Microsoft's fills its seat at OpenAI's board

Microsoft has appointed Deannah Templeton to its observing seat on OpenAI’s Board. OpenAI's board has also approached Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman about potentially joining.

What's going on here?

OpenAI's board is looking to add new members after CEO Sam Altman was fired and then reinstated in November 2022.

What does this mean?

Microsoft was granted a non-voting observer seat on OpenAI’s board after Sam Altman was reinstated as OpenAI’s CEO last month. Deannah Templeton was a likely pick for this board observer role. As per Bloomberg, she has started to attend the OpenAI board’s meetings representing Microsoft.

Templeton reports to Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, who has been the key person in making the OpenAI-Microsoft partnership possible. She was responsible for coordinating aspects of Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI over the past year.

OpenAI is also seeking board members from companies it partners with or that work with AI startups. Wang and Friedman were also considered to be interim CEOs when Sam was suddenly fired by OpenAI’s previous board. Both rejected the offer then and are likely to do the same now.

Why should I care?

OpenAI’s board now consists of former Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo. The trio is also overseeing an independent review of the events leading to Altman’s ouster.

The new board appointments will shape OpenAI's future direction. Board chair Taylor has already clarified that he’ll depart after the new board has been formed.