Sam
Altman,
CEO
of
OpenAI,
attends
the
54th
annual
meeting
of
the
World
Economic
Forum,
in
Davos,
Switzerland,
on
Jan.
18,
2024.
Denis
Balibouse
|
Reuters
OpenAI
on
Friday
announced
its
new
board
and
the
wrap-up
of
an
internal
investigation
by
U.S.
law
firm
WilmerHale
into
the
events
leading
up
to
OpenAI
CEO
Sam
Altman’s
ouster.
Sam
Altman
will
also
rejoin
OpenAI’s
board.
The
new
board
members
are:
-
Dr.
Sue
Desmond-Hellmann,
former
CEO
of
the
Bill
and
Melinda
Gates
Foundation,
who
is
also
on
the
Board
of
Directors
at
Pfizer
and
on
the
President’s
Council
of
Advisors
on
Science
and
Technology. -
Nicole
Seligman,
former
EVP
and
Global
General
Counsel
of
Sony
and
President
of
Sony
Entertainment,
who
is
also
on
the
Board
of
Directors
at
Paramount
Global,
Meira
GTx
and
Intuitive
Machines,
Inc. -
Fidji
Simo,
CEO
and
Chair
of
Instacart,
who
is
also
on
the
Board
of
Directors
at
Shopify.
The
three
new
members
will
“work
closely
with
current
board
members
Adam
D’Angelo,
Larry
Summers
and
Bret
Taylor
as
well
as
Greg,
Sam,
and
OpenAI’s
senior
management,”
according
to
a
release.
OpenAI
will
continue
to
expand
the
board
moving
forward,
according
to
a
Zoom
call
with
reporters.
OpenAI
did
not
publish
the
investigation
report
but
provided
a
summary
of
the
findings.
“The
review
concluded
there
was
a
significant
breakdown
of
trust
between
the
prior
board
and
Sam
and
Greg,”
Taylor
said,
adding
that
the
review
also
“concluded
the
board
acted
in
good
faith…
[and]
did
not
anticipate
some
of
the
instability
that
led
afterwards.”
Taylor
also
said
the
board’s
concerns
did
not
arise
regarding
concerns
over
product
safety
and
security,
OpenAI’s
finances
or
statements
to
customers
or
business
partners,
that
it
was
“simply
a
breakdown
in
trust
between
the
board
and
Mr.
Altman.”
WilmerHale’s
investigation
began
in
December,
and
the
lawyers
submitted
their
report
today,
which
included
dozens
of
interviews
with
OpenAI’s
prior
board
members
and
advisors,
current
executives
and
other
witnesses.
The
investigation
also
involved
reviewing
more
than
30,000
documents,
according
to
a
release.
“We
have
unanimously
concluded
that
Sam
and
Greg
are
the
right
leaders
for
OpenAI,”
Bret
Taylor,
chair
of
OpenAI’s
board,
said
in
a
release.
“I
am
very
grateful
to
Bret
and
Larry
and
WilmerHale,”
Altman
said
on
the
Zoom
call
with
reporters.
He
added,
speaking
of
CTO
Mira
Murati,
“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
added
that
he
is
“excited
to
be
moving
forward
here”
and
for
the
situation
to
be
“over.”
He
also
mentioned
he
wished
he
had
acted
differently
regarding
differences
in
opinion
with
the
board.
In
November,
OpenAI’s
board ousted
Altman,
prompting
resignations
–
or
threats
of
resignations
–
including
an
open
letter
signed
by
virtually
all
of
OpenAI’s
employees,
and
uproar
from
investors,
including
Microsoft.
Within
a
week, Altman
was
back
at
the
company,
and
board
members
Helen
Toner,
Tasha
McCauley
and
Ilya
Sutskever,
who
had
voted
to
oust
Altman,
were
out.
Adam
D’Angelo,
who
had
also
voted
to
oust
Altman,
stayed
on
the
board.
When
Altman
was
asked
about
Sutskever’s
status
on
the
Zoom
call
with
reporters,
he
said
there
were
no
updates
to
share.
“I
love
Ilya…
I
hope
we
work
together
for
the
rest
of
our
careers,
my
career,
whatever,”
Altman
said.
“Nothing
to
announce
today.”
Since
then, OpenAI
has
announced
new
board
members,
including
former Salesforce co-CEO
Bret
Taylor
and
former
Treasury
Secretary
Larry
Summers.
Microsoft
obtained
a
nonvoting
board
observer
position.
After
ChatGPT’s
launch
in
November
2022,
it
broke
records
at
the
time
as
the
fastest-growing
consumer
app
in
history,
and
now
has
about
100
million
weekly
active
users,
along
with more
than
92% of
Fortune
500
companies
using
the
platform,
according
to
OpenAI.
Last
year,
Microsoft
invested
an
additional
$10
billion
in
the
company,
making
it
the
biggest
AI
investment
of
the
year,
according
to
PitchBook,
and
OpenAI
has
reportedly
closed
a
deal
that
will
allow
employees
to
sell
shares
at
an
$86
billion
valuation,
though
the
deal
reportedly
took
longer
to
close
than
expected
due
to
the
events
surrounding
Altman’s
ouster.
The
rollercoaster
couple
of
weeks
at
the
company
are
still
affecting
it
months
later.
This
month,
billionaire
tech
magnate
Elon
Musk
sued
OpenAI
co-founders
Sam
Altman
and
Greg
Brockman
for
breach
of
contract
and
breach
of
fiduciary
duty,
court
filings
revealed
on
Thursday.
In
his
complaint,
Musk
and
his
attorneys
allege
that
the
ChatGPT
maker
“has
been
transformed
into
a
closed-source
de
facto
subsidiary
of
the
largest
technology
company
in
the
world:
Microsoft.”
They
also
argue
that
this
arrangement
goes
against
a
founding
agreement
and
2015
certification
of
incorporation
that
OpenAI
established
with
Musk,
who
was
a
pivotal
donor
to
a
cofounder
of
OpenAI
in
its
early
years.
As
part
of
Microsoft’s
contract
with
OpenAI,
the
tech
giant
only
has
rights
to
OpenAI’s
“pre-AGI”
technology,
and
it
is
up
to
OpenAI’s
board
to
determine
whether
the
company
has
reached
that
milestone.
Musk
argued
in
his
filing
that
since
the
OpenAI
board
shuffle
in
November
–
when
Toner,
McCauley
and
Sutskever
were
removed
–
the
new
board
is
“ill-equipped”
to
independently
determine
whether
OpenAI
has
reached
AGI
and
therefore
whether
its
technology
is
outside
the
scope
of
the
exclusivity
deal
with
Microsoft.
Lawyers
told
CNBC
that
they
had
doubts
about
the
legal
viability
of
Musk’s
case,
and
OpenAI
has
said
it
plans
to
file
a
motion
to
dismiss
all
of
Musk’s
claims.
In
response
to
the
high-profile
lawsuit,
OpenAI
reproduced
old
emails
from
Musk
in
which
the Tesla and
SpaceX
CEO
encouraged
the
rising
startup
to
raise
at
least
$1
billion
in
funding,
and
agreed
that
it
should
“start
being
less
open”
over
time
and
“not
share”
the
company’s
science
with
the
public.
Musk’s
lawsuit
also
follows
some
controversy
over
Altman’s
previous
chip
endeavors
and
investments.
Just
before Altman’s
brief
ouster,
he
was reportedly
seeking
billions for
a
new
and
not-yet-formed
chip
venture
code-named
“Tigris”
to
eventually
compete
with
Nvidia,
traveling
to
the
Middle
East
to
raise
money
from
investors.
In
2018,
Altman
personally
invested
in
an
AI
chip
startup
called
Rain
Neuromorphics,
based
near
OpenAI’s
San
Francisco
headquarters,
and
in
2019,
OpenAI
signed
a
letter
of
intent
to
spend
$51
million
on
Rain’s
chips.
In
December,
the
U.S.
compelled
a
Saudi
Aramco-backed
venture
capital
firm
to
sell
its
shares
in
Rain.
