‘Never been more excited,’ says Sam Altman after returning as OpenAI CEO; Microsoft to take non-voting position on board

OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman has officially returned as CEO of the AI startup after a tumultuous last week or so, which saw the 38-year-old fired and then announced he was being rehired. In addition, Greg Brockman is returning to his position as president of OpenAI, while Mira Murati, who was briefly appointed interim CEO of OpenAI following Altman's ouster, will now return to her role as the company's CTO.

Sam Altman reacted to his official return to the company in a blogpost, saying, “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 also thanked OpenAI co-founder and former board member Ilya Sutskever, who was instrumental in hiring him as OpenAI's CEO but later changed his mind. Altman said he had " zero ill will" towards Sutskever, calling him a "guiding light" and a "gem of a human being". The 38-year-old noted that while Sutskever will no longer be a member of the new board, discussions are underway about how he can continue his work at OpenAI.

Microsoft to get a non-voting position on OpenAI board:

Microsoft has been OpenAI's biggest backer, investing more than $10 billion in the company, but has had little control over its affairs due to the AI startup's unusual governance structure. However, Altman announced on Thursday that Microsoft will now finally have a seat on OpenAI's new board, albeit as a non-voting observer.

Notably, many reports claimed that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was informed of Sam Altman's dismissal only moments before the public announcement. With a position on the OpenAI board, the Redmond company could potentially be more aware of the conversations taking place within OpenAI.

Announcing the decision to have Microsoft on the new OpenAI board, Altman said, “We clearly made the right choice to partner with Microsoft and I’m excited that our new board will include them as a non-voting observer. Thank you.”