OpenAI returns to the status quo ante – nothing to see here

As we reported yesterday, the current situation at the top of OpenAI is very fluid and chaotic. Its CEO had been fired by its board for reasons that weren’t entirely clear. As a result the majority of the remaining workforce threatened to jump ship and join Microsoft if the decision wasn’t reversed. It seems that was an offer the board couldn’t refuse.

What this means for the future of the company, and Microsoft’s involvement in it, is still unclear but it’s hard to escape the impression that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been pulling the strings behind the scenes from at least the point at which Altman was fired. A reasonable extrapolation of that assumption is that the new regime will also align closely with Nadella’s vision, effectively giving Microsoft full control of OpenAI without having to compensate its other investors.

Microsoft’s online press room has maintained a stony silence on the matter and we’re still unable to even load the OpenAI site. Nearly all of the public messaging over this saga has been conducted over Twitter, which is a win for owner Elon Musk, who continues to take a keen interest in it. OpenAI may try to insist that everything is now back to normal but it seems certain that there will be further twists in the plot of this remarkable corporate melodrama.