Sam Altman Will Not Return To OpenAI, Board Names Emmett Shear As New CEO: Report

At a time when it is being widely anticipated that Sam Altman will make a comeback as OpenAI CEO just a few days after his sacking shocked the tech world, the latest development in the case seems to be telling another story.

What's Happening With OpenAI Former CEO Sam Altman?

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OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever wrote to the company's staff that Altman would not be returning, according to Forbes.

Who Has Been Named OpenAI's New CEO?

OpenAI¡¯s board of directors has selected former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear as interim CEO, three sources have said, as per the Forbes report today. News of the appointment was previously reported by American tech media firm The Information late Sunday night.

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Shear is known as an outspoken member of the "safety" side of AI discourse. He said earlier this year in an interview that its existential risk should make you "shit your pants," and has talked about AI safety on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, as being like navigating "the creation of an alien god."

Which Deadlines Have Not Been Met?

Sam Altman¡¯s camp and OpenAI¡¯s board had previously set two 5 p.m. Pacific Time negotiating deadlines on Saturday and Sunday that passed without resolution. Microsoft, which committed to invest $10 billion into OpenAI earlier this year, had reportedly led the effort to restore Altman.

Also Read: TCS Confirms Plan To Build Its Own ChatGPT-Like AI Tool

What All Twists Have Taken Place Over The Weekend?

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The latest twist in a weekend-long saga ends Altman¡¯s leadership role at the company with more finality after he¡¯d been abruptly ousted in a corporate coup on Friday. Supporters of Altman led by Microsoft and including investors and key employees had pressured OpenAI¡¯s board of directors to take back Altman or face the widespread resignation of OpenAI¡¯s researchers and withdrawal of Microsoft¡¯s support.

Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, who was also removed from the board on Friday and resigned his position as president shortly thereafter, were already planning to raise capital for a new startup if they were not reinstated, two sources previously told Forbes.

On Saturday, numerous key executives and leaders at OpenAI had shared their support for Altman on Twitter; they included chief operating officer Brad Lightcap and chief technology officer Mira Murati, who was installed as interim CEO on Friday and is now being replaced by Shear. The purpose of the posts, mostly in the form of heart emojis, was to signal who might depart OpenAI if Altman were not restored, according to The Verge.

Jason Kwon, the chief strategy officer, wrote to staff in an internal memo Saturday night that management was ¡°optimistic¡± about bringing back Altman, Brockman and a handful of researchers who had already resigned in their wake, according to The Information.

first and last time i ever wear one of these pic.twitter.com/u3iKwyWj0a

¡ª Sam Altman (@sama) November 19, 2023

Absent from the supporters was Sutskever, the chief scientist, who led the boardroom coup in the boil-up of a schism over Altman-led commercialization and Sutskever¡¯s advocacy for AI safety. In July, OpenAI announced that Sutskever would co-lead a team which would dedicate 20% of the company¡¯s computing resources to efforts around ¡°superintelligence alignment.¡± Alignment refers to a field of AI safety research around solutions to supervise AI to ensure they follow human-controlled outcomes, even if they grow smarter than humans.

Ultimately, the unusually-governed board ¡ª which as Forbes reported on Friday consisted of Sutskever, safety experts and AI researchers, as well as Quora CEO Adam D¡¯Angelo ¡ª doubled down on removing Altman and Brockman and turned to Shear in a fast-paced search. Shear cofounded Twitch in 2011 and sold the streaming video service to Amazon for $970 million in 2014; he stayed on as its CEO until this past March. Since April, he has been a part-time partner at Y Combinator, the startup accelerator which was formerly led by Altman. One of Shear¡¯s cofounders at Twitch, Kyle Vogt, resigned as CEO of embattled robotaxi company Cruise earlier on Sunday.

Also Read: Tech Startup CEO Shares Benefits Of Using ChatGPT

Which Other Big Tech CEOs Were Once Fired?

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Sam Altman is the latest big tech CEO to join the list of those who were once fired from their own company. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was fired by Apple in 1985 because he had a disagreement with the CEO and the board.

Just two and a half years after taking over Yahoo, which was not doing well anymore, CEO Carol Bartz was asked to leave in September 2011.

Also on the list is Parag Agarwal. The former chief executive of Twitter, now called 'X', was fired by Elon Musk last year as soon as the latter took over the social media platform in a $44 billion deal.

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