Microsoft Joins OpenAI's Board With Sam Altman Officially Back As CEO

Sam Altman is officially OpenAI's CEO again after spending four days in exile. Meanwhile, Microsoft is getting a non-voting observer seat on the nonprofit board that controls OpenAI. 'OpenAI adding Microsoft to the board as a 'non-voting observer' means that the tech giant will have more visibility into the company's inner workings but not have an official vote in big decisions,' reports The Verge.

Altman said in a memo to employees: 'I have never been more excited about the future. I am extremely grateful for everyone's hard work in an unclear and unprecedented situation, and I believe our resilience and spirit set us apart in the industry. I feel so, so good about our probability of success for achieving our mission.' From the report: With three of the four board members who decided to suddenly fire Altman now gone, OpenAI's new board consists of chair Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo, the only remaining holdout from the previous board.

In his memo to employees, Altman said that he harbors 'zero ill will' towards Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's co-founder and chief scientist who initially participated in the board coup and changed his mind after nearly all of the company's employees threatened to quit if Altman didn't come back. 'While Ilya will no longer serve on the board, we hope to continue our working relationship and are discussing how he can continue his work at OpenAI,' Altman said. 'The fact that we did not lose a single customer will drive us to work even harder for you,' he told employees.

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