The AI ​​research company is reinstating Altman as CEO after his firing last week threatened a mass exodus from the company.

The co-founder of a leading U.S. artificial intelligence company is making a comeback at the company that fired him as CEO last week, the latest twist in a week-long drama over his leadership.

OpenAI, which owns the popular chatbot ChatGPT, announced late Tuesday on social media platform X that it had reached “an agreement in principle” to bring back tech entrepreneur Sam Altman as CEO.

We have agreed in principle that Sam Altman will return to OpenAI as CEO, with a new board consisting of Bret Taylor (Chairman), Larry Summers and Adam D’Angelo.

We’re working together to figure out the details. Thank you for your patience.

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 22, 2023

It also said it had reached consensus on a “new first board” that included former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo.

Altman wrote on X that he was “looking forward to returning to OpenAI and building our strong partnership with (Microsoft).”

I love Openai and everything I’ve done in the last few days has been to keep this team and its mission together. When I decided to join MSFT on Sunday evening, it was clear that this was the best path for me and the team. With the new board and the support of w satya, I am…

– Sam Altman (@sama) November 22, 2023

Inner unrest

OpenAI’s board fired Altman last week, giving few reasons for the decision. A storm soon broke out in the company. Hundreds of employees threatened to quit in solidarity with Altman, and investors put pressure on the company to restore calm.

Microsoft, which has invested billions in OpenAI and owns rights to its technology, announced that it would hire Atlman to lead a new artificial intelligence research team and welcomed any departing OpenAI employees to join him.

However, Altman said he has the support of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to return as CEO of OpenAI under a new leadership structure.

Nadella welcomed the changes to OpenAI after the company announced Altman’s return and new board.

“We believe this is an essential first step toward more stable, better informed and more effective governance,” Nadella wrote on X.

We are encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board. We believe this is an essential first step towards more stable, better informed and more effective governance. Sam, Greg and I talked and agreed that they, along with the OAI leadership team, have a key role to play in ensuring that… https://t.co/djO6Fuz6t9

— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) November 22, 2023

OpenAI’s flagship product is ChatGPT, a chatbot based on an advanced language model that can generate articles, essays, jokes, and even poems in response to prompts.

ChatGPT was released to the public in November 2022 and quickly gained global traction. to reach more than 100 million monthly users in less than a year.