Microsoft and Apple Ditch OpenAI Board Observer Roles

Phil Schiller may be wondering what he did wrong. Just over a week after we learned that Apple would get a board observer position at OpenAI—to be filled by Schiller—those plans are off. Microsoft meanwhile is also giving up its OpenAI board observer role, saying it was no longer necessary. Were the board meetings that boring? (Kidding!)

While anything involving Apple, Microsoft and OpenAI is catnip to reporters, these developments may not be as meaningful as they seem. Microsoft took the board observer position last November, after the fracas over the old board’s short-lived ouster of CEO Sam Altman. The software giant presumably believes (correctly) that Altman is firmly in charge and it no longer needs to keep tabs on the board as closely as it did.