Sam Altman is taking back his position on OpenAI’s board of directors. This move also immediately means that the investigation surrounding Altman’s earlier resignation has come to an end.
The investigation is clear on the reason for Altman’s resignation from OpenAI, which was entirely due to a breach of trust with the previous board of directors. Altman was removed from his role as CEO of OpenAI in November 2023 and was required to leave the company immediately. The news came unexpectedly, and the company did not clarify the reason for dismissal. It was only mentioned that Altman had allegedly not been honest with the board, which hindered their work.
Earlier return not possible
Within five days, Altman returned as CEO. This was due to several things: the OpenAI staff turned against the dismissal, as did the CEO of Microsoft and finally also by the co-founder Ilya Sutskever who also helped cause the dismissal.
Tip: A detailed report on the circumstances that led to Altman’s return as CEO can be found in this article: ‘OpenAI board is checkmated; Altman must return as CEO’
Following the return of OpenAI’s CEO, an investigation was launched into the reason for dismissal. That’s where the brevity of the resignation led. The investigation now concludes that the breach of trust really counted as the reason. “The dismissal was not a necessity as a result of the CEO’s behavior. The resignation had nothing to do with concerns about product safety, the speed at which OpenAI is evolving, or financial accounts,” the investigation says. The investigation thus contradicts rumours that Altman did not share a breakthrough in artificial general intelligence (AGI) with the board. AGI is technology with the same level of intelligence as humans. As to the specific reason for Altman’s resignation, the investigation does not shed much light.
The board gets more members
The conclusion of the investigation also allows Atman to return to the board of directors. Previously, this board added three new members : Bret Taylor, Larry Summers and Adam D’Angelo. Now, another expansion is taking place. Sue Desmond-Hellman (former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), Nicole Seligman (former executive director at Sony) and Fidji Simo (CEO of Instacart), are joining. According to OpenAI, they can put their experience in leading global organizations to good use.
With the expansion of board members, the company will have more breathing room to set up new committees. Specifically, there is talk of creating a Mission & Strategy committee to focus on building on OpenAI’s core mission. That core mission has come under criticism from Elon Musk, co-founder of OpenAI, but is mostly known for owning the social media platform X and the companies Tesla and SpaceX. According to Musk, OpenAI and Altman put profits ahead of advancing humanity, even though the company was founded as a nonprofit. A lawsuit should shed more light on that.
Also read: OpenAI fights off Musk allegations and reveals internal emails
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