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OpenAI on Friday announced a new board of directors and a summary of an internal investigation by US law firm WilmerHale into the circumstances leading to the firing of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Sam Altman will also return to OpenAI’s board of directors.
The new officers are:
- Dr. Sue Desmond Hellman is the former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a member of Pfizer’s Board of Directors and the President’s Science and Technology Advisory Council.
- Nicole Seligman is a former Sony Vice President and Global General Counsel, President of Sony Entertainment, and serves on the boards of Paramount Global, Meira GTx, and Intuitive Machines.
- Fidji Simo, CEO and Chairman of Instacart, is also a member of Shopify’s board of directors.
The three new members will “work closely with current directors Adam DiAngelo, Larry Summers, and Brett Taylor, as well as Greg, Sam, and OpenAI’s senior management team,” according to the release.
OpenAI will continue to expand its board of directors, according to a Zoom call with reporters.
OpenAI did not publish its research report, but provided a summary of its findings.
“The review concluded that there was a significant breakdown in trust between the previous board and Sam and Greg,” Taylor said, adding that the review “concludes that the board acted in good faith.” We have also reached…” he added. [and] I did not anticipate the unstable situation that would ensue. ”
Taylor also said the board’s concerns were not concerns about product safety or security, OpenAI’s finances, or statements made to customers or business partners, but rather “simply a breakdown in trust between the board and Mr. Altman. I just did it.”
The WilmerHale investigation began in December, and attorneys today filed a report that includes dozens of interviews with former OpenAI board members, advisors, current executives, and other witnesses. The investigation also included a review of more than 30,000 documents, according to the release.
“We unanimously concluded that Sam and Greg are the right leaders for OpenAI,” OpenAI board chairman Brett Taylor said in a release.
“I’m very grateful to Brett, Larry and Wilmer Hale,” Altman said on a Zoom call with reporters. He also spoke about CTO Mira Murati, saying, “Mira in particular continues to be a constant contributor to OpenAI…but throughout that time in November, she did a great job leading the company. ” he added.
“I’m excited to move forward here,” he said, adding that the situation is “over.” He also said he wished he had acted differently regarding his disagreement with the board.
In November, OpenAI’s board fired Altman, prompting his resignation or threat of resignation, which included an open letter signed by virtually all of OpenAI’s employees, and an uproar from investors including Microsoft. Within a week, Mr. Altman returned to the company, and the board members who voted to fire Mr. Altman, Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley and Ilya Sutskeva, resigned. Adam DiAngelo, who voted to fire Altman, also remained on the board.
When asked about Sutskever’s status on a Zoom call with reporters, Altman said he had no latest information to share.
“I love Elijah…I want to work with him for the rest of our careers, my career, whatever,” Altman said. “I have nothing to announce today.”
Since then, OpenAI has announced new board members, including former Salesforce co-CEO Brett Taylor and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. microsoft Obtained observer status on the Non-Voting Rights Committee.
Since its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT has shattered the then-record as the fastest growing consumer app in history, and now has approximately 100 million weekly active users and more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. are using this platform. Open AI. Microsoft invested an additional $10 billion in the company last year, making it his biggest AI investment this year, according to PitchBook. closed the deal This would allow employees to sell their shares at a valuation of $86 billion, but the deal reportedly took longer to complete than expected due to events surrounding Altman’s firing. That’s what it means.
The roller coaster few weeks at work are still having an impact months later.
Earlier this month, it was revealed on Thursday that billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk had sued OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. Ta.
Musk and his lawyers allege in the complaint that the ChatGPT maker has been “turned into a de facto closed-source subsidiary of Microsoft, the world’s largest technology company.” They also argue that the arrangement violates the founding agreement OpenAI established with Musk, who was a major donor to the early co-founders, and the 2015 Certificate of Incorporation. There is.
As part of Microsoft’s agreement with OpenAI, the tech giant only has the rights to OpenAI’s “pre-AGI” technology, and it is up to OpenAI’s board of directors to determine whether the company reaches that milestone. It is entrusted to In his filing, Musk said that since the opening of the OpenAI board in November, when Toner, McCauley and Sutskever were fired, the new board has been asked whether OpenAI has reached AGI and, by extension, its technology. It argued that it is “not equipped” to independently determine whether the AGI has been reached. It is outside the scope of our exclusive agreement with Microsoft.
Lawyers told CNBC that they doubted the legal viability of Musk’s lawsuit, and that OpenAI plans to file a motion to dismiss all of Musk’s claims.
In the wake of this high-profile lawsuit, OpenAI reproduced an old email from Mr. Musk in which the Tesla and SpaceX CEOs encouraged emerging startups to raise at least $1 billion in funding and time agreed that we should “start to be less open” over time. Don’t share your company’s science with the public.
Musk’s lawsuit also comes after controversy over Altman’s previous efforts and investments in chip development.
That’s what Mr. Altman did just before his brief banishment. Reportedly seeking billions of dollarsA new, yet-to-be-founded chip venture codenamed “Tigris” that will eventually compete with Nvidia will travel to the Middle East to raise money from investors.
In 2018, Altman personally invested in an AI chip startup called Rain Neuromorphics, based near OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters, and in 2019, OpenAI signed a letter of intent to spend $51 million on Rain’s chips. . In December, the US forced a Saudi Aramco-backed venture capital firm to sell its stake in Reign.