Sam Altman poses with OpenAI’s guest badge.
ChatGPT maker OpenAI on Friday fired its CEO Sam Altman and removed its co-founder Greg Brockman from the board over a “quick” call on Google Meet. However, discussions about Mr Altman’s return to the company surfaced over the weekend and he was invited to the company’s headquarters on Sunday. Now, as per Reuters, Sam Altman will not return as CEO of OpenAI despite efforts from the company’s executives to bring him back.
Amid this, he posted a picture of himself from the OpenAI headquarters, wearing a guest badge. Sharing the picture, he wrote, “first and last time i ever wear one of these.”
first and last time i ever wear one of these pic.twitter.com/u3iKwyWj0a
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 19, 2023
According to insiders who asked not to be named since the talks are private, Sam Altman was open to coming back but wanted to see governance changes, including the removal of current board members, as per Bloomberg. They said he also asked for a statement clearing him of any misconduct. The board first agreed in principle to resign after facing tremendous outcry over the removal, but they haven’t done so formally as of yet. The directors have been vetting candidates for new directors.
The rapid management change that followed Mr Altman’s dismissal infuriated both present and former employees, who were concerned about how it may impact an impending $86 billion share sale.
Meanwhile, Mr Altman has been telling investors that he is planning to launch a new venture, the Information reported on Saturday. Former OpenAI president Greg Brockman is expected to join the effort and the project is still in development. The outlet revealed in September that Sam Altman and Apple’s former design leader Jony Ive had been talking about creating a new artificial intelligence (AI) hardware product. At the time, it was also claimed that Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, was also involved in the discussion.