Is Sam Altman Returning to Openai? The Reason He Got Fired in the First Place!

Is Sam Altman returning to OpenAI
Is Sam Altman returning to OpenAI

The company said in a post on X Tuesday that Sam Altman has decided to return to lead OpenAI. This comes just days after he was unexpectedly fired as CEO, which led to a revolt among employees that threatened to bring down the company that had been the leader in the new field of artificial intelligence.

The company also said that Bret Taylor, who used to be co-CEO of Salesforce, will lead the board. Along with Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, who is already a director, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will also join the board.

Altman said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that he is “looking forward” to going back to OpenAI and building on the company’s “strong partnership” with Microsoft, which is its biggest investor. After days of chaos in the AI industry, the announcement seems to have put a stop to talks about who should lead OpenAI and how the company should be run.

There were also larger talks about how fast the arms race to develop AI technology should go.

Why Was Altman Removed From Openai?

The facts of how Altman was fired and then hired again are still not clear. OpenAI said in its release on Friday that Altman had not been “honest” enough with the board.

The gossip mill went crazy with that vague language. But Altman was fired because of disagreements between Altman (who wanted to speed up AI development) and the original OpenAI board members (who wanted to move more slowly), according to CNN contributor Kara Swisher who talked to people who knew about the crisis.

Altman and Greg Brockman, another co-founder of OpenAI, were set to join Microsoft on Monday morning to run a new AI research division. This was announced by Nadella. OpenAI said it had hired Emmett Shear, who used to be CEO of Twitch, as its temporary CEO.

Then, hundreds of OpenAI workers—almost the whole staff—threatened to quit, maybe to work for Microsoft, if the board didn’t step down and put Altman back in charge.

Who Are the Members of the Openai Board?

Greg Brockman (Chairman & President):: Greg Brockman is the CEO and president of OpenAI. He also co-founded the company. He is a developer and computer scientist who has worked with AI and machine learning before.

Ilya Sutskever (Chief Scientist): Ilya Sutskever helped to create OpenAI and is now its chief scientist. It is his job to study artificial intelligence and machine learning. He is best known for his work on deep learning, which uses artificial neural networks to help machines learn.

Adam D’Angelo (Independent Director, Quora CEO): He is also an independent director and the CEO of Quora. He is a developer and computer scientist who has worked with AI and machine learning before.

Tasha McCauley (Independent Director): Tasha McCauley is an investor and business owner. She started the venture capital company Greylock Partners and is now its managing partner.

Helen Toner (Independent Director): Helen Toner is an expert on policy and used to be a minister. Her job at Georgetown University is to run the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (C-SET).

Is Sam Altman returning to OpenAI
Is Sam Altman returning to OpenAI

You might also like to read some other tech-related Articles:

Who is the Largest Shareholder of Openai?

With a 49% investment in OpenAI, Microsoft is the company’s largest shareholder. Microsoft’s funding in OpenAI has aided the company’s development of ground-breaking artificial intelligence capabilities. Microsoft has also been a significant partner to OpenAI, allowing the business access to its huge processing power and artificial intelligence expertise.

Other noteworthy shareholders of OpenAI include Reid Hoffman’s charitable organization and Khosla Ventures, in addition to Microsoft. These investors have been critical in advancing OpenAI’s objective to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.

The ownership structure of OpenAI is intended to keep the firm independent and focused on its objectives. The non-profit foundation of OpenAI has a majority of the votes on the company’s board, and its charter prohibits it from selling its shares. This structure ensures that no single shareholder or group of shareholders has influence over OpenAI.

The company’s commitment to democratizing artificial intelligence is reflected in OpenAI’s unique ownership structure. OpenAI believes that artificial intelligence should be developed for the benefit of humanity as a whole, and the company’s ownership structure is intended to help ensure that this goal is met.

Thank you for reading! We hope you’ll bookmark The Current Online and come back for more great content.

Alex Hoffman-Ellis is a nerd who love technology and computers. He has been building computers for over 5 years now, and have always loved the challenge of learning how to make them faster, better, and more efficient. He's here to share his insights on these as a journalist, a designer and a technologist with love for writing and tech stuff. Words from Alex Hoffman: “Technology is best when it brings people together.”