Dive Brief:
- In the wake of leadership turmoil at OpenAI, the company has added Microsoft to its board of directors as a nonvoting observer, according to a blog post Wednesday.
- The startup also formally reinstated CEO Sam Altman and said it did not lose a single customer or employee during the leadership upheaval, which began unfolding Nov. 17.
- The revamped board includes former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo and former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor as chair. They are tasked with adding more diverse perspectives to the group, improving the startup’s governance structure and overseeing an independent review of the events.
Dive Insight:
As OpenAI's leadership structure seemed to unravel ahead of Thanksgiving, enterprise customers were left to question their reliance on ChatGPT and the viability of investments and implementation plans intertwined with the startup’s products.
Now that the dust has begun to settle, OpenAI’s leadership is trying to mollify those worries.
“We will enhance the governance structure of OpenAI so that all stakeholders – users, customers, employees, partners and community members – can trust that OpenAI will continue to thrive,” Taylor said in the blog post.
Altman laid out three immediate priorities for the company, including the advancement of its research plan, further investment in full-stack safety efforts and the improvement and deployment of products to serve customers.
