Sam Altman is officially the CEO of OpenAI after four days in exile. Meanwhile, Microsoft gets a non-voting observer seat on the non-profit board that controls OpenAI.
This means that Microsoft will have better "visibility" into the company's internal operations, but will not have an official vote on major decisions.
Altman said in a memo to company employees:
“I have never been more excited about the future. I'm extremely grateful for everyone's hard work in an uncertain and unprecedented situation, and I believe our resilience and spirit set us apart in the industry. I feel so good about the possibility of success in achieving our mission."
Three of the four board members who decided to fire Altman have since stepped down. So the new OpenAI board consists of chairman Bret Taylor, Larry Summers and Adam D'Angelo, the only holdover from the previous board.
In his memo to employees, Altman said he has no problem with Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's co-founder and chief scientist who initially participated in the board coup but changed his mind after company employees threatened to quit if Altman didn't return .
"While Ilya will no longer serve on the board, we hope to continue our working relationship and discuss how he can continue his work at OpenAI," Altman said.
