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Sam Altman will return to OpenAI’s board after a review of the events leading up to his dramatic ouster from the maker of ChatGPT found no evidence he should have been fired.
Altman was fired as CEO and removed from the board of directors of the artificial intelligence company he co-founded in November. The remaining board members reversed course days later, reinstating him as CEO and resigning instead.
A subsequent review of the chaos in the boardroom concluded that there had been a significant breakdown of trust between the previous board and Altman, but found no evidence that the CEO had misled investors or pushed product releases to a unsafe pace, according to former Salesforce chief Bret Taylor. , appointed president of OpenAI after the dissolution of the previous board.
“This was simply a breakdown of trust between the board and Mr. Altman,” Taylor said, adding that the previous board “acted in good faith and did not foresee some of the subsequent instability.”
Altman said on Friday: “I’m glad this whole thing is over. In recent months it has been disheartening to see some people with a specific agenda trying to tease out leaks in the press to try to damage the company and the mission. They didn’t work. They have been a disservice to OpenAI and the mission.”
Altman’s return to the board leaves the CEO with the same formal powers he held before the November coup. But his influence on the company has probably grown since then.
The vast majority of OpenAI employees and major supporters, including Microsoft, lobbied for Altman’s return to the helm after the previous board failed to produce clear evidence of serious wrongdoing in November, making it clear that they viewed the 38-year-old as a intrinsic part of OpenAI’s success.
The company has become the hottest start-up in Silicon Valley since the launch of its ChatGPT chatbot in November 2022, which led to a precipitous rise in the company’s private valuation to around $80 billion and kicked off to a widespread race to develop and implement generative artificial intelligence technology in a wide range of applications.
The November drama highlighted a tension in OpenAI’s unusual structure, in which a nonprofit board charged with benefiting all humanity governs a for-profit business that has become a commercial behemoth.
It also drew attention to Altman’s complex web of business interests, which includes multiple investment vehicles and independent projects, as well as OpenAI.
The company said Friday it will adopt new corporate governance guidelines, introduce new board committees and a whistleblower hotline and strengthen its conflict of interest policy.
In the wake of the boardroom coup, Taylor had hired law firm WilmerHale to conduct an independent investigation into Altman’s behavior and the decision to remove him.
After that review concluded Friday, Taylor’s special committee “expressed its full confidence” in the leadership of Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman.
OpenAI announced three more new board members on Friday: Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, former president of Sony Entertainment; and Fidji Simo, CEO of Instacart. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers was appointed to the board late last year. One previous board member, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, also remains in place.
According to Taylor, more board members will be appointed.