OpenAI’s former leader, Sam Altman, to return just days after being ousted

Only a few days after being let go by the board, OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman will take the helm once again, the company announced.

The IT business said that there is an agreement “in principle” to select new board members.

Employees threatened to depart in droves after Mr. Altman’s dismissal on Friday, shocking industry observers.

Mr. Altman wrote on X, the defunct Twitter platform, “I am looking forward to returning to OpenAI.”

“I love OpenAI, and everything I’ve done in the last few days has been to support the continued success of this team and its mission,” he continued.

The prominent artificial intelligence (AI) startup was thrown into disarray last week when the board chose to remove Mr. Altman. This decision prompted co-founder Greg Brockman to leave.

The three non-employee board members—Adam D’Angelo, Tasha McCauley, and Helen Toner—as well as Ilya Sutskever, the company’s chief scientist and third co-founder, made the choice.

On Monday, however, Mr. Sutskever signed the staff letter urging the board to change course and apologised for his actions on X.

Microsoft subsequently made Mr. Altman an offer to manage “a new advanced AI research team” at the tech giant. Microsoft is the biggest investor in OpenAI and uses the technology in many of its products.

On Wednesday, OpenAI then announced that it had agreed to Mr. Altman’s return to the tech business in principle and that it will reorganise the board of directors, which had fired him, in part.

Adam D’Angelo, the current director, will be joined by former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, according to OpenAI.

READ ALSO: OpenAI employees call for the resignation of the board due to the dismissal of Sam Altman

Mr. Brockman also announced his plan to rejoin the company in a post on X.

After around “72 very intense hours of work,” Mr Altman’s return left Emmett Shear, who had been named OpenAI’s interim CEO, “deeply pleased.”

According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the company is “encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board”.

“We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance.”

Employee Cory Decareaux expressed his excitement over the news on Linkedin, writing, “We’re back – and we’ll be better than ever.”

“I never could have imagined how crazy the last few days have been. This illustrates the appearance of a cohesive corporate culture.”

Others, however, contend that OpenAI, which rose to prominence as the world’s most significant artificial intelligence company with the development of ChatGPT, has suffered as a result of the incident.

“The firm OpenAI was on Friday night cannot be the same. The BBC was informed by Nick Patience of S&P Global Market Intelligence that “that has implications not only for potential investors but also for recruitment.”