Sam Altman is back again. The entrepreneur, who was abruptly fired as CEO of OpenAI and the ChatGPT developer board last November and then re-elected a few days later, is now trying to regain a seat on the board as well.
Altman and three veteran executives, all women, were appointed to OpenAI's board of directors on Friday, OpenAI announced in a blog post Friday. Sue Desmond Hellman, former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Nicole Seligman, former Sony executive. Other board members include Fidji Simo, his CEO at Instacart and a former Meta executive.
OpenAI has been seeking to expand its board for months after announcing an interim board following the November turmoil. It was formed after some board members agreed to resign after Altman was forced out, but more than 95% of OpenAI employees threatened to quit unless Altman was brought back.
The company's governance has come under scrutiny over the past few years with the development of ChatGPT, Dall-E, and other services that have sparked a boom in generative AI technology.
Altman was abruptly fired by four members of OpenAI's nonprofit board of directors, which oversees the for-profit arm of AI development in a structure unusual in the tech industry. They expressed concern that communication with the board had not been consistently candid as part of their rationale for the move.
Altman returned as CEO after a tumultuous few days in which Microsoft announced it was hiring Altman and Brockman, and OpenAI employees threatened to quit en masse. Microsoft backed OpenAI with a $13 billion investment, and CEO Satya Nadella complained that he was surprised by Altman's firing and was given a seat on the board as an observer.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates…
