Sam Altman retaking OpenAI's helm with stronger governance, new board was best outcome: Microsoft’s Mary Snapp

Though it was a whirlwind weekend in the end of November at ChatGPT-parent OpenAI, Sam Altman joining back as the CEO in a span of a few days, with better governance and a new board was the best outcome, said Mary Snapp, vice president- strategic initiatives, Microsoft. This was probably the biggest boardroom drama of the technology world in the recent times.

Snapp was speaking at CNBC-TV18 and Moneycontrol’s Global AI Conclave on December 16 in a panel discussion on 'Responsible AI', with Sindhu Gangadharan, senior vice president and managing director at SAP Labs India.

When asked what happened during the eventful weekend, Snapp candidly said, “It is true that the Microsoft executives including Satya were as surprised as anyone. We learned about this at Microsoft only a few minutes before the media. We regrouped very quickly and reached out to the interim president, who was made the president for a weekend – to offer our support to Sam and his executive team. We were in close touch with their legal and global policy teams throughout the weekend and into the wee hours of the night and morning.”

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She added, “We thought the best approach now would be to have CEO Sam Altman back at the helm with a different role – where he was no longer on the board but a stronger governance and new board members came in place. I think this is the best possible outcome.”

Snapp believes governance is “quite glamorous”. It can be very exciting to think about governance and how important it is in a company, she said.

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

The boardroom battle was being keenly monitored by Microsoft, which has parked $12 billion in investments in OpenAI.

When the high-stake drama had kept Microsoft officials tense, the company's CEO Satya Nadella tried to reduce the tension by updating his colleagues about the World Cup cricket match between India and Australia on November 18, according to media reports.

To this, Snapp laughed, saying, “Well I read that The New Yorker article too...I was getting ready to go to the US for Thanksgiving holidays, when the Sam Altman news broke. And my thought immediately was that my boss Brad Smith – he just lost his holidays.”

“Being a lawyer myself, I thought their (OpenAI’s) intellectual property lawyers might be busy, the merger and acquisition lawyers must be busy, their HR lawyers were probably busy. My understanding is that it was a very hectic weekend for them,” she added.