Sam Altman rejoins OpenAI board after investigation
4 Min Read
The chair of the board states that OpenAI will continue to look for people who bring new perspectives to the company.
-
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman participates in the "Technology in a turbulent world" panel discussion during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 18, 2024.(AP)
OpenAI declared on Friday that CEO Sam Altman would be rejoining the company's board along with three new external board members amid OpenAI winding up of an outside investigation into the events that led to his short expulsion last year.
The company has been trying to overcome its action-packed leadership crisis of last November.
OpenAI has also added three women to its new board. The first is Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The second is Nicole Seligman, former EVP and general counsel at Sony Corporation, and the third is Fidji Simo, CEO and chair of Instacart.
Chair of the board Bret Taylor stated in a conference call with reporters "We are excited and unanimous in our support for Sam and Greg [Brockman]."
When asked by Axios about how this will impact OpenAI, Taylor answered "We did adopt a number of governance enhancements," shedding light on a whistleblower hotline and a new mission and strategy committee on the board.
"The mission has not changed, because it is more important than ever before," Taylor emphasized.
Taylor also informed the reporters the company is yet to further extend the board and will proceed to look for people who bring additional perspectives, "The board is not done enhancing the governance of this organization."
As for Altman, he informed reporters on a call "I'm pleased this whole thing is over," mentioning that it has been hurtful to see "people with an agenda" leak things.
"Having said that, I did learn a lot from this experience," Altman added.
Altman further stated, "I'm very thankful to Bret and Larry [Summers] and WilmerHale for doing such a thorough investigation," then praised CTO Mira Murati, who served as a CEO following Altman, for her work.
The investigation's outcome
The WilmerHale law firm previously investigated Altman and concluded, per a summary given by OpenAI, that "the prior Board acted within its broad discretion to terminate Mr. Altman, but also found that his conduct did not mandate removal."
"The prior Board believed at the time that its actions would mitigate internal management challenges and did not anticipate that its actions would destabilize the Company," the summary stated.
"The prior Board's decision did not arise out of concerns regarding product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI's finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners," the summary reads.
"Instead, it was a consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust between the prior Board and Mr. Altman," it added.
OpenAI informed Axios that it is not sharing any more information about the investigation beyond what's in the blog post.
'Accountability is important'
The two board members who left after Altman's reinstatement issued a statement on X restating the concerns they mentioned during the investigation.
"As we told the investigators, deception, manipulation, and resistance to oversight should be unacceptable," Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley stated.
They called on the new board to ensure the company's mission while wishing them and OpenAI's employees success.
"Accountability is important in any company but it is paramount when building a technology as potentially world-changing as AGI," they added.
A statement from Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley: pic.twitter.com/Pl3lpJJqGX
— Helen Toner (@hlntnr) March 9, 2024
What happened at OpenAI?
Last November, Altman was suddenly fired as CEO and then re-employed over a several-day span as OpenAI's board communicated that it did not trust him, however, almost the entire company threatened to quit unless he was rehired.
OpenAI's financial backbone, Microsoft, which found out about Altman's dismissal moments before it was announced to the world, declared that it would employ Altman and other OpenAI employees to pioneer a new research unit.
When OpenAI reinstated Altman, they assigned a new interim three-person board led by former Salesforce executive Bret Taylor, along with Larry Summers and Adam D'Angelo, co-founder of Quora and one of the members of the previous board who had backed Altman's removal.
Informed sources told Reuters on November 23 that a letter was penned by staff researchers at OpenAI and sent to the board of directors before CEO Sam Altman's 4-day exile, warning of an artificial intelligence discovery that could threaten humanity.
