The observer position means Microsoft’s representative can attend OpenAI’s board meetings and access confidential information, however, he/ she won’t have voting rights on matters, including electing or choosing directors.
Templeton, a 25-year veteran at Microsoft, currently serves as the vice president for technology and research partnerships and operations. She has already started attending OpenAI board meetings.
Board shakeup at OpenAI
Previously, OpenAI made headlines when Altman was temporarily removed from his position by the board. However, Altman was reinstated after over 700 employees threatened to quit and join Microsoft, a major backer of OpenAI.
In an effort to rebuild the board after the Altman incident, OpenAI has announced that Bret Taylor, former co-CEO of Salesforce, Larry Summers, former US Treasury Secretary, and Adam D’Angelo, CEO of Quora, will join as board members.
Microsoft, OpenAI sued for copyright infringement
The development comes as two nonfiction book authors sued Microsoft and OpenAI alleging that the tech giants “simply stole” the writers’ copyrighted works to help build a billion-dollar AI system. This is the second lawsuit in a matter of 10 days after The New York Times sued both the companies.
The suit by writers Nicholas Basbanes and Nicholas Gage notes that the companies “publicly acknowledged that copyright owners like Plaintiffs must be compensated for Defendants’ use of their work.”