New OpenAI CEO Emmett Shear has threatened to resign if the board can’t communicate to him why it parted ways with Sam Altman — while negotiations are allegedly unfolding to bring the ousted CEO back into the fold, according to reporting to Bloomberg.
Altman is in discussions with OpenAI board member Adam D’Angelo over a potential return to the ChatGPT developer, Bloomberg reported citing people with knowledge of the matter. Under one such scenario, Altman could return as a director on a transitional board.
This marks a significant shift from this weekend when OpenAI’s directors refused to engage with Altman. That tenor seems to have shifted after 750 of the company’s 770 employees signed a letter threatening to leave the company if Altman wasn’t reinstated.
Now Emmett Shear is allegedly threatening to resign if the board isn’t able to articulate to him why it fired Altman.
On Friday, the board said Altman “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.”Board members have since said his dismissal was not related to “malfeasance” or “safety.”
Even Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella, who quickly tapped Altman to lead an AI research team at the company, has said he hasn’t been given an explanation.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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