OpenAI’s board is trying to close the door on a tumultuous chapter in which its respected CEO Sam Altman was fired, elevated and then reinstated as CEO over a chaotic four days. IN summary Released today, law firm WilmerHale concluded that the board did not recognize that the CEO’s ouster would “destabilize” the company, and that it acted without allowing Altman to address the board’s concerns about a “loss of trust” between directors and management. The review found that the board had “broad authority” to fire Altman, but “his conduct did not warrant removal.”
The company published a summary of WilmerHale’s findings on its blog today, but went no further than exonerating the board for firing Altman and finding that the board should not have fired Altman. The published review also refutes speculation that Altman was up to something nefarious, prompting the board to take swift action to oust him. According to the summary, Altman’s dismissal “was not due to concerns about product safety, the pace of development, OpenAI’s finances, or its statements to investors, customers or business partners.” It did not explain what caused the “loss of trust” and how it led to Altman’s dismissal from the company.
The board has since hired new members – all women – and the company appears to be looking to move forward with a clean slate and a refreshed board.
“We unanimously agreed that Sam and Greg are the right leaders for OpenAI,” said Bret Taylor, OpenAI board chairman, referring to Altman and Greg Brockman, who quit in protest after the board dumped Altman during a virtual meeting Nov. 1. 17, 2023. Brockman returned at the same time as Altman last year, and now both will officially return to the board of directors. the company said Today.
The independent investigation into Altman’s ouster and the duo’s removal from the board included “dozens of interviews” with former OpenAI board members, executives and consultants, the company said in a release. Blog Post. Lawyers studied 30 thousand documents and assessed the actions of the council. “Many OpenAI employees, as well as current and former board members” participated in the review process, the company said.
“WilmerHale found that there was a breakdown of trust between the previous Board of Directors and Mr. Altman that precipitated the events of November 17,” WilmerHale said in a summary of its findings.
Altman’s firing sent ripples throughout the tech industry, where Altman was the face of generative artificial intelligence. OpenAI also has close ties with Microsoft, which has invested $13 billion in the company. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella openly supported Altman after his ouster. At the time, OpenAI’s board only said it was “no longer confident in his ability to continue to lead OpenAI.” The company said it followed a previous review that found Altman had not been forthright with the board. After the board fired Altman, board chairman Brockman, who did not know what the rest of the board members were doing, resigned and posted it on X. Hundreds of employees wrote an open letter to the board asking for their rehire. although the latter retained his post as chief scientist and publicly expressed regret for his role in overthrowing Altman.
The move away from troubling power struggles at the top coincides with an exciting chapter in which AI has seen its popularity and valuation skyrocket. Open AI was founded as a non-profit organization in 2015, which owns and controls the for-profit organization OpenAI GP LLC.
“We recognize the importance of our role in leading transformative technologies for the benefit of the world,” Taylor said in a company statement.
The company today also announced three new board members: Sue Desmond-Hellman, former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, former President and General Counsel of Sony Corporation; and Fiji Simo, CEO and Chairman of Instacart. These appointments can be seen as a counterbalance to previous criticism that there was a lack of female representation on the board following Altman’s departure. When he and Brockman reunited, three board members—Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner and co-founder Ilya Sutskever—left the board. Sutskever remains with the company.
Desmond-Hellman, 66, also sits on the board of Pfizer and previously served as a director on the boards of Facebook and Procter & Gamble. Power hitter Seligman, before joining Sony, was a partner in the litigation practice at the law firm Williams & Connolly, where she advised President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. Seligman chairs the nominating and corporate governance committee at space technology company Intuitive Machines and sits on the boards of gene therapy companies Meira GTx Holdings and Paramount Global, formerly known as Viacom. Simo is French and previously served as Vice President and Head of Applications at Facebook. She is also a director on the Shopify board of directors.