“OpenAI’s New Board Takes Over and Says Microsoft Will Have Observer Role: Group of Directors Will Expand and Strengthen Governance Structure following CEO Sam Altman’s Surprise Ouster and Return”, 2023-11-29 (; backlinks):
…Bret Taylor [the new board chairman] and Sam Altman, along with Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, said in interviews that OpenAI’s top priority, though, is reassuring its employees, customers and investors about the company’s future. “My immediate priority—and the current board’s too—will be to continue to work to stabilize the company”, Altman told The Wall Street Journal. “Reassuring people is a process, not a moment in time.”
Murati said OpenAI’s safety, research and product objectives won’t radically change under the new board. Altman, who also officially resumed his CEO role Wednesday evening, said he expects to have a good working relationship with the new board members following what he characterized as a “very intense last couple of weeks.”
In a separate interview, Taylor said the recent upheaval was “pretty traumatizing” for OpenAI employees, users and companies building with OpenAI’s technology. “We want to ensure that all of them can depend that OpenAI is going to continue to thrive for the long term”.
The plan to include an observer for Microsoft on the board, a role that Taylor said will be nonvoting, gives some indication of how the new board will handle one of the many thorny questions it needs to address: whether OpenAI’s investors will have more input and visibility into its future governance.
…In a note to employees Wednesday, Altman thanked a long list of advisers, partners and fellow executives, and praised OpenAI employees’ loyalty. The company didn’t lose any customers during the ordeal, Altman said.
Altman, as part of his return, agreed not to have a place on the board. In the interview, Altman added that rejoining the board wasn’t a specific objective for him. [This contradicts earlier reporting that an “eventual” return to the board had been agreed on.]
…Asked if OpenAI’s board could revisit this [double non-profit/for-profit] structure, Taylor said: “I think it’s a great question—probably not one for my first day on the job.”
He said the board would move as quickly as possible to hire directors and appoint outside counsel to handle an independent investigation into the events around Altman’s firing. “Job number one is stabilizing this organization.”
…Ilya Sutskever, who as a board member voted to remove Altman, later reversed his position following several intense discussions with OpenAI colleagues and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman’s wife, Anna Brockman. Wednesday, Altman told employees he harbored “zero ill will” toward Sutskever and is currently discussing “how he can continue his work at OpenAI.”