Sam Altman returns to OpenAI as CEO

Sam Altman officially announced his return to OpenAI as CEO, while presenting his plans for the company's growth.

According to the CEO's letter, Mira Murati and Greg Brockman were reinstated as CTO and President, respectively.

In addition, the company's previous board was dissolved, and Bret Taylor, Larry Summers and Adam D'Angelo took the seats on the new board.

“I love and respect Ilya [Sutskever], I consider him a guiding star and a human pearl. I don't have any animosity towards him. Although Ilya will no longer serve on the board of directors, we look forward to continuing our working relationship and are discussing how he can continue his work at OpenAI,” Altman said.

Sutskever is considered one of the initiators of the removal of the CEO. It was from him that the CEO received an invitation to an online call with the board of directors, where he was informed of his dismissal.

Altman expressed gratitude to Microsoft executives for their help in difficult times. An unnamed representative of the tech giant will also join the board as a “non-voting observer.”

The CEO noted that he and Brockman are partners in running OpenAI. They don’t yet know how to formalize this status at the corporate level, but “they’ll figure it out later.”

However, questions arose in the community regarding the impartiality of the new board of directors.

“What the hell is Larry Summers doing on the board of directors? This dude was the main architect of the 2008 financial crisis. He spent his life doing dirty work for Goldman Sachs and fellow bankers. It shouldn’t be closer than 100 miles from OpenAI,” one X user complained.

The team leader of the scalable coordination unit at DeepMind, Jeffrey Irving, criticized Altman himself. During his time at OpenAI, he said, the firm's CEO "treated him kindly, but often lied and manipulated him."

Future plans

The head of OpenAI highlighted several important tasks. First, the company will continue to pursue its "plan to research and invest in comprehensive security efforts."

Secondly, the company intends to improve its products so that “people can experience the benefits and promise of AI.” In the end, Altman noted the need to form a board of directors with “diverse points of view.”

“I look forward to completing the work of creating useful general artificial intelligence with all of you - the best team in the world with the best mission in the world,” the CEO concluded.

New board chairman Bret Taylor said the firm's leadership will focus on strengthening OpenAI's enterprise infrastructure. Specifically, it will create a “qualified and diverse board of exceptional people whose collective experience reflects the breadth of the firm’s mission.”

“We will improve OpenAI’s governance structure to ensure that all stakeholders—users, customers, employees, partners, and community members—believe in the continued prosperity of the company,” Taylor said.

Earlier, the media learned that shortly before the dismissal of Sam Altman, OpenAI researchers warned the board of directors about a major discovery in the field of artificial intelligence that “could threaten humanity.”

Let us remind you that against the background of the scandal in the company, CoinGecko analysts reported the growth of AI tokens.