So Where’s That New OpenAI Board?

Last November, one of the most important private technology businesses in the world—OpenAI—nearly collapsed overnight over a governance crisis. Its nonprofit board announced to the world that it had lost confidence in CEO Sam Altman’s ability to lead, and it ousted him. Most of the people who worked there threatened to quit. Altman was brought back after a tense negotiation culminating in the decision that there would be a new board, which he would not join initially, and an independent review of the old board’s allegations—namely that he hadn’t been candid with its members.

It may be a good time to check back on both those measures, because Altman has been busy. Since he took back the helm, he has been trying to raise billions of dollars for a joint venture to develop the chips, data centers and resources OpenAI needs to keep building its technology. He previewed a stunning new artificial intelligence generator for video, Sora (here is my favorite demo). He is still the main owner of the OpenAI venture fund, as The Information first reported. And he is overseeing a slew of upcoming products, which include a search engine and technology that performs various tasks for users by taking over their computers.