Tag Archives: Board & Management Changes

Microsoft joins OpenAI board as Sam Altman returns as CEO

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Following Sam Altman's rollercoaster of a return as OpenAI's CEO, the company announced — on the eve of ChatGPT's first anniversary — that it will now include Microsoft as a non-voting observer on its board. The question remains as to why the firm's largest investor wasn't on its board in the first place, but this seems to be somewhat addressed for now, at least. Altman is joined by co-founder Greg Brockman who resumes his role as President, whereas Mira Murati, who very briefly served as interim CEO throughout the drama, will return to her role as CTO.

The announcement also confirms a new board consisting of former Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor (chair), former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and original member Adam D'Angelo, who is also Quora's co-founder and CEO. It was earlier rumored that Altman's exit was partly influenced by D'Angelo's seeming conflict of interest, as OpenAI was developing a potential competitor to Quora's Poe service — the latter offers OpenAI's ChatGPT and GPT-4, along with several other text-generating AI models.

D'Angelo's presence on OpenAI's new board came as a surprise, and Altman took to X to address the elephant in the room. "Quora is a large customer of OpenAI and we found it helpful to have customer representation on our Board." The exec added that D'Angelo "has always been very clear... about the potential conflict and doing whatever he needed to do," including offering to leave the board, if necessary. As to why the original board wanted Altman out, he said "it is clear that there were real misunderstandings between me and members of the board."

OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever was a former board member who allegedly led the ouster of Altman. The exec later openly admitted that he "deeply regret my participation in the board's actions" (with Elon Musk begging for attention in his thread), and he had since voiced his support for Altman's return as CEO. In his open message, Altman says "I harbor zero ill will towards him," and that his team is figuring out a way to let Sutskever continue his work at OpenAI.

In the same official announcement, OpenAI's new Chair, Taylor, assured that the company will "enhance the governance structure," and put together "an independent committee of the Board to oversee a review of the recent events," for the sake of the organization's stability.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-joins-openai-board-as-sam-altman-returns-as-ceo-023844090.html?src=rss

Microsoft joins OpenAI board as Sam Altman returns as CEO

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Following Sam Altman's rollercoaster of a return as OpenAI's CEO, the company announced that it will now include Microsoft as a non-voting observer on its board. The question remains as to why the firm's largest investor wasn't on its board in the first place, but this seems to be somewhat addressed for now, at least. Altman is joined by co-founder Greg Brockman who resumes his role as President, whereas Mira Murati, who very briefly served as interim CEO throughout the drama, will return to her role as CTO.

The announcement also confirms a new board consisting of former Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor (chair), former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and original member Adam D'Angelo, who is also Quora's co-founder and CEO. It was earlier rumored that Altman's exit was partly influenced by D'Angelo's seeming conflict of interest, as OpenAI was developing a potential competitor to Quora's Poe service — the latter offers OpenAI's ChatGPT and GPT-4, along with several other text-generating AI models.

D'Angelo's presence on OpenAI's new board came as a surprise, and Altman took to X to address the elephant in the room. "Quora is a large customer of OpenAI and we found it helpful to have customer representation on our Board." The exec added that D'Angelo "has always been very clear... about the potential conflict and doing whatever he needed to do," including offering to leave the board, if necessary. As to why the original board wanted Altman out, he said "it is clear that there were real misunderstandings between me and members of the board."

OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever was a former board member who allegedly led the ouster of Altman. The exec later openly admitted that he "deeply regret my participation in the board's actions" (with Elon Musk begging for attention in his thread), and he had since voiced his support for Altman's return as CEO. In his open message, Altman says "I harbor zero ill will towards him," and that his team is figuring out a way to let Sutskever continue his work at OpenAI.

In the same official announcement, OpenAI's new Chair, Taylor, assured that the company will "enhance the governance structure," and put together "an independent committee of the Board to oversee a review of the recent events," for the sake of the organization's stability.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-joins-openai-board-as-sam-altman-returns-as-ceo-023844090.html?src=rss

Sam Altman reinstated as OpenAI CEO five days after being fired

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Sam Altman is returning to OpenAI as CEO after his firing five days ago launched the company onto one of the wildest rollercoaster rides in tech history. Former president Greg Brockman, who resigned on Friday in protest, will also return, The Verge's sources say. The original board has been disbanded and replaced by a new, temporary three-man board with Bret Taylor (chair), Larry Summers and original board member Adam D'Angelo, the company said in a post on X. 

The agreement has been struck "in principal," and must still be approved by all parties. The only job of the initial board will be to vet and appoint a permanent board with up to 9 members that will reset OpenAI's governance. One of those seats will likely to go Microsoft and Altman himself, The Verge reported.

Altman confirmed the news in a separate post. "With the new board and with Satya's support, I'm looking forward to returning to OpenAI and building on our strong partnership with [Microsoft]," he said. That means Altman wouldn't join Microsoft after all, though he added that he felt his decision at the time "was the best path for me and the team." 

"We are encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella added in another post. "We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance."

Another major OpenAI investor, Thrive Capital, issued a statement calling Altman's return "the best outcome for the company, its employees, those who build on their technologies and the world at large." Helen Toner, who reportedly had a hand in ousting Altman in the first place, posted "and now, we all get some sleep." 

The timeline over the last week reads almost like a telenovela. It commenced with the shocking termination of CEO Altman late in the day on Friday, November 17, followed by Brockman announcing that we would quit in protest. OpenAI then appointed CTO Mira Murati as interim CEO. The board stated that Altman was terminated for not being "consistently candid" in communications, a confusing comment that only generated more speculation. 

The drama continued on the weekend, as Nadella was reportedly "furious" over the decision, particularly because Microsoft was only given a few minutes of notice before the decision was publicly revealed. On Saturday he announced that Microsoft "remained committed" to its OpenAI partnership, but simultaneously revealed that he was hiring Altman to head a new AI division. By the end of the weekend, Murati was replaced as CEO by Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear.

On Monday, nearly the entire OpenAI staff told the board in an open letter that it would resign and join the new Microsoft subsidiary if Altman didn't return to the company as CEO. Things weren't looking great when the board failed to respond to the letter by the stated deadline, despite a post from co-founder Ilya Sutskever taking some blame for the situation. Compounding things, Shear threatened to step down as CEO, saying Altman's termination was "handled very badly."

Yesterday, it was reported that Altman was again negotiating with the board to return as CEO. However, as recently as a few hours ago, it still looked like Altman would be heading to Microsoft and perhaps taking many of OpenAI's employees with him. Shear's threat to quit reportedly lit a fire under OpenAI's board, which restarted negotiations with Altman in earnest, leading to today's announcement that he'd be coming back after all. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sam-altman-is-reinstated-as-openai-ceo-five-days-after-being-fired-070037749.html?src=rss

Sam Altman is said to be in talks with the OpenAI board about a possible return

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Even though it seemed that former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman would lead a new AI research division at Microsoft, he might still get his old job back. According to Bloomberg, the OpenAI board — which caused chaos at the company when it fired Altman on Friday — has reopened discussions with the former chief executive regarding his possible reinstatement.

The talks are said to involve board member (and Quora CEO) Adam D’Angelo as well as OpenAI investors, some of whom have been pushing for Altman's return. According to the report, board members "largely refused to engage" with Altman until Monday, so these latest talks are said to be a significant development.

Meanwhile, Kevin Scott, Microsoft's chief technology officer, said that his company will match the compensation OpenAI workers are currently receiving if they jump ship. Most of the company's workers have threatened to walk unless the OpenAI board resigns and reinstates Altman and former president Greg Brockman (who resigned in protest over the board booting out Altman). They warned the board on Monday that Microsoft is willing to hire them too, and Scott has confirmed that.

“To my partners at OpenAI: We have seen your petition and appreciate your desire potentially to join Sam Altman at Microsoft’s new AI Research Lab,” Scott wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Know that if needed, you have a role at Microsoft that matches your compensation and advances our collective mission.”

It's unclear whether Scott's offer is contingent on Altman officially joining Microsoft, as CNBC notes. In any case, OpenAI workers may not have too much trouble finding a new job if they resign, as many tech companies are battling to hire AI experts. For instance, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said that any OpenAI researcher who has quit will receive matching salary and equity if they join his company.

Meanwhile, in interviews he gave after saying Altman and Brockman were joining his company on Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reiterated that he wants to keep working with OpenAI. However, he noted "that depends on the people of OpenAI staying there or coming to Microsoft. So I’m open to both options, but one thing I will not do is stop innovating." Nadella also said that “At this point, I think it’s very clear that something has to change around the governance" at the ChatGPT operator.

After Altman's sudden firing, he and Brockman spent the weekend in crunch talks with the OpenAI board in an effort to get their jobs back. Those initial talks proved unsuccessful, and the board has appointed former Twitch chief executive Emmett Shear as interim CEO. 

The OpenAI board has declined to share the exact reasoning for its decision to fire Altman, though it claimed that he had not been "consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities." After he took the reins, Shear said he'd bring in an independent investigator "to dig into the entire process leading up to this point and generate a full report.” According to Bloomberg, Shear has told folks in the OpenAI orbit that he won't stay on board if he doesn't get a clear explanation from the board as to why it ousted Altman.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sam-altman-is-said-to-be-in-talks-with-the-openai-board-about-a-possible-return-185425350.html?src=rss

What is going on with OpenAI and Sam Altman?

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It’s been an eventful weekend at OpenAI’s headquarters in San Francisco. In a surprise move Friday, the company’s board of directors fired co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, which set off an institutional crisis that has seen senior staff resign in protest with nearly 700 rank-and-file employees threatening to do the same. Now the board is facing calls for its own resignation, even after Microsoft had already swooped in to hire Altman’s cohort away for its own AI projects. Here’s everything you need to know about the situation to hold your own at Thanksgiving on Thursday.

How it started

Thursday, November 16

This saga began forever ago by internet standards, or last Thursday in the common parlance. Per a tweet from former-company president Greg Brockman, that was when OpenAI’s head researcher and board member, Ilya Sutskever, contacted Altman to set up a meeting the following day at noon. In that same tweet chain (posted Friday night), Brockman accused the company of informing the first interim-CEO, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, of the upcoming firings at that time as well:

- Last night, Sam got a text from Ilya asking to talk at noon Friday. Sam joined a Google Meet and the whole board, except Greg, was there. Ilya told Sam he was being fired and that the news was going out very soon.

- At 12:19PM, Greg got a text from Ilya asking for a quick call. At 12:23PM, Ilya sent a Google Meet link. Greg was told that he was being removed from the board (but was vital to the company and would retain his role) and that Sam had been fired. Around the same time, OpenAI published a blog post.

- As far as we know, the management team was made aware of this shortly after, other than Mira who found out the night prior.

Friday, November 17

Everything kicked off at that Friday noon meeting. Brockman was informed that he would be demoted — removed from the board but remain president of the company, reporting to Murati once she’s installed. Barely ten minutes later, Brockman alleges, Altman was informed of his termination as the public announcement was published. Sutskever subsequently sent a company-wide email stating that “Change can be scary,” per The Information.

Later that afternoon, the OpenAI board along with new CEO Murati addressed a “shocked” workforce in an all-hands meeting. During that meeting, Sutskever reportedly told employees the moves will ultimately “make us feel closer."

At this point, Microsoft, which just dropped a cool $10 billion into OpenAI’s coffers in January as part of a massive, multi-year investment deal with the company weighed in on the day’s events. CEO Satya Nadella released the following statement:

As you saw at Microsoft Ignite this week, we’re continuing to rapidly innovate for this era of AI, with over 100 announcements across the full tech stack from AI systems, models and tools in Azure, to Copilot. Most importantly, we’re committed to delivering all of this to our customers while building for the future. We have a long-term agreement with OpenAI with full access to everything we need to deliver on our innovation agenda and an exciting product roadmap; and remain committed to our partnership, and to Mira and the team. Together, we will continue to deliver the meaningful benefits of this technology to the world.

By Friday evening, things really began to spiral. Brockman announced via Twitter that he quit in protest. Director of research Jakub Pachocki and head of preparedness Aleksander Madry announced that they too were resigning in solidarity.

How it’s going

Saturday/Sunday, November 18/19

On Saturday, November 18, the backtracking begins. Altman’s Friday termination notice states that, “Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”

The following morning, OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap wrote in internal communications obtained by Axios that the decision “took [the management team] by surprise” and that management had been in conversation “with the board to try to better understand the reasons and process behind their decision.”

“We can say definitively that the board’s decision was not made in response to malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices,” Lightcap wrote. “This was a breakdown in communication between Sam and the board … We still share your concerns about how the process has been handled, are working to resolve the situation, and will provide updates as we’re able.”

A report from The Information midmorning Saturday revealed that OpenAI’s prospective share sale being led by Thrive Capital, valued at $86 billion, is in jeopardy following Altman’s firing. Per three unnamed sources within the company, even if the sale does go through, it will likely be at a lower valuation. The price of OpenAI shares has tripled since the start of the year, and quadrupled since 2021, so current and former employees, many of whom were offered stock as hiring incentives, were in line for a big payout. A payout might not be coming anymore.

On Saturday afternoon, Altman announced on Twitter that he would be forming a new AI startup with Brockman’s assistance, potentially doing something with AI chips to counter NVIDIA’s dominance in the sector. At this point OpenAI’s many investors, rightly concerned that their money was about to go up in generative smoke, began pressuring the board of directors to reinstate Altman and Brockman.

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella reportedly led that charge. Bloomberg’s sources say Nadella was “furious” over the decision to oust Altman — especially having been given just “a few minutes” of notice before the public announcement was made — even going so far as to recruit Altman and his cohort for their own AI efforts.

Microsoft also has leverage in the form of its investment, much of which is in the form of cloud compute credits (which the GPT platform needs to operate) rather than hard currency. Denying those credits to OpenAI would effectively hobble the startup’s operations.

Interim-CEO Mira Murati’s 48-hour tenure at the head of OpenAI came to an end on Sunday when the board named Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear as the new interim-CEO. According to Bloomberg reporter Ashley Vance, Murati had planned to hire Altman and Brockman back in a move designed to force the board of directors into action. Instead, the board “went into total silence” and “found their own CEO Emmett Shear.” Altman spent Sunday at OpenAI HQ, posting an image of himself holding up a green “Guest” badge.

“First and last time i ever wear one of these,” he wrote.

Monday, November 20

On Monday morning, an open letter from more than 500 OpenAI employees circulated online. The group threatened to quit and join the new Microsoft subsidiary unless the board itself resigns and brings back Altman and Brockman (and presumably the other two as well). The number of signatories has since grown to nearly 700.

Despite Sutskever’s early morning mea culpa, that seemed unlikely. The board had missed its deadline to respond to the open letter, Microsoft claimed to have hired Altman and Brockman and Shear had been named interim CEO.

Shear stepped down as CEO of Twitch in March, where he led the company for more than 16 years and has been working as a partner at Y Combinator for the past seven months. Amazon acquired the live video streaming app in 2014 for just under $1 billion.

“I took this job because I believe that OpenAI is one of the most important companies currently in existence. When the board shared the situation and asked me to take the role, I did not make the decision lightly,” Shear told OpenAI employees Monday.

“Ultimately I felt that I had a duty to help if I could,” he added.

Shear was quick to point out that Altman’s termination was “handled very badly, which has seriously damaged our trust.” As such he announced the company will hire an independent investigator to report on the run-up to Friday’s SNAFU.

“The board did *not* remove Sam over any specific disagreement on safety, their reasoning was completely different from that,” Shear continued. “I’m not crazy enough to take this job without board support for commercializing our awesome models.”

Following his departure to Microsoft on Monday, Altman posted, “the OpenAI leadership team, particularly mira brad and jason but really all of them, have been doing an incredible job through this that will be in the history books.”

“Incredibly proud of them,” he wrote.

There was one more twist in store on Monday, however. Reports suggested that Altman's move to Microsoft wasn't a sure thing — and that he was still angling for a return to OpenAI.

Tuesday, November 21

Tuesday was another eventful day in this soap opera-esque saga. Altman was said to be discussing his potential return to OpenAI with the board, just four days after those same people booted him out of the company. Bloomberg reported that, until Monday, the board "largely refused to engage" with Altman, so the fresh talks were notable. The negotiations were said to involve board member Adam D’Angelo (who is CEO of Quora) along with OpenAI investors who had been pushing for Altman's return.

Things largely remained quiet on the OpenAI front for several hours. However, on Tuesday afternoon, Brockman posted about ChatGPT's voice conversation feature becoming available to all users. That raised a few eyebrows, given that he seemed not to be involved with the company at the time.

The biggest shock of all emerged late on Tuesday night (early Wednesday on the East Coast) when OpenAI said it had reached an agreement in principle for Altman to return as CEO. The company noted that all parties were "collaborating to figure out the details." Brockman also said late Tuesday that he was returning and "getting back to coding tonight."

The board has a new look as well, with only D’Angelo remaining. Google Maps co-creator and former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor succeeded Brockman as chair. Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is the other member of the three-person board, which will reportedly vet a new set of up to nine permanent directors who will have the task of resetting OpenAI's governance. One of those board seats is said to be earmarked for Altman, while Microsoft is set to take one.

"I love OpenAI, and everything I’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together," Altman said after the news of his return broke. "With the new board and with Satya's support, I'm looking forward to returning to OpenAI and building on our strong partnership with [Microsoft]." Altman added that when he decided to join Microsoft on Sunday evening, he felt at the time that "was the best path for me and the team."

"We are encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board," Nadella wrote on X. "We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance." Other OpenAI investors, such as Thrive Capital, were pleased about Altman's return, as was Shear.

"I am deeply pleased by this result, after ~72 very intense hours of work," Shear wrote. "Coming into OpenAI, I wasn’t sure what the right path would be. This was the pathway that maximized safety alongside doing right by all stakeholders involved. I’m glad to have been a part of the solution." In a nod to his time at Twitch and that platform's speedrunning community, Shear joked that he'd zipped through his time as OpenAI CEO in 55 hours and 32 minutes.

Many OpenAI workers went to the company's office to celebrate Altman and Brockman's return. At one point during the party, a smoke machine was said to have triggered a fire alarm.

Altman and Brockman may not have too much time to enjoy their stunning comeback before it's back to serious business, though. It also emerged on Tuesday that yet another lawsuit has been filed alleging that OpenAI didn't gain permission from rights holders before using their intellectual property without permission to train its generative AI models. In this case, a group of non-fiction authors say OpenAI did not compensate them for feeding their books and academic journals into its systems.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-is-going-on-with-openai-and-sam-altman-215725312.html?src=rss

Cruise co-founder resigns following CEO exit

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Cruise, the self-driving car company owned by General Motors, confirmed to Reuters that its co-founder and chief product officer Daniel Kan has resigned. Kan’s departure comes just a day after the company’s CEO Kyle Vogt announced his resignation on X after a 10-year tenure. Kan is said to have announced his resignation over Slack, however, the reasoning for his departure has not been made clear by the company.

The company’s executive reshuffling follows a public relations nightmare that started last month when a Cruise robotaxi hit a pedestrian in San Francisco and pinned them under the vehicle. The parent company, GM, is still conducting a safety probe on the accident and both autonomous and manual vehicle operations at Cruise remain suspended. The company’s public image has been reeling from the accident ever since, and about 950 robotaxis had to be recalled by GM. The California DMV suspended Cruises’ driverless permits shortly after, and that ruling has remained in place.

In a recent tweet, Cruise said that the company is focused on taking steps “to rebuild public trust.” Things have yet to look up for the company, especially after an expose by The Intercept revealed that the company knew its self-driving cars have trouble recognizing children and large holes in the roads. Furthermore, the former CEO said that the company would have to lay off an undisclosed number of employees and staff members in a memo.

Cruise has not made any statements about finding replacements for either its CEO or chief product officer as of yet. The New York Times reports that “instead of installing a new chief executive” General Motors has appointed two new members to the company board and Mo Elshenawy, Cruise’s executive vice president of engineering, will take up the role of President.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cruise-co-founder-resigns-following-ceo-exit-214747271.html?src=rss

Most of OpenAI’s staff threatens to quit unless the board resigns and reinstates Sam Altman as CEO

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The OpenAI chaos took another twist on Monday morning as most of the company's staff threatened to quit unless the board resigns and reinstates former CEO Sam Altman and ex-president Greg Brockman. According to Wired and Kara Swisher, around 500 employees — including several executives — signed the letter at the outset. 

By Monday afternoon, the number of signatories had swelled to more than 700, according to Bloomberg. That's almost all of the company's approximately 770 employees. Several staff members, including Chief Technical Officer Mira Murati (who held the company's top job on an interim basis for less than a weekend), wrote on X early Monday that "OpenAI is nothing without its people."

The letter to the board is the latest development in a series of events that started on Friday afternoon, when OpenAI's board fired Altman. The board claimed Altman had not been "consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities." As such, the board felt it no longer had "confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI." Brockman told OpenAI staff in an email on Friday that he was resigning as chairman "based on today's news." 

Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap later said in a leaked internal memo that Altman was sacked due to “a breakdown in communication,” not “malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices.”

Altman and Brockman held crunch talks with OpenAI's board over the weekend in an attempt to get their jobs back. But those discussions did not work out in the favor of the former CEO and chairman. It emerged late Sunday night that the board had instead opted to hire former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear as OpenAI's interim chief executive.

There was yet another major development late Sunday/early Monday morning, as Microsoft hired Altman, Brockman and several of their former OpenAI colleagues to head up a new advanced AI research team. Microsoft is OpenAI's biggest investor and it's using the company's tech to help power its generative AI-driven products such as Copilot. The news of Altman's firing reportedly caught Microsoft by surprise. Even though there were suggestions that Satya Nadella has effectively acquihired OpenAI for free, the Microsoft CEO said his company remains "committed to our partnership with OpenAI."

Although Nadella says Altman, Brockman and others now seemingly have new positions at Microsoft, that may not yet be a done deal. According to The Verge, Altman and Brockman may still get their jobs back at OpenAI if the board steps aside. 

If Altman and Brockman don't return to OpenAI, hundreds of employees may end up joining them at Microsoft. In their letter, OpenAI employees accused the board of acting against the best interests of the company.

"Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAI. We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgement and care for our mission and employees," the letter reads. "We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAI and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join. We will take this step imminently, unless all current board members resign, and the board appoints two new lead independent directors, such as Bret Taylor and Will Hurd, and reinstates Sam Altman and Greg Brockman."

Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI board member and the company’s chief scientist, was reportedly the person who coordinated the coup against Altman. However, Sutskever has now expressed regret for "my participation in the board's action" and pledged to do "do everything I can to reunite the company." Sutskever is one of the letter's several hundred signees.

Update 11/20 2:33PM ET: Updated to reflect that more than 700 OpenAI employees have signed the letter. Also noted that Altman and Brockman's move to Microsoft isn't necessarily a done deal.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/most-of-openais-staff-threatens-to-quit-unless-the-board-resigns-and-reinstates-sam-altman-as-ceo-142138044.html?src=rss

Sam Altman will not be returning to OpenAI

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Talks over reinstating co-founder and former CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI have apparently broken down. According to The Information and Bloomberg, the board has now hired Altman's fellow Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear as OpenAI's new interim CEO. This appointment was reportedly announced internally by co-founder and board director Ilya Sutskever.

According to a statement he posted on X, Shear's first moves as CEO will include hiring "an independent investigator to dig into the entire process leading up to this point and generate a full report," and to "reform the management and leadership team in light of recent departures." Shear notes that, dependent on the results of the investigation, he is willing make changes to the organization, including, if necessary, "pushing strongly for significant governance changes."

Altman was originally fired from OpenAI over "a breakdown in communication between Sam and the board," according to an oddly blunt internal staff memo published by Axios over the weekend. The news was subsequently followed by resignations from several key team members, including co-founder Greg Brockman — who was ousted as the chairman of the board — along with a few senior researchers. They may end up joining Altman in one of his rumored new ventures — to develop an AI chip to rival NVIDIA, as well as to build an AI-centric hardware in collaboration with former Apple designer, Jony Ive.

It won't be just Altman leaving either. According to a separate report from The Information, "dozens" of OpenAI employees announced internally that they'd be quitting the company as well. Over the weekend, some expressed interest in joining a potential new startup from Altman and could end up with rival companies looking to poach staff, including Google. 

On Monday morning, the majority of OpenAI's employees (originally "over 490," according to Wired, but now 505, according to journalist Kara Swisher), called on the board to resign. Signees include former interim CEO Mira Murati and chief scientist/board member Ilya Sutskever. The letter suggests the signees will leave OpenAI and join the new Microsoft subsidiary headed up by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, unless all current members resign, the board appoints new independent directors and reinstates Altman and Brockman.

The board had allegedly considered reversing Altman's firing, though according to an earlier Bloomberg report, the ousted exec wanted the existing board to resign, and that OpenAI to issue a public apology to him. This arrangement obviously didn't take place in the end. Questions remain as to whether those who walked out with Altman will go back to OpenAI, and how this bizarre series of events will affect the development of GPT-5 plus other related projects.

Update 10:45AM ET: This article has been updated since publish to include Shear's statements about his immediate plans for OpenAI, and the letter calling for OpenAI's board to resign.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sam-altman-will-not-be-returning-to-openai-062957892.html?src=rss

Sam Altman and Greg Brockman are meeting with OpenAI execs now at HQ in ongoing talks over reinstatement

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Newly ousted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and former president Greg Brockman are meeting with executives at the company’s San Francisco headquarters now as discussions about possibly reinstating their positions continue, The Information reports. Per The Information, interim CEO Mira Murati and others have been leading the push to get Altman reinstated as CEO, and invited the two to HQ on Sunday. Altman and Brockman showed up for talks this afternoon, sources told The Information.

Around the time of the report’s publication, Altman tweeted a photo of himself wearing a guest badge for entry into the building, writing, “first and last time i ever wear one of these (sic)” — which could be interpreted several different ways, at this point. Sources told The Verge that Altman has set a 5PM PT deadline for board members to reach an agreement that could ultimately determine whether he walks away from OpenAI, or they do. 

After Altman was fired without warning on Friday, Brockman stepped down in solidarity, along with a slew of senior researchers. Other staff members have reportedly pledged to resign as well and follow the two to other projects, signaling their support on social media, according to The Verge. The state of Altman's position — and OpenAI’s future leadership — has remained up in the air this weekend as backlash against the board’s initial decision grows. On Saturday evening, The Verge broke news that the board was considering reinstating him as CEO, and had “agreed in principle” to resign if so. But, the board reportedly couldn’t make up its collective mind in time, and missed the deadline that had been set for the decision. 

According to Bloomberg, that’s at least in part because they’ve hit a brick wall in trying to agree on what the board will look and what its role will be if he’s reinstated. Altman reportedly wants the existing board gone if he’s to return, among other “governance changes” — including making former Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor a board member and possibly bringing on a Microsoft executive, Bloomberg reported, though the latter has not yet made a decision.

There has been much speculation over the reason behind Altman’s removal as CEO and from the OpenAI board of directors, which came as a surprise to Altman, staff, and investors. An internal memo sent that morning to staff and seen by Axios said that the decision to unseat Altman came as the result of “a breakdown in communication between Sam and the board.” It “was not made in response to malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices,” the memo from COO Brad Lightcap said.

Altman was fundraising for a custom AI chip project codenamed “Tigris” prior to his unexpected firing, Bloomberg reported. Per Bloomberg and The New York Times, which previously reported on his plans for other AI ventures, Altman has already pitched the idea of custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) that would rival NVIDIA’s to potential investors in the Middle East. He was also reportedly looking for backers to fund his hardware collaboration with former Apple designer, Jony Ive, for which he approached SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son. Sources with knowledge of the discussions told Bloomberg that Altman is trying to raise “tens of billions of dollars” to get these projects off the ground.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sam-altman-and-greg-brockman-are-meeting-with-openai-execs-now-in-ongoing-talks-over-reinstatement-212124319.html?src=rss

Sam Altman was ‘shocked and saddened’ after he was fired as CEO of OpenAI

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Sam Altman and Greg Brockman were "shocked and saddened by what the board did" and are still trying to figure out what exactly happened. The former CEO and the former President of OpenAI have published a post on X, sharing the details of what they do know and how they found out the former was being fired. Apparently, company co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever invited Altman for a meeting at noon on Friday, which was then attended by the whole board except for Brockman. It was at that meeting that Altman found out he was being fired and that OpenAI was going to announce it "very soon."

Shortly after that, Sutskever reportedly invited Brockman to a separate Google Meet conference, where he was told that Altman had gotten fired and that he was being removed from the board. However, the board members told him that he was "vital to the company and would retain his role." Brockman chose to quit on his own. The two former OpenAI executives also said that the rest of the company's management team outside of interim CEO Mira Murati only found out about the board's decision after Altman was already removed from his post. "The outpouring of support has been really nice; thank you, but please don’t spend any time being concerned," their joint statement reads. "We will be fine. Greater things coming soon."

While OpenAI's c-suite shakeup might have come as a surprise to onlookers, employees were reportedly very much aware that turmoil was brewing within the organization. According to The Information, Altman's ouster followed internal arguments on whether OpenAI was developing artificial intelligence technology in a safe manner. During the all-hands meeting after Altman's firing, employees asked Sutskever if the CEO's removal was a "coup" or a "hostile takeover." That seems to imply that some personnel were wondering whether the organization's leadership removed Altman because he was was commercializing OpenAI's technology too quickly at the expense of potential safety concerns. 

Bloomberg says Altman and Sutskever were the two people within the organization who butted heads the most when it came to the speed of development and the company's commercialization. Sutskever is one of the two employees leading a team within OpenAI that's dedicated to preventing its technologies from going rogue. He and his allies within the company may also have been put off by Altman raising funds using OpenAI's name, Bloomberg continues. The former CEO had huge ambitions for OpenAI, and the news organization says he was looking to secure funding worth tens of millions of dollars from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds in order to develop AI chips that can compete with NVIDIA processors. 

The well-sourced journalist and podcast host Kara Swisher posted similar information on X. She said employees felt that "the profit direction of the company under Altman and the speed of development" were at odds with the "nonprofit side dedicated to more safety and caution." Swisher also said she expects more major departures of "top folks" at OpenAI. The Information reported afterward that three senior researchers have left the company: Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI's director of research, Aleksander Madry, who headed a team evaluating potential risks from AI, and Szymon Sidor, who'd been with the organization for seven years. 

These concerns over the safety of AI development within the organization didn't pop up overnight, however. OpenAI has been grappling with the issue from the beginning, and it's the reason why a group of employees left in 2020 to form their own startup that became known as Anthropic. Still, investors were blindsided by Altman's firing, Forbes reports. Even Microsoft, which pledged to invest $10 billion into the organization over the next few years, reportedly learned about his removal a minute before the announcement went out. 

Update, November 18, 2023, 1:40AM ET: This story has been updated to include additional details from Bloomberg's report.

Update, November 18, 2023, 3:04AM ET: Added information about the three senior researchers who left the company.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sam-altman-was-shocked-and-saddened-by-openais-decision-to-fire-him-051538582.html?src=rss