Analysis: AI poster child Altman back at OpenAI, may have fewer checks on power By Reuters

By Aditya Soni

(Reuters) – Sam Altman’s return as CEO of OpenAI will strengthen his control over the startup and may leave the ChatGPT creator with fewer checks on his power as the company introduces technology that could revolutionize industries, analysts and experts said. corporate governance.

OpenAI will bring back Altman just days after his ouster, in addition to installing a revamped board that could bring deeper scrutiny of the startup at the heart of the ai ​​boom, but strong support from investors like Microsoft (NASDAQ 🙂 may give Altman more leeway to commercialize the technology.

“Sam’s return may put an end to the superficial turmoil, but deep governance problems may remain,” said Mak Yuen Teen, director of the center for investor protection at the National University of Singapore Business School.

“Altman seems tremendously powerful and it is not clear that any board can supervise him. The danger is that the board becomes a rubber stamp,” he said.

OpenAI’s new board will have more experience at the highest level and strong ties to both the US government and Wall Street.

The board fired Altman last week with little explanation and attempted to move forward by twice naming an interim CEO. However, pressure from Microsoft (and the 38-year-old’s strong loyalty among OpenAI’s more than 700 employees that caused nearly all of them to threaten to leave the company) led to Altman’s reinstatement as of Wednesday.

“Altman has gotten stronger in recent days,” said Beatriz Valle, an analyst at Globaldata. But that could come at a cost, she said, adding that he now has “too much power.”

Bret Taylor, former co-CEO of Salesforce (NYSE , who also played a key role in approving Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter as a director, will chair the board.

Other members include former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, a Harvard scholar and longtime economic adviser to Democratic presidents.

“The fact that Summers and Taylor are joining OpenAI is quite extraordinary and marks a dramatic change of fortune at the company,” Valle said.

Summers, who also sits on the board of Jack Dorsey’s financial technology firm Block, has been vocal in recent months about the potential job losses and disruptions that ai could cause.

“ChatGPT is coming for the cognitive class. It will replace what doctors do,” he said in a post on X in April.

OpenAI’s previous board consisted of entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner, chief strategy officer of Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging technology, OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, as well as Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo , who is also part of the new board.

It was not immediately clear if any of the other directors would remain, including Sutskever, who joined the effort to fire Altman and later signed a letter to employees demanding his return, expressing regret for his “participation in the board’s actions.” .

OpenAI on X said it was “collaborating to figure out the details” of the new board.

Microsoft declined to comment. Summers and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Sutskever, Altman and Taylor could not immediately be reached for comment.

Some analysts say the management fiasco will ensure that OpenAI executives act cautiously, as the high-flying startup will now be subject to greater scrutiny. Several noted that companies like Facebook parent Meta (NASDAQ ) have flourished with a powerful CEO despite concerns about corporate governance.

“Sam definitely comes out stronger but also dirtier and will have more of a microscope from ai and the broader tech and business community,” said Gartner analyst Jason Wong. “He can no longer do anything wrong.”