OpenAI CEO Sam Altman returns to board after investigation clears him of any wrongdoing

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman ) was fired from the company at the end of last year without any wrongdoing.

The artificial intelligence startup said on Friday that law firm WilmerHale, which conducted the investigation, found that the board’s decision to fire Altman was “the result of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust between the previous board and Mr. Altman.” The statement said this was not due to concerns about product safety, development speed or OpenAI’s financial health.

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Altman will rejoin the company’s board of directors after the results of the investigation are announced. The OpenAI board also adds Sue Desmond-Hellmann, who previously served as head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Se Nicole Seligman, a former Sony Entertainment executive; and Instacart CEO Fidji Simo. The board said it will continue to add new members.

“I’m glad this is over,” Altman said at a news conference Friday.

The release of the report’s findings and additions to the board may be the most significant moves yet, marking a new chapter in a dramatic period that has pushed one of the world’s best-known artificial intelligence startups to the brink of collapse. OpenAI’s board ousted Altman in mid-November, saying it had lost confidence in him as a leader and claiming he had “not always been candid” in his communications with the board, but directors provided little else about what prompted the decision. detail.

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Days after his firing, the startup agreed to reinstate Altman, replace all but one of its directors and give its top investor, Microsoft Corp., a non-voting observer seat. But Altman and the new board have been tight-lipped about what led to his ouster.

Multiple people familiar with the board’s thinking previously told Bloomberg that the directors’ move was the result of months of careful consideration of Altman’s strategic manipulation and a perceived lack of transparency in his communications with directors. A person familiar with the director’s thinking said the board heard from some OpenAI executives who had issues with Altman.

Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati posted on X on Friday that she had discussed Altman’s leadership with the board before he was ousted after board members solicited feedback. She also said she “actively resisted their behavior” when they fired him.

Mulati’s leadership has been instrumental during the turmoil, and “she has done an outstanding job helping to lead the company over the past several months,” Altman said Friday. “I’m also extremely grateful to the OpenAI team for showing such resilience and focus during this challenging time.”

The startup did not release the full results of the review, but said in a summary that WilmerHale determined that the previous board “did not anticipate its actions would destabilize the company” when it fired Altman and acted within a “reduced time frame.” The board also removed the CEO “without prior notification to key stakeholders” and without giving Altman a “full investigation or opportunity” to resolve the issues.

In a statement from , deception, manipulation and resistance to thorough oversight should be unacceptable.”

Last October, Altman tried to remove Toner from his seat on the eve of his firing after Toner co-authored a research paper that contained some criticism of OpenAI’s security practices, Bloomberg previously reported. One concern Altman expressed at the time, according to a person familiar with the matter, was that board members would look bad if they said anything critical of the company. OpenAI is under regulatory scrutiny, and Altman worries regulators may think there are deeper problems with OpenAI.

On Friday, Altman apologized for the way he handled a “situation” with an unnamed former board member who he claimed had “hurt OpenAI through their actions.”

“I think I could have handled the situation with more grace and discretion,” he said.

In the months since Altman’s return, OpenAI has been working to maintain its leadership in artificial intelligence, launching a store for customized versions of its wildly successful chatbot ChatGPT and launching a new chatbot called Sora. New video generation product. At the same time, Altman has been working to raise funds for an ambitious chip company, according to people familiar with the matter.

But the long-term shadow of Altman’s brief ouster still hangs over the company. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether the company misled investors during last year’s turmoil, according to a person familiar with the matter. In a lawsuit last week, OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk took aim at the startup’s close relationship with Microsoft, which argued for Altman’s reinstatement. Musk also claimed that the new board of directors was “handpicked” by Altman.

Before Friday’s announcement, OpenAI’s directors were Bret Taylor, the former co-chief executive of Salesforce Inc.; Larry Summers, the former U.S. Treasury secretary; and Adam DeAngelo. Adam D’Angelo is a former board member and CEO of the question-and-answer site Quora Inc. Microsoft executive Dee Templeton also serves as a non-voting observer, Bloomberg previously reported.

After Altman returned in December, Taylor and Summers said in a statement that they interviewed “several leading law firms” before selecting WilmerHale attorneys Anjan Sahni and Hallie B. Levin to lead the review. Taylor said the company conducted dozens of interviews and reviewed 30,000 documents.

“Larry, Adam and I are unanimous in our support of Sam continuing as CEO,” Taylor said.

WilmerHale is one of a handful of top law firms known for conducting high-profile corporate investigations. It helped investigate Activision Blizzard Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Pinterest Inc. WilmerHale, one of the lawyers involved in the OpenAI investigation, also represented Sam Bankman-Fried’s senior deputy Caroline Ellison in their successful fraud case against the FTX founder.

Based on lessons learned from the review, OpenAI’s board said it has adopted a series of new governance changes, including strengthening the company’s conflict of interest policy, establishing a whistleblower hotline for employees, and establishing more board committees, including a new mission and strategy committee focused on “Implementation and advancement” of the company’s mission.

OpenAI has long said its goal is to develop general artificial intelligence — a powerful type of artificial intelligence that does not yet exist — to benefit everyone.

The new board members will add more gender diversity to OpenAI’s board of directors. The company replaced most of its previous board members with men after they resigned, and faced some criticism for its all-male director lineup. Taylor said as the board continues to grow, it will look for more members representing “a variety of expertise and skills.”