In interviews on CNBC And Bloomberg TV Tonight, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella explained that it’s possible that Sam Altman, who was fired from his position as CEO of OpenAI by the startup’s board of directors on Friday, could return to OpenAI in some capacity.
This is despite the fact that Altman announced this morning that he intends to join Microsoft’s newly formed AI research team alongside former OpenAI head Greg Brockman and several former OpenAI researchers.
“Obviously we want Sam and Greg to have a great home if they’re not on OpenAI,” Nadella said in an interview on CNBC. Asked if Altman would return to OpenAI, Nadella added: “This is, you know, [the] OpenAI’s Board of Directors, Management and Staff to Choose… [Microsoft] It chose to partner explicitly with OpenAI [and] Obviously this depends on the people at OpenAI staying there or coming to Microsoft, so I’m open to both options.
Nadella’s responses seem to confirm this Reports preparation Earlier today from The Verge, which noted that Altman’s move to Microsoft was not a done deal and that — with the recent change of heart from OpenAI’s chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, the mastermind behind Altman’s departure — only two of the three OpenAI board members remain. Need to flip to re-altman. (Brockman was removed as board chairman on Friday; Altman previously held the sixth seat.)
Nadella also said Microsoft wants to see “something change around governance” at OpenAI going forward, including around its relationships with investors. (Microsoft, along with other OpenAI backers and most OpenAI employees, were reportedly notified of the “minutes” of Altman’s firing before the matter was announced.) OpenAI is governed by a non-profit foundation with a board of directors and investors – including Microsoft. , which has pumped more than $10 billion into OpenAI to date — has no seats on the aforementioned board.
“Clearly something has to change in terms of governance — we will have a good dialogue with their board about that, and we will work on that as that develops,” Nadella told CNBC.
It’s been a rollercoaster at OpenAI since Altman’s firing, to say the least.
Over the weekend, OpenAI’s management team and backers — including CTO Mira Murat, who was briefly named interim CEO — began vetting candidates to replace the board for Altman’s potential return. Meanwhile, the board conducted its own search for a CEO, eventually settling on Emmett Shear, co-founder of Twitch, after GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Scale AI CEO Alex Wang. decreased Offers.
Scheer, who has a rich history, turned out to be a controversial choice internally. employees It said He declined to attend Sunday’s scheduled emergency call with Shear, responding to the announcement in OpenAI’s Slack with a “fuck you” emoji.
Speaking of which, OpenAI insiders are witnessing a massive revolt — more than 700 of the company’s approximately 770 employees, including Sutskever, have signed a letter calling on the board to resign and reinstate Altman. Among other things, Salesforce tried to use Disturbances As a hiring opportunity, offering matching compensation to any researcher who leaves OpenAI to join the Salesforce AI research team.
What doesn’t help matters is the board’s reluctance to provide detailed reasons for Altman’s dismissal. He told He said in a memo to staff on Sunday that his first order of business would be “to hire an independent investigator to research the entire operation leading up to this point and prepare a full report.”