciting product roadmap; and remain committed to our partnership, and to Mira and the team. Together, we will continue to deliver the meaningful benefits of this technology to the world.”
Altman echoed this sentiment in a twitter post after his reinstatement was made public,
i love openai, and everything i’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together. when i decided to join msft on sun evening, it was clear that was the best path for me and the team. with the new board and w satya’s support, i’m…
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 22, 2023
Furthermore, Nadella also made clear he agreed with Altman’s return to OpenAI, as long as the companies governance problems were effectively resolved.
In a statement, OpenAI’s board of directors said: “OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity. The board remains fully committed to serving this mission.”
The chaotic saga, highlights the differences between Altman who became the face of generative AI’s rapid commercialisation since the introduction of ChatGPT’s arrival a year ago and members of the company’s board who have on numerous occasions expressed deep reservations about the safety risks posed by AI as it is rapidly advancing.
We are yet to discover how these events will further unfold and bring about new changes in the developments of AI technology and its contributions towards humanity, and the digital economy.
