Sam Altman’s Return As OpenAI CEO Is A Relief—and Lesson—For Us All

The sudden ousting of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman initially seemed to suggest one thing: he must have done something really, really bad. Possibly illegal.

After all, even when executives commit fraud or have improper sexual relationships with employees, companies typically take months to announce a leader’s departure to spend more time “with their family” or on “philanthropic endeavors.”

So when OpenAI’s board of directors publicly announced that Altman was fired after “failing to be consistently candid,” within hours of Altman himself hearing the news, and before significant investors like Microsoft were informed — the unprecedented speed seemed to indicate unprecedented malfeasance by Altman.

Apparently, this unprecedented speed indicates something far more consequential: that the board of directors responsible for overseeing the world’s most advanced AI company utterly lacked the ability to do so.

The decision to restore Altman and appoint a new board of directors is a victory for both OpenAI and Microsoft. More importantly — it’s a victory for all of us, whose lives will be impacted by the future of AI.

Independent, Responsible AI Development​

The one thing every side of the “responsible AI” debate agrees is that crucial decisions should not be made impulsively, without an attempt to understand the long-term consequences.

Ambushing the CEO and President of the Board, with less than an hour’s notice before the news became public, is impulsive.

Making a public announcement about the decision before telling major investors – let alone consulting them – is impulsive.

Appointing an interim CEO without any AI expertise, who boasts that he “was happily avoiding full time employment” and accepted the role after “reflecting on it for just a few hours,” is impulsive. Indeed, his main qualification seems to be a willingness to impulsively take the role.

The fact that the OpenAI board member who fired Altman reversed his decision less than 48 hours later – is impulsive.

Ironically, the OpenAI board members claimed that they ousted Altman over concerns that the company was moving too quickly.

AI can only be safe if those pioneering its development have both the desire and the ability to implement safeguards.

In the past year, Sam Altman’s ability to work well with technologists, members of Congress, and researchers made him the face of generative AI.

Altman's stewardship positioned OpenAI as not just advancing technology, but also engaging with policymakers and advocating for safe AI development. His departure marked a void of leadership that understood the delicate balance between innovation and responsibility.

His return holds promise for the continuity of leadership that brought OpenAI to its current preeminence — and questions about how the unprecedented chaos of the past week may impact the overarching pace of innovation and public confidence in AI.

The Right Kind of Disruption

The companies that will determine the future of AI are those its forefront. Right now, that’s OpenAI.

No alternative offers anything close to its generative AI capabilities.

OpenAI has put safeguards in place to mitigate abuses of its platform, and was initially structured as a nonprofit organization “to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity,” independent of demands to generate revenue.

Only when Elon Musk left the organization in 2018 – and stopped funding its substantial computing costs – did Altman incorporate the for-profit LLC under the nonprofit.

Independence, Incentives, and The Speed of Innovation

A week ago, OpenAI was riding high on cascading wins that positioned it as a beacon of responsibility, innovation, integrity, and independence.

If Altman didn’t return, 95% of OpenAI’s 770 employees threatened to leave and join Microsoft–including the CTO and other senior leaders.

If that had happened, OpenAI would become a husk of the company it is. This could have opened a window for global competitors, including those in China, to accelerate their efforts and challenge the lead that OpenAI established.

As the OpenAI team adjusted to a new culture and environment, the inevitable slow-down of generative AI’s capabilities would cause the delay of the life-saving or life-changing advancements in medicine, education, bias mitigation, and science that are currently being built with OpenAI. Some would never be developed at all.

That’s the nature of technological advancements – they build upon each other, and accelerate exponentially over time.

When the progress of any technology – and reliable, affordable, consistent access to it – is compromised, advancements that build on it are stunted. The trickle effects of delayed innovation are impossible to measure.

When educational, medical, and scientific advances that rely on generative AI are delayed, patients, students, and consumers miss out on benefits they never knew were possible.

Leadership Lessons

A disagreement between the board of directors and CEO should be a source of healthy tension and conflict, incorporating multiple perspectives, not an impulsive coup d'etat. A nonprofit board is supposed to hold the CEO accountable: but who holds the board accountable? Only its other members.

And apparently, groundswell support when 95% of employees are prepared to leave the company when they disagree with an impulsive decision.

Much has been made of the unusual governing structure of OpenAI. More importantly: OpenAI is revolutionary not just because of its unprecedented technology, but also because it’s independent from the tech giants whose primary revenue streams are advertising or enterprise software sales.

Where do we go from here?

Leadership stability is often a key driver of sustained innovation and growth. The challenge for OpenAI now, and for the entire tech industry, is to navigate increasing complexity without losing sight of its larger goal: advancing AI in a way that is responsible and ethical.

The world is watching OpenAI’s leaders. Their actions at this critical juncture will shape the trajectory of AI development — with global consequences that may never be fully understood.