Sam Altman will return to OpenAI after an agreement in principle was reached, the company has said, following a dramatic few days since he was sacked last week.
Posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, OpenAI also announced a new initial board of former Salesforce chief executive Bret Taylor, the former US treasury secretary Larry Summers and Quora chief executive Adam D’Angelo.
Last week the board of OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, said it had pushed Mr Altman out after a review found he was “not consistently candid in his communications” with the board.
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Greg Brockman, the company’s president and co-founder, then also left in protest at Altman’s sacking. Both announced they would be joining Microsoft’s advanced AI research team.
Following the news of his return, Altman posted on X saying: "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."
He added: "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."
Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI.
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In a post on social media on Wednesday morning, chairman and chief executive of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, said he is “encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board”.
He said: “We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance.”
The previous board of directors, which included D’Angelo and Brockman, had refused to give specific reasons to why they fired Altman last week.
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Around 500 employees at OpenAI were reported to have signed a letter demanding the company’s board resigns and reinstates dismissed Altman.
Reports said staff at the AI firm threatened to quit and join Altman in his new venture at Microsoft unless he was allowed to return to the company.
Brockman said on X: “Amazing progress made today. We will come back stronger and more unified than ever.”
“Returning to AI & getting back to coding tonight."