The ousted leader of ChatGPT maker OpenAI will return to the company that fired him just days ago, concluding a short but chaotic power struggle that shocked the tech industry and underscored the conflicts around how to safely build artificial intelligence.
The San Francisco-based company said late Tuesday that it “reached an agreement in principle” for co-founder Sam Altman to return as CEO under a different board of directors.
The board will be led by former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, who chaired Twitter’s board before Elon Musk took over the platform last year. The other members will be former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo.
OpenAI’s previous board, which included D’Angelo, had refused to give specific reasons for firing Altman, leading to a weekend of internal conflict at the company and growing outside pressure from the startup’s investors.
The turmoil also accentuated the differences between Altman — who’s become the face of generative AI’s rapid commercialization since ChatGPT’s arrival a year ago — and board members who have expressed deep reservations about the safety risks posed by AI as it gets more advanced.
OpenAI brings back Sam Altman as CEO just days after his firing
Previous board had refused to give specific reasons for firing Altman, leading to a weekend of internal conflict at the company and growing outside pressure from the startup's investors.
