The OpenAI business announced on Wednesday that Microsoft will hold a non-voting board position.
The action allays some last doubts about Microsoft’s interest in the startup following a tumultuous month that saw CEO Sam Altman get fired and then hired back by the nonprofit board that controls the business.
Since Microsoft spent $13 billion in OpenAI and included their AI models into Office and other Microsoft products, the software behemoth’s perspective has been entwined with OpenAI’s. Before, Microsoft was a surprise when Altman was fired because it was not formally represented on the board of directors that oversaw the firm.
In a memo to employees that was uploaded on OpenAI’s website, Altman stated, “It’s obvious that we made the right decision to work with Microsoft, and I’m thrilled that our new board will include them as a non-voting observer.”
Altman gave the team praise and mentioned that no OpenAI personnel were let go during the disruption.
We didn’t lose a single employee during this entire process. You didn’t waver in support of one another, this business, or our goal,” Altman wrote.
In his statement, Altman stated that the startup would form a new board of directors, with members such as former Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and CEO of Quora Adam D’Angelo.
Greg Brockman has rejoined as OpenAI president, while Mira Murati, who was previously the company’s chief technology officer until being temporarily designated interim CEO earlier this month, is back in that role.
In a message published on OpenAI’s website, Taylor, who will chair the new board, stated that his main goal was to “strengthen OpenAI’s corporate governance.” Taylor said in a later post on X, the previous Twitter, that he would step down from the board once the company had stabilised and was fully staffed.
Taylor tweeted, “I want to walk away and leave the oversight of OpenAI in the good hands of board colleagues, as I have stated to board colleagues and management, after these transitional responsibilities have been done.”
The individual who will attend OpenAI board meetings but not cast a vote was not identified by a Microsoft representative.
With whom on the board?
All save D’Angelo have departed from the board, including co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who was on the board when Altman was ousted.
It’s still unknown why Altman was fired. Even if the board blamed a lack of openness, there may have been more at play than only the controversy around AI safety and the company’s decision to halt developing the potent AI known as artificial general intelligence (AGI).
On Wednesday, Helen Toner, who has served on the OpenAI board since 2021, announced her resignation. To be clear, our decision concerned the board’s function and responsibilities to adequately oversee the company, as stated in a post on X. Despite rumours to the contrary, we had no intention of slowing down OpenAI’s development.”
For almost five years, Toner has served as the director of strategy at Georgetown’s Centre for Security and Emerging Technology. She has previously worked at the University of Oxford’s Centre for the Governance of AI. She has also participated in the effective altruism community’s discussion forum and delivered a talk there.
Source (CNBC)
