OpenAI announces that CEO Sam Altman has returned to the board of directors following an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his dismissal in November.
The investigation, conducted by law firm WilmerHale, found that Altman's conduct did not warrant his dismissal and that the board's decision at the time was premature, OpenAI said.
The law firm conducted dozens of interviews with members of the former OpenAI board, OpenAI executives, advisors to the former board, and other relevant witnesses, reviewed more than 30,000 documents, and evaluated various actions taken by the company, according to OpenAI.
"We have unanimously concluded that Sam and Greg are the right leaders for OpenAI," stated Bret Taylor, Chair of the OpenAI Board.
Sam Altman shows some remorse, saying that in the future, if he thought a board member was hurting the company, he would handle the situation with more "grace and care."
"I apologize for this, and I wish I had done it differently," Altman writes. The former board member he is referring to is presumably Helen Toner.
OpenAI elects new board
OpenAI also named three new board members: Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, former president of Sony Entertainment; and Fidji Simo, CEO of Instacart.
Dr. Desmond-Hellmann, a physician, brings her background in research and healthcare; Seligman, an entrepreneur and attorney, brings her ties to the entertainment and media industries; and Simo brings her experience at Meta and Instacart.
The new board members join current board members Adam D'Angelo, Larry Summers and Bret Taylor, as well as returning board member Sam Altman and OpenAI's senior management team.
OpenAI chief scientist and co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who along with CTO Mira Murati was reportedly instrumental in Altman's ouster, is still in discussions about remaining with the company.
OpenAI also announced measures to improve its governance, including strengthening its conflict of interest policy and establishing a whistleblower hotline.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hints at new model coming soon
With the investigation complete, a new board of directors elected, and OpenAI's statement on the lawsuit with Elon Musk, the way is now clear for new technical advances.
March 14, 2023 is the anniversary of the release of GPT-4, and with OpenAI's competitor Anthropic recently releasing Claude 3, a GPT-4 level model, OpenAI will likely want to follow suit.
Altman hinted at X that something is in the works: In response to a tweet from OpenAI leaker Jimmy Apples that OpenAI should stop the politics and release something new, Altman replied: "Patience, Jimmy. It will be worth the wait."
OpenAI has "important work" ahead of it and "can't wait to show you what's next," Altman wrote.
Last week we heard hints from OpenAI circles that a new model would be unveiled soon, but that would probably have clashed with the news about the investigation and the board. Now the way is clear.
