Sam Altman has agreed to return to lead OpenAI, the company said in a Wednesday, November 22 post on X, just days after his surprise removal as chief executive.
His removal sparked an employee revolt against board members that threatened to crash the leading company in the artificial intelligence industry.
“We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board,” the company said, adding that the board will be chaired by Bret Taylor, a former co-CEO of Salesforce. Other members include Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
“We are collaborating to figure out the details,” it said.
In his own post on X, formerly Twitter, Altman wrote that he is “looking forward” to returning to OpenAI and building on the firm’s “strong partnership” with Microsoft, which is the ChatGPT maker’s biggest financial backer.
The announcement appears to bring to an end days of chaos for the AI industry that included negotiations over who should lead OpenAI and how the firm should be run.
In its announcement Friday, OpenAI claimed that Altman had been insufficiently “candid” with the board.
