Sam Altman and Ilya Sutskever Speak at Tel Aviv University

Sam Altman and Ilya Sutskever spoke at Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv on June 5, 2023. They are the founder and CEO, and co-founder and chief scientist of artificial intelligence company OpenAI, respectively.

After several days of chaos, Sam Altman has returned as the CEO of OpenAI, following the previous board’s ousting of Altman. Three new board members have replaced the previous leadership. Microsoft, among other major investors, is in negotiations to have representation on the board.

OpenAI’s new board includes business and technology executives, unlike the previous board, which had academics and researchers. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has expressed his encouragement for the changes that have taken place.

Among the newest members of OpenAI’s board are Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo.

Bret Taylor, a current board member at Shopify and former co-CEO of Salesforce, is the board chair. Larry Summers, former Treasury secretary and president of Harvard University, also serves on the board, along with Adam D’Angelo, CEO of Quora.

The previous board members who are no longer on the board include Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley, and Ilya Sutskever. Toner and McCauley have not publicly commented on their ousting, while Sutskever is still serving as OpenAI’s chief scientist.

The composition of the new board suggests that the company may be taking on a more conventional Silicon Valley startup approach. Despite these changes, OpenAI remains a “capped-profit” entity owned by a nonprofit, with exceeding profits being directed to the nonprofit.