OpenAI reaches a deal in principle for Sam Altman to return as CEO, with an initial board of Bret Taylor as chair, alongside Larry Summers and Adam D'Angelo
4 key takeaways Jason Dorrier / Singularity Hub : OpenAI Mayhem: What We Know Now, Don't Know Yet, and What Could Be Next New York Times : Explaining OpenAI's Board Shake-Up CNBC : Sam Altman's back. Here's who's on the new OpenAI board and who's out John Gruber / Daring Fireball : The OpenAI Coup Saga Seemingly Ends, With Sam Altman Returning as CEO Jeremy Goldman / Insider Intelligence : Microsoft emerges as big winner as Sam Altman returns to OpenAI Alex Kantrowitz / Slate : The Failed OpenAI Coup Changes Everything Matt Binder / Mashable : Here's a timeline of the OpenAI saga with CEO Sam Altman Brian Contreras / Los Angeles Times : Five days of chaos: What just happened at OpenAI? James Thomson / Australian Financial Review : Microsoft's great escape from OpenAI circus Chayanika Deka / CryptoPotato : Sacked OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Reinstated Just Days After Departure The Hill : FCC targets TV cancellation fees Flavius Floare / Windows Report : OpenAI's drama comes to an end, as Microsoft shares a note reassuring the AI partnership Jo Constantz / Bloomberg : OpenAI Engineers Earning $800,000 a Year Turn Rare Skillset Into Leverage Cory Weinberg / The Information : Airbnb CEO Chesky Emerges as Altman Ally, Adviser Wall Street Journal : Larry Summers Is OpenAI's Surprise Pick to Mend Fences Business Insider : Sam Altman is set to return as the CEO of OpenAI Larry Dignan / Constellation Research : I'm thankful that Sam Altman is back as OpenAI CEO because LLMs shouldn't be controlled by middle school cliques Washington Post : Sam Altman to return as OpenAI CEO with new board members Thomas Mackintosh / BBC : Sam Altman: Ousted OpenAI boss to return days after being sacked Financial Times : OpenAI says Sam Altman to return as chief executive under new board Todd Spangler / Variety : OpenAI Reaches Deal With Sam Altman to Return as CEO, With New Board in Place Kai Xiang Teo / Business Insider : Larry Summers and Bret Taylor are joining OpenAI's board as Sam Altman returns Nancy Tartaglione / Deadline : Sam Altman Returning To OpenAI As CEO Less Than A Week After Ouster; New Board Named Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal : OpenAI Says Sam Altman to Return as CEO The Verge : Source: OpenAI's initial board plans to vet and appoint a new formal board of up to nine people; Adam D'Angelo remained to give the prior board representation Reuters : Sam Altman to return as OpenAI CEO Forbes : OpenAI Announces Fired CEO Sam Altman Is Returning After All Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk : Sam Altman to Return as OpenAI CEO Following In-Principle Agreement Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE : It's over: OpenAI reaches deal βin principleβ for Sam Altman to return as CEO, with new board Manish Singh / TechCrunch : Sam Altman to return as OpenAI CEO Amir Efrati / The Information : Source: as part of the deal, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman will not reclaim their board seats; Altman had pushed for more control; OpenAI retains its structure Wall Street Journal : OpenAI insiders and other sources describe the turmoil within OpenAI following Sam Altman's ousting and how Altman's supporters rallied behind him Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal : Source: OpenAI's initial board and Sam Altman's camp have agreed to conduct an independent investigation into the ouster of Sam Altman and its aftermath New York Times : Sources: before his ousting, Sam Altman moved to push out board member Helen Toner over a paper he thought was critical of OpenAI, among other board tensions Threads: M.G. Siegler / @mgsiegler : I think part of it was to keep pressure applied in the last hours to ensure Sam was back with a new board.Β But perhaps β just perhaps ;) β part was also a clear signal to the SEC that there was no market funny business going on.Β No, none at all. M.G. Siegler / @mgsiegler : I still believe that hiring Sam was a last resort strategy, so it wasn't all completely fake.Β But I also believe it wasn't the main goal from the get go.Β And the PR strategy the last few days made that pretty clear.Β They really, really, really wanted you to believe they *might* hire everyone from OpenAI. Jason Goldman / @goldman : From various distances I've seen Bret kill for 20 years and it is exceptionally annoying how competent he is.Β I am as critical as anyone of the twitter/elon situation and even that was a case where he was surrounded by lunatics on both sides and did what we supposed to given his role. Judit Petho / @juditpetho : If he creates a strong, balanced board at OpenAI, he will become one of the most formidable Chairs around.Β How he navigated the Twitter acquisition was masterful.Β No notes. Drew Hamlin / @drewhamlin : There's a good reason why the only thing everyone could agree on in this whole debacle was Bret.Β In addition to his experience β how rare is 3x founder plus F500 CTO, CPO, and co-CEO?! β ask anyone lucky enough to know or have worked with him and you'll get back a long list of praiseworthy traits, including what motivates him β he's a software engineer and builder at heart. Kara Swisher / @karaswisher : For those who aren't familiar with the Silicon Valley soap opera, this is a crossover.Β οbtaylor was the dude who was chair of Twitter, which he shoved down Elon Musk's throat after the always irritated (and irritating) billionaire tried to squirrel out of the deal.Β He's now OpenAI chair. Joss Fong / @jossfong : funny that larry summers once said there aren't as many women in top stem positions because we lack βaptitude at the high endβ and now he's replaced women in a top stem position because of male aptitude for recklessness M.G. Siegler / @mgsiegler : One question, which I'm sure we'll never get a real answer on, is how much the βhiringβ was really just a comms strategy.Β Two key drivers: 1) save MSFT stock price when markets opened Monday (worked) 2) give Sam leverage to get back to OpenAI after the initial board discussions didn't work (worked) Casey Newton / @crumbler : If you want to consider the funniest possible outcome for OpenAI, look up what happened the last time Bret Taylor served as board chairman of a tech company Joe F / @mergesort : Sam Altman returning with this board composition really does make it seem like this was about a fight between Sam and the AI safety people and not about Poe-related pettiness. https://twitter.com/... Casey Newton / @crumbler : RIP the Microsoft advanced AI research team (2023-2023) Mastodon: Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life@mas.to : Sam Altman is back as CEO and it seems the board will be entirely replaced.Β Board members are now Larry Summers, Bret Taylor and Adam D'Angelo (temporarily for continuity with the old board).Β βΒ The employee support for Sam was the real difference maker here. β¦ X: Sam Altman / @sama : 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.Β when i decided to join msft on sun evening, it was clear that was the best path for me and the team.Β 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. Satya Nadella / @satyanadella : We are encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board.Β We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance.Β Sam, Greg, and I have talked and agreed they have a key role to play along with the OAI leadership team in ensuring OAI continues to thrive and build on its mission.Β We look forward to building on our strong partnership and delivering the value of this next generation of AI to our customers and partners. @openai : We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam 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. Emmett Shear / @eshear : I am deeply pleased by this result, after ~72 very intense hours of work. Coming into OpenAI, I wasn't sure what the right path would be. This was the pathway that maximized safety alongside doing right by all stakeholders involved. I'm glad to have been a part of the solution. Greg Brockman / @gdb : Returning to OpenAI & getting back to coding tonight. Satya Nadella / @satyanadella : At the end of the day, the greatest privilege of my job is working with people who are driven by mission. These last 5 days, I saw people across OpenAI remaining calm and resolute in driving their mission despite all that was happening around them. And I saw people across... Greg Brockman / @gdb : we are so back [image] Emmett Shear / @eshear : ceo any% 55:32 β new record??? @cb_doge : π Traffic Update! π surpasses Instagram and Facebook by a significant margin in driving traffic through Google. [image] Ilya Sutskever / @ilyasut : There exists no sentence in any language that conveys how happy I am: Roon / @tszzl : >I don't know whether the board was right to fire Altman. It certainly has not made a public case that would justify the decision. But the nonprofit board was at the center of OpenAI's structure for a reason. It was supposed to be able to push the off button. But there is no off... Alex Kantrowitz / @kantrowitz : Imagine if Zuck actually fought Musk in a cage this year, that would've put it over the top lol MC Hammer / @mchammer : Salute and congratulations to the 710 plus @OpenAI team members who gave an unparalleled demonstration of loyalty, love and commitment to @sama and @gdb in these perilous times it was a thing of beauty to witness. Salute π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯ Alexandr Wang / @alexandr_wang : I'm excited to see @sama, @gdb and the gang back together at @OpenAI. They have undeniably changed the world over the past year, and I expect them to continue setting an impressive pace in AI for building, shipping, and innovating on safety. Nature has healed π Noah Giansiracusa / @profnoahgian : OpenAI announces new board that's entirely white male as white male CEO returns. Prior CEO (also white guy) says is βpathway that maximized safetyβ. Yet for years the ppl calling out the harms of AI have been predominately women (esp women of color). π€¦ββοΈ https://www.rollingstone.com/ ... Mira Murati / @miramurati : π Greg Brockman / @gdb : Amazing progress made today. We will come back stronger & more unified than ever: Ina Fried / @inafried : Well played @eshear [image] Paul Graham / @paulg : Little known fact: most emails within OpenAI consist entirely of heart emojis. Jeremiah Johnson / @jeremiahdjohns : The entire OpenAI fiasco is a great demonstration that not only are AI doomers wrong, they're also incredibly bad at tactical decision making and counterproductive to their own cause. They're worse than wrong, they're incompetent. @jerrycap : $ABNB CEO would prefer to work at OpenAI π© [image] @jerrycap : OpenAI is nothing without $MSFT GPUs. π π π Gavin Baker / @gavinsbaker : The OpenAI saga will be over when: 1) The new 9 person board is in place. The eventual composition of this board will be critical for the balance between safety and speed - essentially the goals of the nonprofit vs. the goals of the for-profit. 2) The investigation is... Sam Parr / @thesamparr : Bret Taylor is about to join the board at OpenAI. Check out this guy's background: - Created Google Maps - Started Friendfeed, sold to Facebook - CTO of FB - Founded Quip. Sold to Salesforce for $750m - Co-CEO of Salesforce - Chairman of board of Twitter - Board at Shopify... Erica Brescia / @ericabrescia : Anyone want to hazard a guess at the value of the productivity lost over this OpenAI debacle? Think about the countless hours of time for major tech execs, news outlets, employees, VCs, lawyers, startup execs, etc that have lost most or all of the past 5 days. What a waste. @lessin : With OpenAI's new non-profit board, they just retired their βcultβ founding identity in favor of being a βbusinessβ. β now it needs a proper employment contract with its CEO, to actually pay him, drop the religious AGI crap, and move on. [image] Ben Landau-Taylor / @benlandautaylor : In my entire life I have never seen a stronger case of Gell-Mann amnesia than rationalists believing the account of the OpenAI board's motives from literally the guy who wrote the Scott Alexander hitpiece. Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz : Is OpenAI a nonprofit? A for-profit? If a nonprofit, why are employees heavily incentivized to generate (large) profits to have their equity (profit participation units) be worth their issuing value? If a for-profit, why a nonprofit holding company? Why issue PPUs not equity? Amy Castor / @ahcastor : The VCs won. The old board is replaced with Sam-friendly members, and OpenAI is now just another startup whose goal is to grow like a cancer. @woke8yearold : If you think AI hype is big now you won't be able to believe 2024. OpenAI is going to drop a much more powerful model and new ways to use LLM agents will come online. Normies will begin to lose their minds. Kevin Lacker / @lacker : The board of OpenAI is now mostly former Facebook CTOs Robert Sterling / @robertmsterling : People say that Wall Street is incestuous, but I'm convinced there are no more than 20-30 executives in the tech industry, and they all just rotate among boards like a weird corporate polycule. Consider OpenAI. Its previous board included: - The leader of a Musk-backed... [image] Shibetoshi Nakamoto / @billym2k : the openai drama has taught the world that even the smartest people are still emotionally high schoolers Ethan Mollick / @emollick : Thinking about this excellent paper on how having a clear sense of corporate purpose boosts company performance, I expect we will see a supercharged OpenAI now. The focus on their mission and the apparent unity around their leadership must be clarifying. https://papers.ssrn.com/... [image] @immad : OpenAI's board's move is still so confusing: Why did the board fire Sam? Why did Ilya go along with the firing and then switch sides? Did Adam lead the firing or Helen? Will we ever know the answer? Glenn Gabe / @glenngabe : I shared the other day that this was playing out like a movie script, and even though Microsoft hired Altman, I thought it could reverse (based on many employees saying they would leave). Well, here we are. I've always thought staying at OpenAI would be the best move for him. Emily Bell / @emilybell : OpenAI fires women on the board- (board chair who oversaw fuck up staysπ€·ββοΈ) - joining board is *Larry Summers* who once said women don't have the same βintrinsic aptitudeβ for STEM, and associated with Jeffrey Epstein even after he was convicted of sex offences Sequoia Taylor / @seq23 : He got fired on Friday, Started another job Sunday, and was back in the old job by Wednesday Amjad Masad / @amasad : they say if you arrange seats like a board room a bret taylor appears Arnaud Schenk / @_arnauds_ : I'm not close enough to the whole OpenAI/Sama stuff to fully evaluate the situation, but it's clear to me that a lot of the criticisms about Sam amount to βthis person seems incredibly effective at achieving his goalsβ. Seems like a decadence-aligned thing to criticise! Andy Yen / @andyyen : Controversial take. #OpenAI runs on Azure. It's biggest investor, customer, and partner is Microsoft. For all intents and purposes, it's already Microsoft and the opposite of open and non-profit. Upcoming board and governance changes will only strengthen Microsoft control. Jen Dudley-Nicholson / @jendudley : 2020: Microsoft is going to acquire TikTok? Wild. 2023: Microsoft is going to acquire OpenAI staff? Wild. George Mayer / @georgemayer : The government should seriously consider stripping openAI of their nonprofit status. It's a farce and we should not allow them to operate under that veil. JP Maheu / @jpmaheu : Excellent news. Also, given the defining role @OpenAI plays in our collective future, it is necessary that @btaylor , @sama and the board of OAI add some diversity to its new nascent board. Eliot Brown / @eliotwb : OpenAI: we're a nonprofit but let's set up a for-profit that is governed by our board motivated by the nonprofit's mission and not financial gain (board takes action. Hurts finances of for-profit/investors/staff) OpenAI: This structure may not work well Howard Sherman / @hesherman : Awoke to discover that for a few minutes overnight, I was apparently named chief executive of OpenAI, but I slept through it. Nonetheless, hoping I get a decent severance package. Alex Kantrowitz / @kantrowitz : They parachuted @sama onto an island of cannibals and he became their king. Nailed it, @paulg. Damon Linker / @damonlinker : All the drama at OpenAI nicely reminds us that no matter how technically brilliant people are, they can also be lacking in human wisdom. Which is why those same technically brilliant people could easily destroy humanity without intending to. Katherine Maher / @krmaher : βAI that benefits all humanityβ without a single woman or person of color on the OpenAI board. Where have I heard this story before? @baldingsworld : Seen some defense of the board actions and specifically character. Problem is even if board wanted just a change in leadership and direction there is a proper way and a Cluster* inducing wildly incompetent way to go about these actions. They shouldn't be in charge of anything David Mimno / @dmimno : The OpenAI drama feels like what would happen if a Sociology department accidentally became a Fortune 500 company Boaz Barak / @boazbaraktcs : Was excited to join @openai for its scientific achievements, but now even more for its people. The love of folks for one another and efforts to save the company is like nothing I've seen before. Talking science with @ilyasut has been joy & privilege. Looking forward to more! β€οΈ Regina Rini / @rinireg : Probably best outcome for OpenAI. It traded on nice PR of being non-profit even while becoming annex of Microsoft. Now the pretense is gone: OpenAI is just another tech company that will ultimately put profit ahead of safety, like Google, Meta etc. Best to have that unambiguous. @woke8yearold : As an AI safetyist my revealed emotional preference is that I support OpenAI and Altman. I was worried and sad when it looked like it would die and felt happy when it was reversed. Make of that what you will Shyamal / @shyamalanadkat : huge thank you to the entire openai leadership team for making this happenπ©΅ one team, one mission. Brian Callaci / @brian_callaci : In the end Microsoft got what they wanted. They don't need to directly own the assets or employ the staff to control and profit from OpenAI, and unlike vertical integration, vertical contracts give them a sweet liability shield too. Ask McDonald's. Mike Solana / @micsolana : a complete history of the openAI drama from friday + board explainer + effective altruism + final questions pertaining to SV groupthink (why were confirmed freedom-oriented Startup Lovers just celebrating the total hegemony of microsoft?). happy thanksgiving, don't join a cult. Melissa Perri / @lissijean : I love how all the βMicrosoft acquired OpenAi for $0β write ups are now obsolete after one day. SuperRare Perkins / @rareperkins : The standoff for power at OpenAI feels very *human* HΓ©lΓ¨ne Landemore / @landemore : This whole @openAI drama proves that we need a better, more democratic way to govern AI, including where it is designed and engineered, i.e., the company level. Stay tuned for the βGoverning (with) AIβ @Yale conference in early 2024. More news soon. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Eli Dourado / @elidourado : Surprised that OpenAI isn't converting to a C-corp but I guess that can happen at a later date. As an investor (and I suppose as an employee) you'd still have to worry about a crazy board rug-pulling you at any moment, particularly just when the AIs are getting good. Rony Abovitz / @rabovitz : An @OpenAI observation: with the current conclusion of the drama, it appears that the bandage has been ripped from the altruism/safety vs. capitalism conflict. Full-on capitalism appears to have won. This will likely ripple across AI and tech in many ways. @GaryMarcus... Dan Primack / @danprimack : The bottom line of the OpenAI saga: With great power comes great responsibility. And then, sometimes, even more power. Gaut / @0xgaut : The greatest investment of all time isn't Bitcoin. It's buying OpenAI secondaries on Monday and selling them back today. Chris Bakke / @chrisjbakke : Congratulations to Sam Altman and the OpenAI team. A great outcome, but I do wonder if all this job hopping over the last 4 days will affect Sam's ability to land a Product Director role at Microsoft in the future. Hal DaumΓ© III / @haldaume3 : Glad to hear that OpenAI has rehired Sam Altman, who was not even candid with them, and rid the board of those pesky women. Seems like they'll be well poised to really combat today and tomorrow's challenges of negative impacts of AI on society. Stefan Schubert / @stefanfschubert : βTo me, [the OpenAI corporate drama] seems like a pretty clearly positive outcome overall...β [due to a consideration that changed within a day] Example of how many are overconfident re what the consequences of this kind of complex events will be. https://www.lesswrong.com/... [image] James Titcomb / @jamestitcomb : (presumably?) RIP Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor's AI startup, announced 10 months ago with one LinkedIn post and no update since [image] @hpc_guru : Win for @Microsoft, and also for Twitter Much of the drama played out on Twitter as notable financiers, Silicon Valley honchos and key players from Nadella to Altman himself posted declarations, exchanged messages, liked each others' posts and otherwise advocated their position Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz : An undeniable outcome from the OpenAI events is that Sam Altman will face far far more scrutiny over his future actions than ever before. And this... is not a bad thing? It's is, after all, the second time he's been sacked from a CEO role, by formerly close allies, after all. @nxthompson : Old Open AI board composition: AGI research and discussion group. New Open AI board composition: a panel at Davos. Jakub Pachocki / @merettm : we're back Alfred Lin / @alfred_lin : Over the last few days, the world witnessed what makes @sama and @gdb outlier founders. We've been inspired by their unwavering optimism and commitment to their mission & impact. We're excited to see what the brilliant @OpenAI team builds next. We are proud to be their partners. @ivanthek : I see lots of commentary proclaiming Microsoft as a big winner here. My view is Nadella deftly protected MSFT's investment, and put Humpty back together, with better defenses against a repeat attack. He kept calm, and can now carry on. The big win is the great publicity. Greg Brockman / @gdb : Incredible gratitude to @satyanadella, @kevin_scott, & the Microsoft team for their unwavering support during this trying chapter. Mohamed Elsherif / @bashmohandes : Question, why everyone at OpenAI only use lower case letters? Is that some sort of an inside joke or internal culture thing! Daz / @dazjdm : Pepito is back home (07:08:27) Erin Woo / @erinkwoo : delighted to inform you all that a literal fire alarm went off at the OpenAI celebration party, fire trucks showed up, and firefighters declared it a false alarm. (a smoke machine from the party triggered it.) we love a metaphor! more here from the team: https://www.theinformation.com/ ... [image] Marc Benioff / @benioff : Congrats to @openai! Great to see the good guys win! β€οΈ [image] Near / @nearcyan : sam once drank from my diet coke can, and after I confronted him about this directly he told me I could βtake another one - they're freeβ. he said he was sorry but i could tell he didn't mean it Eugene Wei / @eugenewei : I just watched Napoleon. Very touching when he returns from exile in Elba and thousands of soldiers are tweeting βFrance is nothing without its Emperorβ and Napoleon takes the time to quote tweet each with ββ€οΈ β€οΈ β€οΈβ Mike / @nongaap : If there's one thing I've learned in 2023, do not underestimate the power & influence of large, undisclosed equity holders. Their vested interest is under wraps for a reason. Kevin Beaumont / @gossithedog : Asking Microsoft Copilot about Microsoft's incoming CEO of AI research and it keeps telling me he's a sexual abuser and that OpenAI staff are outraged about his sexual abuse scandal. Your regular reminder that Microsoft Copilot is crap. [image] Daniel Sinclair / @_danielsinclair : What kind of compensation package do you even get for being a 72 hour crisis mediator like this? Hope Emmett gets to keep the full salary or parachute, hell even just an hour to take whatever he wants from the office Pradyumna / @pradyuprasad : He's the Liz Truss of OpenAI Gen.G Arnold / @arnoldwh : gotta love the tech industry - dude dropped in for a few days like [image] Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz : One thing that stands out is the role of @eshear. At first it was odd why anyone would take what looked like a doomed interim CEO role at the time, and several others passed. But this was the role that now is clear had unappreciated leverage in resolving the situation. Bravo! David Sacks / @davidsacks : The rest of America is genuinely befuddled by what Silicon Valley considers βintense work.β Gary Marcus / @garymarcus : I am glad to see OpenAI is back in business, and am glad to the continued presence of @adamdangelo and addition of two new parties that I expect to be neutral. Bummed to see no women at all. Hopefully the board will expand in due course. We may never fully know what happened.... [image] Elon Musk / @elonmusk : What tangled webs we weave @ladidaix : in < 1 week: -board got rid of sama -investors blindsided -mira murati is interim CEO -gdb steps down -sama in talks to return -sama scooped by microsoft -95% of openAI asks board to resign -emmett shear in & out as CEO -sama tries to be CEO again -sama rejoins openAI as CEO tbc Nick Kokonas / @nickkokonas : Exactly as expected.... same OpenAI, different board and governance. Given the stakeholders, only possible outcome. Very unimpressed (as usual) with 99% of the business press that couldn't, or chose not to, game theory the situation. Ian Kar / @iankar_ : .@LHSummers on the OpenAI board is π₯ Have always been a huge fan. Knows a lot about tech (interviewed him about crypto once), & experienced board member (longtime Board member at Square). And with AGI's impact on labor & the economy, his perspective will be super important Reed Albergotti / @reedalbergotti : Adam D'Angelo stays on the OpenAI board. Another interesting twist Ben Tossell / @bentossell : Agreement in principle Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo. Interesting to see Adam still on. People dunking on him may have over reacted @nixcraft : @OpenAI None of this makes any sense. Why fire him in the first place? You never explained it. Now rehired. The whole board is like a bunch of kids. Paris Marx / @parismarx : Having won this battle and got himself a new board, Sam Altman has ensured he'll never be overruled or held back in his ambitions at the company again. OpenAI is Sam Altman's fiefdom, and he certainly won't get any pushback from the monarch over at Microsoft. @wholemarsblog : You could argue that the OpenAI board breached their fiduciary duty by slowing down the world's safest models and inadvertently propping up less βsafeβ options [image] JD Ross / @justindross : I'm happy for Sam and especially for the whole OpenAI team Certainly remain interested to hear Adam's story one day β managed to say nothing publicly and retain the board seat, so at minimum he believes strongly in the importance of his role on the board. Neil Cybart / @neilcybart : So the new OpenAI board will be two mediators who don't seem to have any obvious reason for being on this board, and a key person who (we believe) wanted Altman out. Nothing like what the press said was going to happen. [image] Medved / @mattmedved : Sam and Satya are the winners here. Sam consolidates control of OpenAI with a supportive board. Satya proves his savvy and leverage while protecting his investment. What took place the past 2 days may define the next decade. @baddatatakes : Pretty incredible that the [current] result is that Larry summers ends up on the board of OpenAI. I definitely don't have any concerns! Matt Binder / @mattbinder : Larry Summers?! lmao i wonder why he's so interested in AI... [image] Brian Solis / @briansolis : Sam Altman returns to OpenAI as CEO. @btaylor joins board as chair. This means that the company will officially (not confirmed) move toward balancing for profit ventures while amplifying governance to earn and re-earn trust. Onward to ChatGPT 5 Dan Shipper / @danshipper : 1. The fact that D'Angelo is still on the board should dispel any of the rumors about all of this somehow being a plot to kill OpenAI for poe's benefit 2. Bret Taylor continues to be one of the most sought after board members in Silicon Valley. He must give good meeting 3.... @hotformoot : This was all kinda fun. We should do this more often @cto_junior : Yesss π―π―π― Goog next - Fire Jeff Dean, He Joins OpenAI, Sundar acquires OpenAI to hire Jeff back, OpenAI team resigns cause they don't want to live in Sunnyvale, Sundar cancels the deal but the condition is Jeff is made board member of OpenAI Mudit Gupta / @mudit__gupta : After using Microsoft teams for a day, Sam realized OpenAI board is easier to live with. Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz : Why bother watching series when the real world delivers more drama than television possibly could. Congrats to the OpenAI team for what seems to be a resolution to board-level events that felt close to destroying the company. The aftershocks of this will be far-reaching. Wesley Miller / @getwired : At least the events of the last several days didn't make Microsoft look stupid. It made Microsoft at least appear far more agile than many might've suspected. It just made OpenAI look bad, and the dead board in particular look incompetent. Paul Crowley / @ciphergoth : Can they put Emmett on the OpenAI board? Gabriel / @gbrl_dick : on a per hour basis some of the highest value add CEO behaviour of all time lmaooo Emily Chang / @emilychangtv : There are still big questions about why this happened, how much was due to petty personal issues/egos vs fundamental disagreements about the future of AI. It's only humanity at stake. So let's hope they figure it out. π Emily Chang / @emilychangtv : Big job will be for Bret Taylor as Chair of board, to navigate all these clearly big opinions as they make the transition β something he's got some experience with as former chair of the board of Twitter. Read our developing story here. https://www.bloomberg.com/... MC Hammer / @mchammer : He's Baaaaaaaaack Welcome back @sama !!!! Patrick Blumenthal / @patrickjblum : The acceleration must continue. Nick Dobos / @nickadobos : It's time to build! GPT store is back on! Joanne Jang / @joannejang : thank god [image] Alfred Lin / @alfred_lin : Love the commitment! Truly legendary! @openai : OpenAI is nothing without its people @fentasyl : Where else but π do you get to watch the most important corporate drama play out in real time like this? The MSM hasn't had any role in a single part of this narrative. Love to see them totally obsoleted. Will Depue / @willdepue : Satya has shown just incredible leadership, commitment, and faith throughout. Massive thanks and appreciation goes out to Microsoft for their support. @protosphinx : Satya to Sam (Reminder: This is second one after Musk) [image] Sedat KapanoΔlu / @esesci : this all could have been an email. Florian Mueller / @florian4gamers : It would have been a tremendous opportunity for Microsoft to bring in various AI leaders and hundreds of talented developers. But in the long run, treating partners fairly and being loyal yields the highest returns. They didn't hire away; OpenAI fired. Now they're letting them go Ana Mostarac / @anammostarac : βThe most entertaining outcome is the most likelyβ Erica Brescia / @ericabrescia : Good. But, wow. To have to go through all of that to get to this point... I feel for the employees and what their last several days must have been like. Hope this new board can better navigate the company through future issues. Sheel Mohnot / @pitdesi : wild that one of the 3 people on the board of OpenAI has a product that competes with ChatGPT. TIL Poe stands for βPlatform of Expertsβ Carlos Mucha / @mucha_carlos : Larry Summers is one-third of OpenAI's new board?!? [image] @wholemarsblog : This board still sucks Ethan Mollick / @emollick : Well, that was an interesting few days (not that everything is going back to how it was, or that the implications are clear yet, but everyone can move on to speculating about that next) @8teapi : Oh hey glad we got the guy who wanted higher unemployment to solve inflation on our AGI board. Sindre Sorhus / @sindresorhus : We still need to know exactly what the board's reasons were and why D'Angelo is on the new board (he was part of the coup and has clear conflict of interest), but I'm happy to see an end to the main drama and them going back to what they do best, AI. Matt Janiga / @regulatorynerd : Larry Summers, who said women were worse at math and science because of smaller brains, will sit on the board of the company building artificial intelligence. In other news, government regulators have a long future a head of them in stamping out bias in algorithms, ML and AGI. Varun / @varun_mathur : Larry Summers is e/acc. He has had the right things to say about innovative new technologies, going back to even supporting Bitcoin in early 2014. https://archive.ph/kNqFe Chidi Okereke / @chydee : You have to be a remarkable leader for most of your team to adamantly stand behind you, and threaten to resign after the board shows you the door. Zach Tratar / @zachtratar : Huge. Congrats to everyone at OpenAI about this! The big question now is what will governance look like? Is the non profit dead? Is its charter erased? Zach Holman / @holman : the twitch guy rn [image] Sebastiaan de With / @sdw : current emotional status [image] Liron Shapira / @liron : @OpenAI [image] Sean Tuffy / @smtuffy : Larry Summers, former board member of the fraud machine DCG and Jeffery Epstein aficionado, is a key person to ensure the ethical development of AI, apparently Kate Bevan / @katebevan : My cynicism over this massive days-long clusterfuck is deeper than the deepest well. Franklin Leonard / @franklinleonard : This movie is going to be incredible. @deeze : Took Jesus three days to come back from the dead and only took Sam two Mike Benz / @mikebenzcyber : harumph, I don't have a good take on this, but u can kinda grok that having a slightly chastened OpenAI & not having a commercial censortech squad directly hovering over Altman at MSFT is prolly the best resolution for humanity The biggest W of this saga prolly goes to @grok @immad : I am really impressed by the culture Sam built at OpenAI. Team stuck with him and forced this outcome. Ricky / @rickhanlonii : OpenAI board: you're fired Sam Altman: [image] Josh Constine / @joshconstine : Honestly, if there was ever going to be a fight to control OpenAI, sort out its board, and get clarity on its mission, we're all better off it happened before the stakes were even higher. Aaron Levie / @levie : The industry has an incredible opportunity to usher in a new era of computing. This will be done by insanely ambitious and high-execution operators like Sam and Greg, and ultimately boards that are aligned to a shared mission. Excited for this next chapter! Emily Chang / @emilychangtv : Emmett Shear joining the talks was a turning point in the negotiations. He asked the board to provide concrete evidence of Sam's wrongdoing. When they did not do so, he said he could not remain in the CEO role, and helped both sides find common ground to get Sam reinstated. Alex Konrad / @alexrkonrad : Emmett Shear's time as OpenAI interim CEO appears to have clocked in at less than one quarter of a Scaramucci. Alex Heath / @alexeheath : Story on Sam Altman returning to lead OpenAI, with @reckless: We're told that both sides have agreed to an investigation β presumably by an outside, independent law firm β into this whole saga, which seems to be deeply rooted in a very human power struggle. Based on our... Joshua Kushner / @joshuakushner : OpenAI has the potential to be one of the most consequential companies in the history of computing. @sama and @gdb possess a profound commitment to the company's integrity, and an unmatched ability to inspire and lead. We couldn't be more excited for them to come back to the... Alex Konrad / @alexrkonrad : Unofficial initial OpenAI news tweets vibe check: 1) Sam Altman and Greg Brockman = happy 2) Employees = happy 3) Microsoft = happy 4) The VCs = happy (I know you were worried) 5) The interim CEO = happy 6) Outgoing board = sleepy 5) Elon Musk = βwhat tangled webs we weave.β Elad Gil / @eladgil : My ideal OpenAI board is balance of EA safety, e/acc & other acronyms as well as investors & operators 1. Timnit Gebru 2. Patrisse Cullors 3. Beff Jezos 4. Roon 5. Satya Nadella 6. Sam Altman 7. Claude 2.1, Anthropics latest model 8. The Rock 9. Sofia Vergara Emily Chang / @emilychangtv : Another sticking point: Adam being on the board. He will remain on the board for now. In general, agreeing on new board members seemed to be tough β given there are only three to start. Chris Stokel-Walker / @stokel : Just so we're clear, OpenAI has said our CEO on Friday is a liar and we're saying so publicly, our CEO to replace him on Saturday isn't good enough so we're replacing her with our CEO on Sunday who we've decided isn't good enough, so let's have the guy we said not to trust back. Kenrick Cai / @kenrickcai : βThe original [OpenAI post] referred only to βSamβ coming back, before it was edited to include his last name. After an eventful few days that captivated the tech community, it may not have been necessary.β Great line from @alexrkonrad to cap this saga: https://www.forbes.com/... Brian Chesky / @bchesky : So happy you're back Emily Chang / @emilychangtv : Context on the negotiations to bring Sam back as CEO of OpenAI: The biggest sticking point was Sam being on the board. Ultimately, he conceded to not being on the board, at least initially, to close the deal. The hope/expectation is that he will end up on the board eventually. Sarah Frier / @sarahfrier : Bret Taylor certainly has the βboard chair during chaosβ experience from Twitter/Musk acquisition days... Peter Lee / @peteratmsr : Sure it would have been fun having Sam, Greg, and so many others as new Microsoft colleagues. But man, this is a such wonderful outcome for all of us at OpenAI and Microsoft, and for everyone else who cares about the future of AI for all. Roon / @tszzl : i have much to give thanks for @swyx : Finally the OpenAI saga ends and everybody can go back to building! 3 things that turned things around imo: 1. 95% of employees signing the letter 2. Ilya and Mira turning Team Sam 3. Microsoft pulling credits Things AREN'T back to where they were. OpenAI has been through hell... Bret Taylor / @btaylor : β€οΈ Teddy Schleifer / @teddyschleifer : All of the effective altruists are no longer on the OpenAI board. Take that for what it's worth. Alex Heath / @alexeheath : @reckless: βthe sole job of this initial board is to vet and appoint a new formal board of up to 9 people that will reset the governance of OpenAIβ Teddy Schleifer / @teddyschleifer : Funny edit history β they had to clarify that they meant Sam Altman and not some other Sam?!? π€£π€£π€£ [image] Alex Konrad / @alexrkonrad : OpenAI cofounder and (erstwhile?) board director @ilyasut retweeted both the company and @sama. Is he sticking around? [image] Chandra R. Srikanth / @chandrarsrikant : OpenAI has had four CEOs in four days Brian Chesky / @bchesky : β€οΈ Teddy Schleifer / @teddyschleifer : There is a Larry Summers angle to everything, always. Aaron Levie / @levie : Insane situation. Fantastic conclusion. Whitney Merrill / @wbm312 : Sorry to the folks with the βMsft acquired OpenAI for $0 and no regulatory oversight. They're so smartβ bad hot takes. Sam Altman / @sama : β€οΈπ«‘β€οΈ Ben Bajarin / @benbajarin : In any path forward, A LOT of damage control is now necessary to rebuild confidence lost. Ina Fried / @inafried : Of note: There is also an agreement that there will be an independent investigation into the events that led to Altman's original ouster, a source familiar with the matter tells Axios https://www.axios.com/... @luke_metro : Congrats to every openAI employee who can once again resume their shopping for a second home Frank X. Shaw / @fxshaw : @levie just in time for thanksgiving conversations everywhere. Kara Swisher / @karaswisher : Sources: fruitful negotiations between OpenAI's board and Sam Altman's side are taking place; Microsoft is being kept apprised and is likely to get board seats LinkedIn: Nicola Shaver : Well, this has been a weird one to watch.Β Timeline of events around Altman's departure from OpenAI: β¦ Forums: Hacker News : Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor r/technology : Sam Altman Is Reinstated as OpenAI's Chief Executive r/ChatGPT : Sam Altman back as OpenAI CEO r/LivestreamFail : 48 hours after being hired, former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear is no longer CEO of OpenAI r/singularity : Finally .. r/artificial : Sam Altman has officially returned as CEO of OpenAI. r/neoliberal : Sam Altman to return as OpenAI CEO