OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was appointed back to the company's revamped board of directors on Friday. Along with Altman, three new members were added, the company said in a statement. In addition, the board announced new governance measures – including a whistleblower hotline for OpenAI employees and contractors and a stricter conflict of interest policy, reports the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
Advertisement
In addition to Sam Altman, Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Nicole Seligman, former managing director of Sony Entertainment and Fidji Simo, head of the online delivery service Instacart, were added to the board of directors. With such a strong board and leadership, the company will become stronger and more stable, said Bret Taylor, Chairman of the OpenAI Board of Directors. Taylor told reporters that they would continue to accept board members, but he could not say more about the new guidelines on conflicts of interest.
Reasons for dismissal
Last November, Altman was unexpectedly fired by members of the previous board of directors. At first it was said that people had lost trust in Altman, then later the alleged breakthrough in superintelligence – Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) – was the reason for his departure.
The board said last year that Altman was fired for failing “to be consistently open in his communications with the board.” He did not provide further justification for his decisions, which angered OpenAI's executives and employees. As the WSJ reports, the board also justified its decision at the time by saying that some OpenAI executives had complained that Altman had a long history of pitting employees against each other or promising resources and responsibilities to different executives at the same time. There were also concerns about Altman's side projects and possible conflicts of interest, according to people familiar with the board's deliberations.
Altman's short-term move to Microsoft
Just two days after his dismissal, the board of directors – also under pressure from investors – was said to be ready to resign and Altman would return as CEO.
The dismissal was the start of a turbulent four-day phase in which Altman briefly toyed with the idea of founding an OpenAI competitor – ultimately moving to Microsoft to head a new AI department. Previously, around 90 percent of the entire workforce signed an open letter to the OpenAI board of directors demanding that Altman be reinstated, otherwise the almost 700 employees threatened to be fired.
Special Committee to Investigate Altman's Conduct
Due to pressure from employees and investors, the board reinstated Altman and three of the four directors who voted to fire Altman left the company. OpenAI named former Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers as independent directors and part of a special committee that launched an internal investigation into Altman's conduct, conducted by law firm WilmerHale, according to the report.
WilmerHale said it conducted dozens of interviews with former OpenAI directors, executives, consultants and others. In addition, more than 30,000 documents were examined before it was concluded that the trust between Altman and the board of directors – which had not expected such chaos due to Altman's dismissal – had been broken.
WilmerHale concluded that Altman's conduct “did not necessitate dismissal.”
The end of a turbulent chapter
The board changes and Altman's return mark the end of a turbulent chapter for the AI startup, which has been at the center of the artificial intelligence revolution since releasing ChatGPT in late 2022, according to the WSJ.
The new board members join Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo, Larry Summers and Chairman Bret Taylor. D'Angelo is the only person remaining on the board who voted to fire Altman in November.
(bme)