OpenAI rehires Sam Altman as CEO, after an attempted boardroom coup that created chaos in the company over the past several days.
Former president of OpenAI, Greg Brockman, who quit in protest of Altman’s firing, will also comeback as well.
OpenAI management said in a statement late Tuesday that it has an ‘agreement in principle’ for ousted CEO, Altman to return alongside a new board composed of Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo.
D’Angelo is a holdover from the previous board that initially fired Altman on Friday; he remains on this initial small board to give the previous board some representation.
A source with direct knowledge of the negotiations says that the sole job of this initial board is to vet and appoint a new formal board of up to 9 people that will reset the governance of OpenAI. Microsoft will likely have a seat on that expanded board, as will Altman himself.
Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella have both now tweeted about the deal to return, which appears to be a done deal minus some last-minute paperwork.
READ MORE: Sam Altman Joins Microsoft after Getting Fired from Open AI
When asked what “in principle” means, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company had “no additional comments at this time.”
We are told interim CEO Emmett Shear, appointed by the board to replace the previous interim CEO Mira Murati, threatened to resign unless the board could provide documentation or evidence of wrongdoing to support Altman’s firing, which seems like the move that ultimately caused the board to restart negotiations in earnest.
Via: The Verge
