Sam Altman won’t be returning to his position as CEO of OpenAI, according to The Information on Sunday, which cited a letter board member Ilya Sutskever sent to the company’s employees. Instead, Emmett Shear, the previous CEO of Twitch, will serve in that capacity in the interim.
Shear left the live video streaming business that Amazon.com Inc. owned earlier this year. Shear was a co-founder of Twitch.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. According to the story, which cited Sutskever, despite efforts by the company’s leaders to have Altman return as CEO, he would not. There were no more specifics provided in the report. Reuters could not confirm the statement that The Information had referenced right away.
After interim CEO Mira Murati informed colleagues that Altman was invited, Altman and former OpenAI President Greg Brockman joined executives at the company’s San Francisco offices on Sunday, as The Information had previously reported.
According to a story by Reuters on Sunday, Altman is considering starting a new artificial intelligence (AI) startup. Still, he is also talking about perhaps rejoining the company that created the ChatGPT bot and enhancing the governance structure of the business.
The decision by the company’s board to fire Altman, who many people saw as the human face of generative AI, shocked the tech industry. On the messaging app X, Altman shared a photo of himself on Sunday sporting an OpenAI guest badge and the words, “First and last time I ever wear one of these.”
Altman’s dismissal infuriated both current and former employees, and they were concerned about how the abrupt management change might affect an upcoming $86 billion share sale.
According to The Information, Brockman, the co-founder and former president of OpenAI, also showed up at work on Sunday. As part of the management transition, Brockman resigned from the company on Friday and resigned as board chairman.
The Information on Sunday claimed, citing two people familiar with the discussions, that Microsoft (MSFT.O), OpenAI’s most prominent supporter, is considering taking a seat on the board if Altman rejoins the company. According to the report, Microsoft may join OpenAI’s board of directors or serve as an observer on the board without the ability to vote.
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