The tech industry was still reverberating from OpenAI's surprise firing of CEO Sam Altman late last week when the announcement came late Tuesday that an agreement (in principle) had been reached for Altman to return as CEO. President and former board chair Greg Brockman, who quit in protest of Altman's dismissal, will also return to the company.
The new initial board of directors, as OpenAI calls it, is still a work in progress. Bret Taylor (Salesforce co-CEO) will be its chair. Former Commerce Secretary Larry Summers will get a seat. Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo is the lone holdover from the previous iteration of the board. No telling how permanent these appointments are. We are collaborating to figure out the details, OpenAI tweeted Tuesday night.
Based on the reporting I've seen, and on talks with my own sources, I suggest that Altman's firing was the flashpoint of an ideological competition between two of the companies' foundersAltman and chief scientist Ilya Sutskeveron how to run an AI company. Sutskever is something like OpenAI's spiritual leader. OpenAI people speak about him in reverent tones.
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