Microsoft has announced that the sacked co-founders of ChatGPT company OpenAI are joining the company.
Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, announced on Monday that the company would be absorbing the two management teams of OpenAI and their colleagues who left the AI company in protest against the removal of Altman.
This is coming barely three days after the board drama at OpenAI that got the co-founders fired.
According to Nadella, at Microsoft, the former OpenAI members will lead a “new advanced AI research team.
He, however, noted that Microsoft would continue its relationship with OpenAI even as he expressed readiness to work with the new management appointed for the company.
Nadella, in a statement announcing the absorption of Altman and Brockman posted on his X handle, said:
“We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners. We look forward to getting to know Emmett Shear and OAI’s new leadership team and working with them.
“And we’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team. We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success.”
OpenAI, in a statement issued on Friday, noted that a deliberative review process by its board concluded that Altman “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.”
Hence, the board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.
Altman thereafter announced his resignation via a post on X, but without the details.
However, ousted Chairman Greg Brockman shared the events that led to their exit while expressing shock at the decision of the board. According to Brockman, their removal was announced without notice.
Meanwhile, OpenAI’s board has hired former Twitch chief Emmett Shear as chief executive officer to replace Altman. Shear stepped down as CEO of Amazon’s game-streaming site Twitch earlier this year.
According to people familiar with the appointment, Shear won over directors because he appeared to recognize the existential threats that AI presented, one of the people said.
Shear, a computer scientist who spent more than a decade building Twitch into one of the world’s most successful video platforms, is regarded as having the heft to lead a large engineering group.