Altman Rejoins OpenAI Board

"OpenAI said Friday that CEO Sam Altman was rejoining the company's revamped board of directors, after an internal investigation concluded he was the right leader for the startup.

The company also added three new board members: Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; former Sony Entertainment executive Nicole Seligman; and Fidji Simo, CEO of Instacart. The board also announced new governance measures, including a whistleblower hotline for employees and contractors, as well as a stronger conflict of interest policy.

"We will get stronger and more stable with a strong board and strong governance," Bret Taylor, chairman of OpenAI's board, told reporters on Friday. Taylor added that OpenAI's board would continue to add members. When asked about the details of the new conflict of interest policy, Taylor said he couldn't share more.

The board changes and Altman's return mark the end of a tumultuous chapter for the AI startup, which has been at the center of the artificial-intelligence revolution ever since it released its chatbot ChatGPT in late 2022.

OpenAI has an unusual structure where a nonprofit board oversees the work of a for-profit arm, which can take money from investors. The board's mandate is to "humanity," not investors. Microsoft has invested around $13 billion in OpenAI, acquiring what is essentially a 49% stake in the company's for-profit arm.

OpenAI was thrown into leadership turmoil in November when its prior board of directors unexpectedly fired Altman as CEO and board director. 

He returned several days later as CEO, but not to the board pending a review by law firm WilmerHale.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun investigating whether OpenAI investors were misled following Altman's ouster.

The board last year said he was fired for his failure to be "consistently candid in his communications with the board." It didn't explain its decision further, infuriating OpenAI executives and employees.

The firing kicked off a tumultuous four-day period where Altman briefly flirted with the idea of launching an OpenAI competitor and then joining Microsoft to lead a new AI division.

The vast majority of Open-AI's employees signed a letter protesting the board's decision and threatened to quit.

Ultimately the board reinstated Altman, and three of the four directors who voted to fire Altman left.

WilmerHale, which conducted the investigation, concluded that Altman's conduct "did not mandate removal."

Some obscure law firm payed by Microsoft money decided the fate of humanity.

1.  EXCHANGE --- Altman Rejoins OpenAI Board. Seetharaman, Deepa; Dotan, Tom.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 09 Mar 2024: B.10.