Sam Altman leaves (and rejoins) OpenAI: Everything you need to know - updated

OpenAI's CEO post looks like the Hokey Cokey

It's been a hectic few days for ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Here's what's what now the dust has had a chance to settle.

Update 23rd November 2023: Sam Altman and Greg Brockman are back as the CEO and president of OpenAI, respectively, after nearly all the company's 700+ staff threatened to quit.

Emmett Shear, interim CEO, said he was "very pleased" with the result on Twitter.

Altman appears to have got his way in the "significant governance changes" he demanded earlier, with nearly the entire board - including OpenAI's chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever - stepping down. They have been replaced by a new board consisting of Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor (chair); Larry Summers, former US Treasury Secretary; and Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo, the only sitting member to retain his role.

That means both women on the board, Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner, have been replaced with men.

New information has also come to light about Altman's ousting, which appears to be related to a leap towards artificial general intelligence.

Reuters quotes sources saying that, just before Altman's removal, several scientists wrote a letter to the board warning of "a powerful artificial intelligence discovery that they said could threaten humanity."

According to the sources the letter and developments, in the Q* (Q-Star) project of OpenAI, were key in the board's decision to fire Altman.

Our original story continues below.

Last week the tech world looked on in shock as the OpenAI board sacked Sam Altman, the face of the Microsoft-backed company.

The board simply said Altman was "not consistently candid in his communications," and that it "no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI."

Greg Brockman, one of the company's co-founders and its president, also quit as a result.

According to The Information, three senior figures inside OpenAI also told associates they had resigned. They are Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI's director of research; Aleksander Madry, head of preparedness, who led a team evaluating AI risks; and Szymon Sidor, a researcher.

The Information also broke the news about Altman's apparent new venture. Quoting a source, the publication said Altman had been telling investors about a new AI venture and Brockman was expected to join him.

Although the exact nature of the new company is not known, it is apparently still under development.

Three days, three CEOs

Just one day after firing Altman, the board was allegedly in talks about his return. However, Altman was said to be "ambivalent" about the idea and would "want significant governance changes."

Those changes allegedly included the entire board stepping down.

Two deadlines passed - the latest at 5pm on Sunday - with no news, and the deal apparently fell apart.

While CTO Mira Murati stepped in as interim CEO over the weekend, the board moved quickly and found a new chief executive: Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear. Sources can't agree as to whether he will be a permanent appointee or is another interim leader.

Shear's appointment comes as a surprise, given he doesn't really have a presence in the AI space. However, he has been public about his calls for a slower rollout of the technology, which could align with the board's goals.

Unlike a traditional private company board, OpenAI's board is made up mostly of outsiders: OpenAI's chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever; Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo; Tasha McCauley, CEO of GeoSim Systems and co-founder of Fellow Robots; and Helen Toner, director of strategy and foundational research grants at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

The board's goal is not to maximise profits, but to ensure any future general artificial intelligence is safe and secure.

Investors are jittery

Microsoft has publicly continued to back OpenAI, with CEO Satya Nadella saying in a statement, "we remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap."

However, it is also making the best of the situation. At the same time as Nadella announced confidence in OpenAI, he shared the news that Microsoft had reached out to both Altman and Brockman and they had agreed to join the tech giant, leading a new advanced AI research team.

Many investors, including venture firms Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital, supported Altman in the recent spat, raising questions around their trust in the new leadership.

In addition, there had been a plan to raise money by selling as much as $1 billion in employee stock, which Thrive Capital had led. The deal was said to be nearing completion, and its future is now in question.

While it's been a hectic weekend for OpenAI, the landscape appears to have settled: Altman and Brockman are now at Microsoft, the OpenAI board is still in place and a new CEO has taken a seat. What that means for the company going forward, though, remains to be seen.