Artificial intelligence company OpenAI has officially announced Sam Altman as its CEO once again after previously reaching a principal deal for Altman’s return. The new OpenAI board now includes Microsoft having a, “Non-voting observer” seat on the nonprofit board that controls the company but will not have an official voting power towards big decisions.
“I have never been more excited about the future. I am extremely grateful for everyone’s hard work in an unclear and unprecedented situation, and I believe our resilience and spirit set us apart in the industry. I feel so, so good about our probability of success for achieving our mission,” said Altman in the announcement.
Following the departure of three of the four board members who played a role in the abrupt dismissal of Altman, OpenAI’s current board consists of chair Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo—the sole remaining member from the previous board.
Altman conveyed in his memo to employees that he holds no resentment towards Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s co-founder and chief scientist who initially took part in the board decision but reconsidered after the majority of the company’s employees threatened to resign unless Altman returned. Altman stated, “While Ilya will no longer serve on the board, we hope to continue our working relationship and are discussing how he can continue his work at OpenAI.”
Looking ahead
The OpenAI CEO states that the company has, “Three immediate priorities,” with the first being to advance its research plan and further invest in its full-stack safety efforts which according to Altman, “Have always been critical to our work.”
Altman adds that the company remains dedicated to enhancing and implementing products to serve customers better. “It’s important that people get to experience the benefits and promise of AI, and have the opportunity to shape it,” he said. He also mentioned maintaining and strengthening the company’s partnership with Microsoft where he joined briefly to lead a new AI research team.
And lastly, Alman says that he’ll be working closely with Bret, Larry, and Adam to build a board of diverse perspectives, improve governance as well as oversee an independent review of the recent events. “I am so looking forward to finishing the job of building beneficial AGI with you all.”
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
