Sam Altman has officially rejoined the board of directors at OpenAI months after being temporarily fired by the company where he also serves as chief executive officer (CEO).
Altman was reinstated to OpenAI’s board following the end of an internal investigation into the events surrounding his brief termination last autumn.
On Nov. 17, 2023, previous board members at OpenAI fired Altman for not being “consistently candid” in his communications.
However, after a tumultuous few days in which many of the company’s employees threatened to resign in protest, Altman was rehired as CEO on Nov. 21.
In December, a special committee of the board launched an investigation into the events surrounding the removal of Altman from OpenAI’s board and as CEO.
The investigation concluded that there had been a “breakdown in trust” between the prior board and Altman before the Nov. 17 firing.
The investigation also found that, while the board had the discretion to terminate Altman, his conduct “did not mandate removal.”
Along with Altman’s reinstatement, OpenAI announced the election of three new board members: former Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former Sony Entertainment executive Nicole Seligman, and Instacart CEO Fidji Simo.
OpenAI also said that it has strengthened its conflict-of-interest policy and corporate governance guidelines.
OpenAI, best known for its ChatGPT artificial intelligence (A.I.) chatbot, is a privately held company. Its stock does not trade on a public exchange.
