OpenAI Uproar: New board of directors named amid leadership change. Now focusing on governance structure and potential impact of Microsoft partnership.
OpenAI has announced a significant leadership change with the appointment of a new board of directors, amid a messy two-week long saga of leadership changes. The new board consists of three men, including board chair Bret Taylor, president and COO of Salesforce, Larry Summers, professor at Harvard University, and Adam D’Angelo, co-founder and CEO of Quora and a bigtime investor from Microsoft.
The recent move sparked numerous questions about the future of the company. After a tumultuous 12 days, most of OpenAI’s staff signed a letter pledging to quit if CEO Sam Altman was not reinstated, eventually resulting in him coming back. The sudden change in leadership also led to old controversies resurfacing and reports of a breakthrough in OpenAI’s quest towards artificial general intelligence.
The restored CEO, Altman, expressed optimism about the new board in a company blog post, but issues remain, particularly with the governance structure. A statement from new board chair Taylor alluded to changes to enhance corporate governance at the company. The potential impact of Microsoft partnership and influence on the new board and structure are also a subject of interest, as Microsoft’s role is limited but significant.
Additional questions have arisen about funding, the role of chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, and the ongoing impact of the transition on OpenAI’s future operations. Overall, the tumultuous leadership change at OpenAI has thrust the company into a phase of significant transformation and left several lingering questions to be addressed.