2023-11-22 10:48:00
Sam Altman, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO summit, in San Francisco (United States), November 16, 2023. CARLOS BARRIA / REUTERS
A heart, a greeting emoji at attention and another heart. This is how Sam Altman greeted on X (Twitter) the announcement of his return to OpenAI, Wednesday November 22 (Tuesday evening on the west coast of the United States). « We’re back », tweeted other employees of the artificial intelligence start-up, to indicate that they were back for a new episode of a Hollywood series. This white smoke marks the end of a chaotic and spectacular soap opera, which began on Friday with the surprise ousting of the founder of the company, at the origin of the famous conversational robot ChatGPT.
Read also: Article reserved for our OpenAI subscribers: Microsoft is trying to turn the crisis to its advantage
“We have reached an agreement in principle for the return of Sam Altman, with a new initial board of directors consisting of Bret Taylor as chairman [ancien codirecteur général du leader de la relation client numérique Salesforce]the Larry Summers [ancien secrétaire du Trésor de l’administration du président américain Bill Clinton]and Adam D’Angelo [directeur général du site de questions-réponses Quora et seul membre de l’ancien conseil ayant voté le renvoi de Sam Altman] », tweeted OpenAI. However, this new council is not intended to last and its main mission is to appoint the nine future members, specifies The Verge (technology media).
The return of Sam Altman is a new twist in the crisis: it had been hoped for in vain all weekend by the person concerned and by his close co-founder, Greg Brockman, supported by Microsoft, OpenAI’s main partner and external shareholder. On Monday, the board surprised by appointing a replacement for Sam Altman, and the latter announced his hiring by Microsoft. This triggered a letter from 700 of OpenAI’s 770 employees, threatening to follow him if the board did not resign.
Very atypical structure
“I love OpenAI, and everything I have done in the past has been done with the goal of maintaining this team and this mission, tweeted Mr. Altman. When I agreed to join Microsoft, it was clear that it was the best option for me and the team. With new advice and support from Satya [Nadella, le PDG de Microsoft], I look forward to returning to OpenAI and continuing to build upon our strong partnership with Microsoft. »
Microsoft will indeed see its hold on OpenAI strengthened at the end of the crisis. On Friday, the software giant was totally surprised by the announcement of the ouster of the boss of the start-up in which it has nevertheless invested more than 11 billion dollars (10.1 billion euros) since 2019. Monday evening, in television interviews, Mr. Nadella did not hide the fact that he wanted “governance changes” at OpenAI. According to The Vergethe company could now be represented on the board of directors.
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