OpenAI board's plan to get rid of Sam Altman really didn't go so well
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- The ousting of Sam Altman by most of OpenAI's board members appears to have badly backfired.
- Only one member who drove him out is staying on the board: Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo.
- OpenAI announced a new "initial board" comprising D'Angelo, Bret Taylor and Larry Summers.
The dramatic coup by most of OpenAI's board members seems to have epically backfired.
Their master plan to topple Sam Altman has failed – and it's cost them their seat at the table.
Less than a week after the board pushed him out as CEO, Altman is boomeranging back to the company. OpenAI announced Wednesday that he'll be back in charge and added that he's welcoming "a new initial board" consisting of Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo.
D'Angelo is the only former member to remain. His fellow previous board members were Greg Brockman, who was also chair; Ilya Sutskever, Tasha McCauley; Helen Toner; and Altman.
McCauley, Toner, and Sutskever were not mentioned in OpenAI's statement.
"And now, we all get some sleep," Toner posted on X soon after OpenAI's announcement.
In the space of just six days, the company's had two interim CEOs.
The board said Friday it no longer had "confidence in Altman's ability to continue leading OpenAI" and tapped CTO Mira Murati to step in as its interim chief. It then appointed Twitch cofounder Emmett Shear as the new interim CEO on Sunday.
Chief scientist Sutskever later said he "deeply" regretted his participation in removing Altman, but his remorse may have been too little too late, given his conspicuous absence from the new board.
The new three-person board will appoint up to six other members. Altman and Microsoft are seeking seats, The Verge reported, citing people with knowledge of the negotiations.
The previous board's reasons for driving out Altman are still unclear, but people familiar with the situation told Business Insider's Kali Hays that employees were given two explanations. First, that the CEO gave the same project to two people at OpenAI, and second, that he gave two board members different opinions about a member of personnel.
After giving the tech world the runaround over the few days, time will tell if the old board will ever say why they lacked confidence in Altman's leadership.