Sam Altman returns to the OpenAI Board of Directors

The return is triumphant. OpenAI boss Sam Altman returned to the board of directors of the company he co-founded on Friday March 8, following a major governance crisis within the publisher of ChatGPT, a leading generative artificial intelligence (AI) program.

The thirty-year-old was abruptly fired in mid-November 2023 by the former board and then rehired a few days later, following an overwhelming majority of executives and OpenAI employees. Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI, backed Sam Altman and gained an observer seat on the board after members who criticized the boss were fired.

In a press release published Friday, OpenAIA announced the return of Sam Altman to the board and the arrival of three new members, three women: Sue Desmond-Hellman, former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Nicole Seligman, former Sony president and head of Instacart and Facebook’s mobile Former Director of Applications Fidji Simo.

The Californian start-up highlighted the experience of three new members “In leading international organizations and in managing complex regulatory environments, particularly in technology sectors”.

“His experience and leadership will enable the board to oversee OpenAI’s growth and ensure we continue OpenAI’s mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits us all.” humanity »Brett Taylor, chairman of OpenAI’s board of directors, was quoted as saying in the press release.

Silicon Valley Star

ChatGPT’s success, in late 2022, catapulted its creator to stardom in Silicon Valley and started a trend for generative AI (producing content based on simple queries in everyday language). For Sam Altman and his colleagues, the goal is to improve technology so that its cognitive abilities equal or surpass those of humans—what they call “general AI.”

In November 2023, four members of the board of directors justified the dismissal of Sam Altman by his absence. “Transparency” To him, without giving further details. According to American media, some board members criticized the Stanford alumnus for favoring the rapid development of OpenAI, even if it meant asking fewer questions about potential abuses of AI.

WilmerHale, an independent firm charged with investigating the crisis, estimated that “Sam Altman’s Conduct Did Not Justify His Dismissal”According to another press release from OpenAI on Friday. Office “There was a breakdown in trust between the former board of directors and Mr. Altman, which precipitated the events of November 17. (2023) »Company details.

The former C expressed hope “Mitigate internal management problems and did not expect his actions to destabilize the company”According to WilmerHale’s lawyers. They further believe that their decision “Not motivated by concerns about product safety or security, pace of development, OpenAI’s finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners” – Many reasons mentioned in the American press after the crisis.

“I’m glad this whole thing is over”Mr. Altman told reporters on Friday that he was shocked to see people leaking information to try to damage the company or its mission. “Play us against each other”. He also said he learned from the experience and apologized for an argument with a former board member, which he could have handled. “With more grace and attention”.

Elon Musk’s complaint

Last week, Elon Musk, one of OpenAI’s co-founders, filed a lawsuit against the company accusing Sam Altman and current management. “betrayal” Its initial mission – as per its statutes as a non-profit organization, was to work for the good of humanity and design “open source” AI programs (accessible, modifiable, usable and redistributable by all).

The boss of Tesla, SpaceX and X left the organization in 2018 and founded his own AI company xAI in 2023. He is particularly critical of OpenAI for its partnership with Microsoft, which has invested nearly $13 billion in the start-up in recent years. The two companies market AI services to developers and individuals and compete with Google and other tech giants in this space.

Sam Altman and other executives detailed their counterarguments with supportive emails on Tuesday, showing that Elon Musk was not opposed to the idea of ​​converting OpenAI to further his mission of creating general AI in the common good. In 2017, “We all realized that we would need a lot more capital to succeed in our mission – billions of dollars a year, more than any of us, especially Elon, thought we could raise as a non-profit organization »They specifically explain.

In late January, the American Competition Authority announced that it was investigating investments by Microsoft, Google and Amazon in major generative artificial intelligence start-ups, OpenAI and Anthropic.