Insider Brief
- Early Wednesday morning, OpenAI issues social media posts that Sam Altman is to return as CEO of the company.
- The board, itself, will be reconstituted.
- The latest news followed a few days of soap opera-like upheaval at the AI company, following Altman’s dismissal.
Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives…
The week-long soap opera — that we’ll call SoapenAI — that has followed the lives of Sam Altman, Microsoft, the OpenAI board and its workers has seemed to reach a season finale.
This morning Reuters reported that Altman, former CEO and now, apparently CEO, of OpenAI, has returned to the company. The company also agreed in principle to partly reconstitute the board of directors, according to Reuters. Bret Taylor, formerly co-CEO of Salesforce, and Larry Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, will join Quora CEO and current director Adam D’Angelo
OpenAI made the announcement on its X feed early Wednesday.
Altman mention returning to the company in a previous post on X.
On our last episode of Days of OpenAI’s Lives, we’ll remember that Microsoft — and its CEO Satya Nadella — played a key role in supporting Altman during his sudden dismissal from the AI pioneer and developer of ChatGPT. Microsoft is a major backer of OpenAI, investing billions in the startup.
Nadella also weighed in on Altman’s pending return. The Microsoft CEO made direct mention of the need for “stable, well-informed and effective governance,” even though that probably won’t improve the plot lines for future OpenAI soap opera episodes. 
The OpenAI board never gave exact reasons for the dismissal, although rumors of an argument between Altman and a board member, as well as tension about the speed of AI’s progress, were listed as the motivation for the dismissal.
SoapenAI Weekend Re-Cap
Reuters re-capped Altman’s return that kicked off with his firing then his rehiring as the head a new research team at Microsoft.
OpenAI’s board then rejected his first attempt to return to the startup and named ex-Twitch boss Emmett Shear as interim CEO. Shear welcomed the news of Altman’s return, which he said followed “~72 very intense hours of work.”
“This was the pathway that maximized safety alongside doing right by all stakeholders involved,” Shear said.
Outside, policymakers and business leaders seemed to welcome Altman’s return, but many still seem to show shaken faith based on the bizarre board actions and resulting weekend drama.
“While it’s still unclear exactly what the tug-of-war prompting his initial departure involved, Sam Altman’s views about how to run the company will dominate future direction, especially given he’ll be supervised under a new board,” Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, told Reuters.
So, until next week on SoapenAI…
Will Altman have the rug pulled out on his return…
Will Nadella finally get a break from issuing supportive statements on X…
Will AGI finally be achieved and replace both the board and Altman…
We’ll find out next time in Days of OpenAI Lives.
