OpenAI Unveils New Board and Concludes Inquiry Into Sam Altman’s Dismissal

On Friday, OpenAI revealed the composition of its new board and the conclusion of an internal inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of its former CEO, Altman.

TFD – OpenAI announces a revamped board and wraps up an internal inquiry into the dismissal of CEO Sam Altman. The new board members and key findings shed light on the circumstances, signaling a new chapter for the renowned AI organization.

On Friday, OpenAI revealed the composition of its new board and the conclusion of an internal probe into the circumstances behind the dismissal of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Altman will also return to the board of OpenAI.

The recently appointed board members are:

As per the statement, the three recently appointed members will collaborate closely with the top management of OpenAI, Greg, Sam, and Adam D’Angelo, the current board members, and Larry Summers.

In the future, OpenAI intends to keep adding members to the board, a Zoom meeting with reporters revealed.

Although OpenAI only published a summary of the conclusions, the U.S. law firm WilmerHale’s inquiry report was never published.

Taylor stated that the inquiry “found the previous board and Sam and Greg had a serious breakdown of trust,” and it also “found the board acted in good faith… [and] did not anticipate some of the instability that led afterwards.”

Taylor added that it was “simply a breakdown in trust between the board and Mr. Altman” and that the board’s worries had nothing to do with OpenAI’s finances, representations to customers, or security and safety of the product.

The inquiry by WilmerHale started in December, and on Friday, the attorneys turned in their report. It contained several interviews with former board members and advisors of OpenAI, as well as with present executives and other witnesses. A announcement stated that the probe also included a review of over 30,000 documents.

Taylor, the board chair of OpenAI, stated in a release that “we have unanimously concluded that Sam and Greg are the right leaders for OpenAI.”

“I express my gratitude to Bret, Larry, and WilmerHale,” Altman stated on the reporters’ Zoom call. “Mira in particular is incremental to OpenAI all the time… but through that period in November, she has done an amazing job helping to lead the company,” he continued, referring to CTO Mira Murati.

He went on to say that he is “glad to be moving forward here” and that the conflict is “over.” In addition, he expressed regret for his actions regarding the board’s disagreements with him.

After Altman was fired by OpenAI’s board in November, there were resignations or threats of resignations, an open letter signed by almost all of the company’s staff, and a backlash from investors, including Microsoft. After a week, Altman returned to the company, and the three board members who had voted to remove him—Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley, and Ilya Sutskever—were removed. Adam D’Angelo, who had also voted to oust Altman, stayed on the board.

During the Zoom conversation with reporters, Altman was questioned about Sutskever’s whereabouts and stated he had nothing new to say.

“I adore Ilya,” For the remainder of our careers—mine included—I hope we collaborate,” Altman remarked. “There’s nothing new to share today.”

Since then, Taylor—a former Salesforce co-CEO—and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers have been added to the OpenAI board of directors. Microsoft secured a seat as a non-voting observer on the board.

With over 100 million weekly active users and over 92% of Fortune 500 organizations using the platform, ChatGPT shattered records as the fastest-growing consumer app in history when it launched in November 2022, according to OpenAI. According to PitchBook, Microsoft spent an extra $10 billion in the company last year, making it the largest AI investment of the year.

Months later, the company is still feeling the effects of its wild few weeks.

According to court documents released on Thursday, billionaire tech tycoon Elon Musk filed a breach of contract and violation of fiduciary responsibility lawsuit against OpenAI co-founders Altman and Greg Brockman this month.

The creator of ChatGPT “has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world: Microsoft,” according to Musk and his lawyers’ complaint. Additionally, they contend that this deal violates the founding agreement and 2015 certification of incorporation that OpenAI established with Musk, a significant donor to one of the company’s early cofounders.

Microsoft only has rights to OpenAI’s “pre-AGI” technology under the terms of their contract; the board of OpenAI will decide if the business has accomplished that milestone. In his filing, Musk claimed that the new board is “ill-equipped” to independently determine whether OpenAI has achieved AGI and, if so, whether its technology is exempt from the Microsoft exclusivity agreement. This is because Toner, McCauley, and Sutskever were removed during the board shuffle in November.

Attorneys expressed skepticism to CNBC on the strength of Musk’s case, and OpenAI said that it will be filing a move to dismiss all of Musk’s allegations.

In reaction to the well-publicized lawsuit, OpenAI retrieved previous emails from Musk in which the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla advised the nascent business to secure at least $1 billion in capital and stipulated that it should gradually “become less open” and “not share” its scientific findings with the general public.

Alongside the criticism surrounding Altman’s prior semiconductor investments and ventures comes Musk’s lawsuit.

In 2018, Altman made a personal investment in Rain Neuromorphics, an AI chip firm located close to OpenAI’s San Francisco offices. In 2019, OpenAI committed to purchasing $51 million worth of Rain’s chips. The United States forced a venture capital firm sponsored by Saudi Aramco to sell its Rain shares in December.