Microsoft Hires Former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to Head 'Advanced AI Research Team'

OpenAI co-founders Altman and Greg Brockman will head Microsoft's AI team, while former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear takes the reins at OpenAI.

Nov 20, 2023

3 min read

Sam Altman and Microsoft. Images: Shutterstock

Microsoft has hired former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to head up an "advanced AI research team" following his ouster from the AI firm.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, announced the news in a tweet, noting that Altman will join its in-house team alongside OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and "colleagues."

Altman tweeted that, "the mission continues," following the announcement; Nadella responded that he was "super excited to have you join as CEO of this new group."

"We are going to build something new & it will be incredible," Brockman tweeted, adding that the group's initial leadership team would consist of Altman along with Jakub Pachocki, Szymon Sidor and Aleksander Madry.

Altman's and Brockman's hiring by Microsoft rounds off a tumultuous weekend for OpenAI, which saw Brockman quit on Saturday as the company was rocked by the news that its board had ousted Altman. The board had claimed that Altman "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities."

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…

— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) November 20, 2023

Following his departure, the firm appointed chief technology officer Mira Murati as interim CEO on Friday afternoon, amid reports that Microsoft was pressuring the firm to reinstate Altman as CEO. With many OpenAI employees tweeting heart emojis to show their support for the co-founder, Murati reportedly planned to rehire Altman and Brockman in an unspecified capacity—but with the plans seemingly falling through, former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear announced on Monday morning that he'd been tapped as the firm's new interim CEO.

Today I got a call inviting me to consider a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to become the interim CEO of @OpenAI. After consulting with my family and reflecting on it for just a few hours, I accepted. I had recently resigned from my role as CEO of Twitch due to the birth of my…

— Emmett Shear (@eshear) November 20, 2023

In his tweet, Microsoft CEO Nadella stated that "We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI," and that it would continue to move ahead with its product roadmap, including announcements made at the recent Microsoft Ignite conference.

For his part, Shear emphasized that "our partnership with Microsoft remains strong" and outlined a three-point plan for the next 30 days, including hiring an independent investigator to report on the process leading up to Altman's departure, and reforming the company's management and leadership team.

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