Sam Altman rejoins OpenAI’s board after investigation into sudden firing

An independent investigation commissioned by OpenAI’s nonprofit board has found that CEO Sam Altman’s conduct “did not mandate removal.” After surviving an attempted boardroom coup in November, he will now rejoin the board.

In a press release, board chair Bret Taylor said the law firm WilmerHale interviewed board members, employees, and reviewed “more than 30,000 documents” to reach the conclusion that Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman “are the right leaders for OpenAI.”

In addition to Altman, Taylor also announced three more OpenAI board members: Sue Desmond-Hellmann, the former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Nicole Seligman, a former legal executive at Sony, and Fidji Simo, the CEO of Instacart. They will join Taylor, Altman, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, and Larry Summers in governing OpenAI’s nonprofit parent company.

For those seeking to better understand why Altman was suddenly fired from his perch last fall, OpenAI’s public summary of the WilmerHale investigation is frustratingly light on details. The law firm found that the board believed it “would mitigate internal management challenges” by firing Altman suddenly, and that the “decision did not arise out of concerns regarding product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI’s finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners.”

The investigation summary uses the same vague language OpenAI’s board published to justify its decision at the time: “Instead, it was a consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust between the prior Board and Mr. Altman.” The law firm found that the prior board moved “without advance notice to key stakeholders, and without a full inquiry or an opportunity for Mr. Altman to address the prior Board’s concerns.”

On a call with reporters Friday, Altman apologized for believing that “a former OpenAI board member was harming OpenAI through their actions” but declined to go into more detail. It has been widely reported that Altman tussled with former board member Helen Toner over an academic paper she co-authored that was critical of OpenAI’s approach to safety, and that some board members expressed concerns about the conflicts of interest posed by Altman’s other investments.

OpenAI said on Friday that it planned to “strengthen” its conflict of interest policy without elaborating, and that it would create a whistleblower hotline for employees and contractors. Altman said on the call with reporters that recent “leaks in the press” intended “to pit us against each other” had “not worked,” and that he is “pleased this whole thing is over.”

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