- OpenAI’s board abruptly ousted CEO Sam Altman on Friday.
- In response, several senior figures, including OpenAI president Greg Brockman, left their posts.
- The company’s investors were pushing the board members to reverse their decision, per reports.
OpenAI appears “optimistic” that it can reel its ousted CEO Sam Altman back to the company just a day after he was suddenly pushed out of his role on Friday, The Information reported.
Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon wrote in a memo sent to staff late Saturday night that the company remained “optimistic” that it could bring back Altman and several senior employees who left in light of the CEO’s abrupt exit, sources familiar with the situation told the tech news outlet.
Among those senior figures included Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s co-founder and president, who announced on X that he was quitting hours after Altman departed. Three senior researchers — Jakub Pachocki, Aleksander Madry, Szymon Sidor — also had resigned, The Information reported earlier.
“We are still working towards a resolution and we remain optimistic,” Kwon wrote, according to The Information. “By resolution, we mean bringing back Sam, Greg, Jakub, Syzmon, Aleksander and other colleagues (sorry if I missed you!) and remaining the place where people who want to work on AGI research, safety, products and policy can do their best work.”
Kwon said that another update will be shared on Sunday morning, according to the report.
An OpenAI spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment sent on the weekend.
Altman’s abrupt ouster shocked those at the company and investors, including Microsoft.
Less than a day after Altman, who co-founded the AI startup in 2015, was ousted, investors pushed to convince OpenAI’s board to reverse the decision, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Some OpenAI employees also appeared to express solidarity behind Altman by responding to a note he posted on X on Saturday evening that said, “i love the openai team so much.”
Several employees re-posted the note with a heart emoji.
Altman’s return to OpenAI could potentially mean an impending shake-up of the company’s current board members and governance.
A condition that Altman set for him to re-assume his CEO role is if the existing board resigned, the Journal reported.
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