Nearly four months after the CEO of the firm he founded was fired and then swiftly restored, Sam Altman is back on the board of OpenAI. Even though Altman had rejoined the AI startup as its chief executive in November, his return and the ensuing probe into his behavior were managed by a temporary board.
The corporation announced the addition of three new directors to its board of directors and stated that the inquiry is now concluded. Fidji Simo, the CEO of Instacart and a former executive at Meta, Nicole Seligman, a former executive at Sony, and Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, a former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are among the new members. The three members of the temporary three-seat board—bret Taylor, co-CEO of Salesforce, economist Larry Summers, and co-founder of OpenAI Greg Brockman—will stay in their roles, with Taylor staying as chair.
The announcement caps off a tumultuous several months for the AI company, which was rocked by Altman’s abrupt ouster last fall.
On Friday, OpenAI also published a summary of the findings from WilmerHale, a law firm that the company’s board retained in December 2023 to conduct an independent investigation into the events that led to Altman’s firing. Despite that, however, we’re no closer to finding out exactly why Altman, who rejoined the company as CEO within five days, was fired to begin with.
“WilmerHale [found] that the prior Board’s decision did not arise out of concerns regarding product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI’s finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners,” the summary said. “Instead, it was a consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust between the prior Board and Mr. Altman.” WilmerHale also concluded that OpenAI’s previous board fired Altman abruptly without giving notice to “key stakeholders”, and without giving Altman an opportunity to respond to its concerns.
To come to this conclusion, the firm reviewed more than 30,000 documents and conducted dozens of interviews with OpenAI staffers including previous board members over the last few months.
