Open AI is back in action after a coup attempt

The drama at OpenAI seems to have come to a halt for now. Sam is returning as CEO. The OAI team got back to shipping even before the news broke. ChatGPT with voice is now available to all free users.

Nice, I want details…

The OpenAI X account posted that they have reached an agreement in principle. Sam will return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo.

Taylor is ex-CEO of Salesforce and one of the most senior/sought-after folks on tech company boards. Summers is the former US Secretary of the Treasury.

Bloomberg reported that the final discussions on who’ll be on the board were sticky. OpenAI's initial board will vet and appoint a new formal board of up to 9 people; Microsoft and Sam Altman will likely have a seat on the formal board (The Verge)

What about the rest of the people?

Emmett is now the Interim ex-CEO of Open AI as per his X bio. He’s glad to have played a part in the solution.

Though Helen Toner (one of the coup* members) posted “And now, we all get some sleep” retweeting the OpenAI announcement, the NYT reported that a paper co-written by her in October was a major part of the disagreements.

There’s still one big question: why did all this happen?

And the board will investigate this internally, to which Sam has agreed. A few hours before the “All is well” news came, a bunch of former employees of OpenAI shared a letter to the board to expand the scope of the investigation with their allegation of Sam’s (and the exec team’s) actions during the 2019 transition from non-profit to for-profit.

So, if you’re drama-hungry, there’s more to happen. And if you’re a late bloomer and don’t know what happened, check out our two pieces covering: 🍿the weekend AI stopped and 🍿the updates leading up to the return of OpenAI.