Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Monday said that he was open to the prospect of Sam Altman returning to OpenAI following his dramatic ouster from the high-profile company last week, as the fallout of his abrupt removal continues. The tech giant had previously announced that it was bringing in Altman and former OpenAI President Greg Brockman to lead a new artificial intelligence research team there, and also appeared prepared to hire other OpenAI employees who choose to follow their former boss out of the company. Brockman resigned from OpenAI in protest over the firing of Altman as CEO. But in an interview with CNBC, Nadella seemed willing to accept a scenario in which Altman would return to his old job, saying it's up to the people of OpenAI to choose to stay there or go over to Microsoft. "I'm open to both options," he said.

The past few days have been a fever dream in the AI world. The board of OpenAI, the world's hottest AI company, shocked everyone by firing CEO Sam Altman. The news has sent shockwaves through the industry, particularly because Altman has become generative AI's poster boy over the past year. Hundreds of OpenAI employees have since signed a letter threatening to quit, following in the footsteps of a number of senior workers who chose to resign in support. It's clear that AI's biggest player is in a state of flux.

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Microsoft's CEO responds to the chaos at OpenAI, where the boss's sacking has caused a staff revolt.

OpenAI was the hottest startup in Silicon Valley off the success of ChatGPT. Then, the board fired Sam Altman. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence--and you'll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

OpenAI said it's in "intense discussions" to unify the company after another tumultuous day that saw most employees threaten to quit if Sam Altman doesn't return as chief executive officer. Vice President of Global Affairs Anna Makanju delivered the message in an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg News, aiming to rally staff who've grown anxious after days of disarray following Altman's ouster and the board's surprise appointment of former Twitch chief Emmett Shear as his interim replacement. OpenAI management is in touch with Altman, Shear and the board "but they are not prepared to give us a final response this evening," Makanju wrote. The drama surrounding the company behind ChatGPT has transfixed the technology world and set off a race by OpenAI investors to contain the damage. On Monday, more than 700 of the startup's 770 staff signed a letter saying they would quit if the board doesn't resign and re-hire Altman, who was recruited by Microsoft Corp. -- OpenAI's largest shareholder -- to run a new artificial intelligence team.

Steve Jobs, driven by his genius and his gut, invented the iPhone and built Apple into the world's most valuable company. He was uncompromising, larger than life and irreplaceable. His life was creating the future, which would be filled with devices controlled by their users. Sam Altman spent the last year taking on the mantle of Jobs as the Silicon Valley entrepreneur in charge of tomorrow. It is the biggest job in Silicon Valley, and now the most difficult.

More than three days after OpenAI was thrown into chaos by Sam Altman's sudden firing from his post as CEO, one big question remains unanswered: Why? Altman was removed by OpenAI's non-profit board through an unconventional governance structure that as one of the company's cofounders he helped to create. It gave a small group of individuals wholly independent of the ChatGPT maker's core operations the power to dismiss its leadership, in the name of ensuring humanity-first oversight of its AI technology. The board's brief and somewhat cryptic statement announcing Altman's departure said the directors had "concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities." Altman was replaced by CTO Mira Murati who was appointed interim CEO. Greg Brockman, like Altman an OpenAI cofounder, was removed from his post as chair of the board and quit the company in solidarity with Altman several hours later. There have been many twists and turns since Friday, with Altman making a failed attempt to return as CEO, the board replacing Murati as interim CEO with Twitch cofounder Emmett Shear, Microsoft announcing it would hire Altman and Brockman, and almost every OpenAI employee threatening to quit unless Altman returned.

OpenAI has gone from ruling the world of artificial intelligence with ChatGPT to chaos, its chief executive ousted seemingly for advancing too fast and too far with the risky technology. The exit of Sam Altman set in motion a series of events that saw the upstart company's biggest investor, Microsoft, swoop in to hire the toppled CEO and begin a process of building an OpenAI clone in the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant. In some ways, the looming result to the weekend saga is hardly a surprise, with many wondering how the board members could be naive enough to think they could win the duel with the Microsoft-backed Altman.

Some investors in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, are exploring legal recourse against the company's board, sources familiar with the matter have told the Reuters news agency, after the directors removed CEO Sam Altman and sparked a potential mass exodus of employees. Sources said investors are working with legal advisers to study their options. It was not immediately clear if these investors will sue OpenAI. Investors worry they could lose hundreds of millions of dollars they invested in OpenAI, a crown jewel in some of their portfolios, with the potential collapse of the hottest startup in the rapidly growing generative AI sector. OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.