Sam Altman officially returns as OpenAI CEO, Microsoft joins the board

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

Coinciding with ChatGPT's one-year anniversary, OpenAI announced on November 30 that Sam Altman has officially resumed his position as CEO.

Microsoft, the largest investor in the AI research lab, is also getting a non-voting observer seat on the nonprofit board that oversees OpenAI, the company noted.

Also read | ChatGPT turns one: A year of rapid growth and controversies

Mira Murati, who was named interim CEO after Altman's sudden ouster will also return to her previous CTO position, OpenAI stated. Besides, Greg Brockman will also return as president.

"I have never been more excited about the future. I am extremely grateful for everyone’s hard work in an unclear and unprecedented situation, and I believe our resilience and spirit set us apart in the industry. I feel so, so good about our probability of success for achieving our mission," Altman said in a blog post.

Also read | A timeline of Sam Altman's ouster and return to OpenAI

Altman said in the post that he has "zero ill will" towards Ilya Sutskever, the co-founder and chief scientist of OpenAI. Sutskever initially took part in the board coup but later reconsidered his stance when a vast majority of the company's employees threatened to resign unless Altman returned.

Altman, however, confirmed that Sutskever will no longer serve on the company's board of directors and that discussions are underway to determine how he can continue his work at OpenAI.

Altman also stated that OpenAI currently has three immediate priorities: advancing research, continuing to improve and deploy products, and building a beneficial artificial general intelligence (AGI).

"I want to express our gratitude to the entire OpenAI community, especially all the OpenAI employees, who came together to help find a path forward for the company over the past week. Your efforts helped enable this incredible organization to continue to serve its mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. We are thrilled that Sam, Mira and Greg are back together leading the company and driving it forward," Bret Taylor, who is the chair of the new board, said.

The new board at OpenAI, includes Taylor, Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury, and Adam D'Angelo, co-founder and CEO of Quora.