Shortly after being fired and replaced with Emmett Shear as interim CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman will return to the company at his rightful place of Chief Executive, with the drama finally coming to a close after five days. In response to his firing, around 500 employees stationed at OpenAI threatened to walk out of the company and join Microsoft, the software giant that recently announced that both Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and other colleagues will lead a new advanced AI research team. Needless to say, OpenAI’s value would likely have dropped to zero if the board did not backtrack on its original decision.

Not only are Sam Altman and Greg Brockman re-joining OpenAI, but the board will also see a change

On X, OpenAI put out a post saying that the most valuable startup has agreed with Altman and will reinstate him at his original position. Greg Brockman, who had previously resigned from the company, will also return to his original position, along with other employees. In addition to bringing the key members back, the OpenAI board is also expected to see a change.

We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo.

We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 22, 2023

Former Salesforce Co-Chief Executive Bret Taylor, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, and Quora founder Adam D’Angelo will be added to the new board, with Taylor serving as the chairman. In response to the decision taken by OpenAI, Sam Altman published the following on X:

“i love openai, and everything i’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together. when i decided to join msft on sun evening, it was clear that was the best path for me and the team. with the new board and w satya’s support, i’m looking forward to returning to openai, and building on our strong partnership with msft.”

we are so back pic.twitter.com/YcKwkqdNs5

— Greg Brockman (@gdb) November 22, 2023

Emmett Shear, the former Twitch Chief Executive appointed interim CEO of OpenAI, seems to be pleased with the latest decision, as he states that he was not sure what the right path would be. Judging from his words, Shear appears to be relieved that he was not given the Herculean task of leading the company, and now it is in safe hands once again. However, it is unconfirmed what Shear’s role will be at OpenAI, now that he is no longer interim CEO, but we will keep our readers updated on the latest, so stay tuned.

News Source: OpenAI