The Winners and Losers in Sam Altman’s OpenAI Kingdom

After almost five days, he’s back: Sam Altman returns to OpenAI as its chief executive officer, the very same position he had held just 110 or so hours prior, in what will come to be known in Silicon Valley as “the time before OpenAI imploded.” But this saga has only reached the end of the beginning. We go into the Thanksgiving break wondering what happens next, and what it will mean for the future — not just for OpenAI, but AI more broadly.

A new interim board for OpenAI has been formed. It includes Bret Taylor, former Salesforce Inc. co-CEO; Larry Summers, a Clinton-era Treasury secretary and a paid contributor to Bloomberg Television; and Adam D’Angelo, CEO of Quora Inc., who stays on from the previous board. More will join them — the finalized board will have up to nine directors in total. We’ll be able to draw bigger conclusions about OpenAI’s direction once we know who they are.