Sam Altman: OpenAI CEO or New Venture? Report Reveals Possibilities!

Sam Altman, former CEO of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, could return to the company as CEO, The Verge reports. However, top management is “ambivalent” about the same issue and wants changes in OpenAI’s leadership.

Additionally, the report states that a source has confirmed that OpenAI’s board has decided to meet the terms and resign in order for Altman and Brockman to return to the company, but this may not work as the board has missed a deadline of 5 pm PT. That deadline was set to get many OpenAI employees fired, and now that it’s passed, it remains to be seen what Sam Altman’s decision will be and whether those employees will leave with Altman to start a whole new company.

On that note, other top industry executives — including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella — have come out in support of Altman and expressed support for him in his future endeavors, and Nadella is said to have been surprised by the OpenAI board’s decision.

Microsoft has made significant investments in OpenAI, and the partnership is quite strong, with many OpenAI products such as GPT-4 being an integral part of its suite of AI-based products such as Copilot (formerly Bing Chat). And if something were to happen to OpenAI, Microsoft would also lose resources.

The reasons for Altman’s firing are not entirely clear, but it may have been due to a “communication breakdown,” not a “fraud,” as Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap said in an internal company memo obtained by Reuters. Reuters also reported that Sam Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, who parted ways after Altman’s departure, are in talks to launch something of their own. And earlier this year, it was also revealed that OpenAI and former Apple design chief Jony Ive were in talks to create an “iPhone of AI,” with Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son also part of the story.

It remains to be seen whether Sam Altman and others, including Greg Brockman, will return to arguably the most talked about startup in recent history thanks to the growing popularity of ChatGPT and generative AI.