In a whirlwind comeback by Sam Altman as OpenAI’s CEO, the company dropped a bombshell on the eve of ChatGPT’s first birthday—Microsoft is now hopping on board as a non-voting observer. It makes you wonder why their biggest investor wasn’t already on the board, but hey, they’re dealing with it now. Altman is back in the driver’s seat with co-founder Greg Brockman as the trusty President, and Mira Murati, who did a brief stint as interim CEO in the midst of the drama, is sliding back into her groove as CTO.
Here’s the big reveal: the fresh faces on the board include Bret Taylor, the ex-CEO of Salesforce, taking the helm as chair, Larry Summers, former Clinton Treasury Secretary, and the surprise addition of Adam D’Angelo, Quora’s co-founder and big shot CEO. Rumor had it that Altman’s exit dance was influenced by D’Angelo’s possible conflict of interest. Apparently, OpenAI was cooking up a rival to Quora’s Poe service, home to ChatGPT and GPT-4, and a bunch of other AI text generators.
Altman took to X to spill the tea on D’Angelo’s presence, saying, “Quora is a big customer of OpenAI, and having customer representation on our Board seemed like a bright idea.” D’Angelo, to his credit, was crystal clear about potential conflicts and even offered to jump ship if needed. Altman also addressed the elephant in the room, admitting there were “real misunderstandings” with the original board that led to his exit.
And then there’s the subplot with Ilya Sutskever, former board member and OpenAI co-founder, supposedly orchestrating Altman’s exit. Sutskever later regretted his part in the drama, and Altman, being the bigger person, expressed zero ill will and is working on keeping Sutskever in the OpenAI family.
