After 12 days of unemployment, Sam Altman has officially returned to OpenAI

OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman has officially returned to the office as the company's CEO, ending a whirlwind of sudden and unexpected layoffs.

Speaking to OpenAI employees in a corporate memo released on November 29, Altman confirmed that interim CEO Mira Murthy will step down and return to her former role as chief technology officer.

Altman also confirmed a “new initial board” with Salesforce CEO Brett Taylor as chairman, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Adam D'Angelo, CEO of the social Q&A website. D'Angelo was on OpenAI's board before the saga in mid-November. Greg Brockman will also continue as president of OpenAI.

❤️ https://t.co/9JnRmJMptH

— Sam Altman (@sama) November 30, 2023

“I've never been more excited about the future. I'm very grateful for everyone's hard work in this uncertain and unprecedented situation, and I believe our tenacity and spirit will make us unique in the industry. I feel our chances of success in achieving our mission are very good,” Altman told employees.

Altman signaled he would return to the executive role on Nov. 22, two days after he was initially fired. At the time, he agreed to lead a new advanced artificial intelligence (AI) research group at Microsoft under the leadership of Satya Nadella, which failed.

Microsoft has a non-voting seat on the OpenAI board

Altman said Microsoft will be included in the new board as a non-voting observer.

“We clearly made the right choice to partner with Microsoft and I am pleased that our new board will include non-voting observers,” he said.

A board observer is an individual who is authorized to attend and participate in the meetings of the board of directors, but does not have any voting rights, acting more like an advisor.

Microsoft was not initially expected to be given a seat at OpenAI, according to a Reuters report on Nov. 29, citing a person familiar with the matter.

That's despite Microsoft investing $13 billion in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPIT, in several deals since 2019.

Related: OpenAI Launches New ChatGPT Plus Registrations With High Demand

Looking ahead, Altman said he will focus on advancing the company's research agenda, improving its products and better serving customers, which are (technically) his second priority as the CEO.

The OpenAI team is irreplaceable — I couldn't be happier to be back working with @sama and @gdb. The mission continues.

— Mira Murati (@miramurati) November 30, 2023

In the same official announcement, Taylor emphasized that OpenAI will “improve the management structure” with an independent board committee to “review recent events” to give the company more stability. He believes the addition of Microsoft's board will help steady the ship.

“From technology to security to policy […] “We are pleased that this board will include Microsoft's non-voting observer,” he said.

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