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Even though it seemed that former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman would lead a new AI research division at Microsoft, he might still get his old job back. According to Bloomberg, the OpenAI board -- which caused chaos at the company when it fired Altman on Friday -- has reopened discussions with the former chief executive regarding his possible reinstatement. The talks are said to involve board member (and Quora CEO) Adam D'Angelo as well as OpenAI investors, some of whom have been pushing for Altman's return. According to the report, board members "largely refused to engage" with Altman until Monday, so these latest talks are said to be a significant development. Meanwhile, Kevin Scott, Microsoft's chief technology officer, said that his company will match the compensation OpenAI workers are currently receiving if they jump ship.

Altman's sudden move to join Microsoft is not finalized, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, signaled in an interview with CNBC on Monday. A person familiar with the matter said he would only return to OpenAI if the board members who ousted him stepped down. In the CNBC interview on Monday afternoon, Nadella sought to assure customers and investors that his company was on solid ground no matter the outcome. He left the door open for Altman to return to OpenAI or continue on as an AI leader at Microsoft, even though he announced late Sunday night that Altman was coming to Microsoft. "I'm open to both options," Nadella said in the interview with CNBC.

Ilya Sutskever, bless his heart. Until recently, to the extent that Sutskever was known at all, it was as a brilliant artificial-intelligence researcher. He was the star student who helped Geoffrey Hinton, one of the "godfathers of AI," kick off the so-called deep-learning revolution. In 2015, after a short stint at Google, Sutskever co-founded OpenAI and eventually became its chief scientist; so important was he to the company's success that Elon Musk has taken credit for recruiting him. Still, apart from niche podcast appearances and the obligatory hour-plus back-and-forth with Lex Fridman, Sutskever didn't have much of a public profile before this past weekend.

The boss of Microsoft has said there is "no OpenAI" without his company's involvement, as he revealed the American tech behemoth was not consulted about the sacking of Sam Altman. Satya Nadella said Microsoft, OpenAI's biggest investor, was not contacted by OpenAI board members before they sacked Altman as chief executive on Friday. Speaking to the tech journalist Kara Swisher on her podcast, he said: "It's not even the money and the capital. I mean, here's a simple way to think about this. Someone's got to think about why? There is no OpenAI without, sort of, Microsoft leaning in, in a deep way, to partner with this company on their mission."

It's been a drama-filled week for OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. Its wunderkind CEO Sam Altman has been unceremoniously booted out by its board and more than 600 staff members are now threatening to quit unless he's allowed back in. As a writer, I am of course duty-bound to swear on my copy of McNae's Essential Law for Journalists that I did not use OpenAI's chatbot to write this column – or did I? Even if I did, why would I fess up to it? Thanks to disastrously unpopular attempts by the likes of BuzzFeed to create AI-assisted content, its name is mud in the media industry.

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.