Nearly 700 of OpenAI’s 770 employees had threatened to resign if Sam Altman, 38, did not return.
OpenAI announced on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday the return to its leadership of its co-founder Sam Altman, a few days after his dismissal from the start-up creator of ChatGPT.
“We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO” with changes in the board of directors, notably headed by Bret Taylor and the arrival of Larry Summers and Adam D’Angelo, the company explained in a message posted just after 10:00 p.m. Tuesday evening in California, or 7:00 a.m. Wednesday in Paris.
“We are working on the details. Thank you for your patience during this time,” added the start-up in this message.
Sam Altman, whom Microsoft announced on Monday to hire, three days after his dismissal from OpenAI, for his part immediately affirmed that he had the support of Satya Nadella, the boss of Microsoft, to return to the head of OpenAI.
“With the new board and Satya’s support, I look forward to returning to OpenAI and building a strong partnership” with Microsoft, wrote the Silicon Valley stat on X (formerly Twitter).
On Monday, former Twitch boss Emmett Shear even announced that he had accepted the position of number 1 at OpenAI on an interim basis.
According to a letter published by several American media, nearly 700 of OpenAI’s 770 employees threatened to resign if Sam Altman, 38, did not return.
The release of the first version of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022 kicked off a race for so-called generative artificial intelligence, that is to say capable of creating content (text, images, sounds ) on request in everyday language.
Generative AI is seen as capable of transforming entire sectors of the economy. It arouses enthusiasm, but also strong concerns about its possible danger for democracy (massive disinformation) or employment (replaced professions), in particular.