ChatGPT maker OpenAI on Tuesday said it reached an agreement for Sam Altman to return as CEO days after his ouster, and also agreed in principle to partly reconstitute the board of directors that had dismissed him.
Bret Taylor, formerly co-CEO of Salesforce and Larry Summers, former US treasury secretary, along with Quora CEO and current director Adam D’Angelo will be part of the board, OpenAI said.
Here’s what we know about them:
- Taylor, 43, is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur, who is also a board member at Shopify. Taylor will chair the OpenAI board.
- Summers, 68, is an American economist who has served as US secretary of the treasury from 1999 to 2001.
- A professor at Charles W Eliot University, Summers is also president emeritus at Harvard University.
- Summers is also on the board of Jack Dorsey’s Block and Skillsoft.
- D’Angelo, 39, is an American internet entrepreneur, best known as founder of California-based social question-and-answer website and online knowledge market Quora.
- A computer science graduate, D’Angelo was previously chief technology officer of Facebook for nearly two years till June 2008,
Altman’s return as OpenAI’s CEO, meanwhile, will strengthen his grip on the start-up and may leave fewer checks on his power as the company introduces technology that could upend industries, corporate governance experts and analysts said.
OpenAI is bringing Altman back just days after his ouster as well as installing the revamped board that could bring sharper scrutiny to the start-up at the heart of the AI boom, but strong support from investors including Microsoft may give Altman more leeway to commercialise the technology.
“Sam’s return may put an end to the turmoil on the surface, but there may continue to be deep governance issues,” said Mak Yuen Teen, director of the Centre for Investor Protection at the National University of Singapore Business School.
“Altman seems awfully powerful and it is unclear that any board would be able to oversee him. The danger is the board becomes a rubber stamp,” he said.
OpenAI’s new board will boast more experience at the top level and strong ties to both the US government and Wall Street.
The board fired Altman last week with little explanation and attempted to move on by naming an interim CEO twice. However, pressure from Microsoft — and the 38-year-old’s strong loyalty among the 700-plus OpenAI employees that caused nearly all of them to threaten to leave the company — led to Altman’s reinstatement as of Wednesday.
“Altman has been invigorated by the last few days,” GlobalData analyst Beatriz Valle said. But that could come at a cost, she said, adding that he has “too much power now”.
New OpenAI board
Taylor, former co-CEO of Salesforce who also played a key role in forcing through Elon Musk’s US$44-billion purchase of Twitter as a director, will be chairing the board.
“The fact that Summers and Taylor will join OpenAI is quite extraordinary and marks a dramatic reversal of fortunes in the company,” Valle said.
Summers, who also sits on the board of Jack Dorsey’s fintech firm Block, has in recent months been vocal about the potential job losses and disruption that could be caused by AI.
Read: OpenAI researchers warned board of AI breakthrough
“ChatGPT is coming for the cognitive class. It’s going to replace what doctors do,” he said in a post on X in April.
OpenAI’s previous board consisted of entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner, director of strategy at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, as well as Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, who also sits on the new board.
It was not immediately clear if any of the other directors would remain, including Sutskever, who joined in the effort to fire Altman then signed onto an employee letter demanding his return, expressing regret for her “participation in the board’s actions”.
OpenAI on X said it was “collaborating to figure out the details” of the new board.
Microsoft declined to comment. Summers and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Sutskever, Altman and Taylor could not be immediately reached for comment.
Some analysts say the management fiasco will ensure that OpenAI executives proceed cautiously, as the high-flying start-up will now be subject to more scrutiny. Several noted that companies such as Facebook parent Meta have flourished with a powerful CEO despite concerns about corporate governance.
Read: Against the odds, Microsoft emerges as the big winner from the OpenAI mess
“Sam definitely comes out stronger but also dirtied and will have more of a microscope from the AI and broader tech and business community,” Gartner analyst Jason Wong said. “He can no longer do no wrong.” — Aditya Soni and Aby Jose Koilparambil, (c) 2023 Reuters
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