Months after temporary termination
Sam Altman returns to OpenAI board of directors
March 9, 2024, 1:28 a.m
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A few months ago, a back and forth with OpenAI caused an earthquake in the tech industry. The AI pioneer’s boss, Sam Altman, is fired, goes to Microsoft and returns a short time later. He is now part of the board of directors again.
Four months after his brief dismissal as head of the AI pioneer OpenAI, Sam Altman is now returning to the board of directors of the ChatGPT developer. Together with Altman, three women are joining the management board, as OpenAI announced on Friday: the former head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Sue Desmond-Hellmann, the former Sony top manager Nicole Seligman and the head of the online delivery service Instacart, Fiji Simo.
“Her experience and leadership will enable the Board to oversee OpenAI’s growth and ensure that we continue to pursue OpenAI’s mission of ensuring that General Artificial Intelligence serves all of humanity,” said Open AI Board Chairman Bret Taylor.
Coined ChatGPT
The board of directors unexpectedly fired Altman last November in a dispute over the direction of the ChatGPT developer, which triggered an earthquake in Silicon Valley. A few days later, OpenAI made a U-turn and announced that the 38-year-old would return to the top management of the company. Now he is returning to the board of directors.
As head of OpenAI, Altman had become the defining face of AI and a star of Silicon Valley. After his dismissal, hundreds of employees called for OpenAI’s board of directors to resign and threatened to quit and move to the software giant Microsoft. Altman had been hired there in the meantime. OpenAI and Microsoft are closely linked.