Negotiations to bring Sam Altman back to OpenAI continue slowly.
Here is a brief update on the current situation of OpenAI, after a explosive weekend and a very confusing Monday that saw the Sam Altman news I go to Microsoft slowly fades In Satya Nadella doesn’t seem so sure it would happen.
— We’re told Altman still wants to return to OpenAI and continues to negotiate with the board today.
– As Bloomberg reported late last night, new interim CEO Emmett Shear is involved in mediating these negotiations, creating a frankly unprecedented situation where (1) the interim CEO who replaced (2) the interim CEO who replaced Sam and who (3) was replaced for trying to get Sam back is now (4) deeply involved in a new effort to get Sam back. Read it a few times, it’s good. It doesn’t make sense to anyone else either.
— Microsoft’s offer to hire everyone who threatened to quit is still on the table and has now been officially made publicafter being noted in employee’s walkout letter yesterday. Generally speaking, Microsoft seems to have moved away from the situation; Nadella remains in the mix but has now made several media appearances, reiterating that he will work with Altman and OpenAI “regardless of configuration”, which frankly makes it sound like he’s talking about the benefits of plug device drivers and play under Windows. We all go back to what we know.
— We’re told everyone, including the board, is trying to be reasonable and get OpenAI back together.
We’ll continue to post updates as we get them; At the very least we can say that the global temperature has fallen, but it’s not clear that this translates into an actual return.