Does'America First' make the US weaker? Who is Marjorie Taylor Greene? Former United States Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has resigned from the OpenAI board, days after US President Donald Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate his and other prominent Democrats' ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The outlet Axios first reported the resignation on Wednesday. Anthropic's AI hacking claims divide experts We appreciate his many contributions and the perspective he brought to the Board," OpenAI's board of directors said in a statement. The move comes one day after the Republican-controlled US Congress voted almost unanimously to force the release of Department of Justice files on Epstein, an outcome Trump had fought for months before ending his opposition. He has served on the OpenAI board since late 2023, following the brief removal of the ChatGPT maker's CEO, Sam Altman. Other prominent companies with ties to Summers include edu-tech firm Skillsoft, where he has been a board member since 2021, and Santander, where he chairs the bank's international advisory board. He was also a former president of Harvard University. The resignation comes after Summers announced that he would step back from all other public commitments to "rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me". "Everyone in Washington has known who Larry Summers is for decades.

Former US treasury secretary Larry Summers is stepping down from the board at OpenAI, a week after a tranche of emails between him and late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was released. Summers said in a statement to the BBC that he was grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company, and look forward to following their progress. Summers, who was also once the president of Harvard University, said on Monday that he would be stepping back from public commitments over his ties to Epstein. The recently released emails showed Summers communicated with Epstein until the day before Epstein's 2019 arrest for the alleged sex trafficking of minors. In a statement, the artificial intelligence company said it respected Summers' decision to resign.

I first learned about The Clause from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. During an interview with him in May 2023, I asked about the deal between Microsoft and OpenAI that granted his company exclusive access to the startup's groundbreaking AI technology. I knew the contract had set a cap on how much profit Microsoft could make from the arrangement, and I asked him what would happen if and when that point was reached. The answer was a bit puzzling. "Fundamentally, their long-term idea is we get to superintelligence," he told me.

Sam Altman is back on the board of OpenAI, nearly four months after the CEO was ousted, and quickly reinstated, from the company he founded. Although Altman had returned as the AI company's top executive in November, a temporary board oversaw his return and the subsequent investigation into his conduct. That investigation is now complete, according to the company, which added three new members to its board of directors. The additions include: Instacart CEO and former Meta executive Fidji Simo, former Sony executive Nicole Seligman and Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, economist Larry Summers and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, who served on the temporary three-seat board, will remain in their positions with Taylor continuing as chair.

The fallout from the OpenAI board's failed attempt to fire CEO Sam Altman last November took an unexpected turn on Thursday, in events that could have a significant bearing on the future of the company and the wider world of artificial intelligence. Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in a San Francisco court, alleging that Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman have violated OpenAI's founding mission to develop AI safely and for the benefit of humanity. The billionaire owner of SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter) co-founded OpenAI alongside Altman and Brockman back in 2015, but stepped away from the company in 2018. Musk disagreed with Altman and Brockman's plan to turn OpenAI from a non-profit to a for-profit company, and before stepping down, reportedly mounted an unsuccessful bid to install himself as CEO. Musk is suing Altman, Brockman, and several of OpenAI's business entities for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and unfair business practices, seeking unspecified damages above 105,000.

In the surprise ouster and restoration of Sam Altman as chief executive officer at OpenAI, only one person, Adam D'Angelo, managed to play a role on each side of the drama. D'Angelo, a former Facebook executive and founder of the question-and-answer platform Quora, was one of four members of the board who fired Altman, and the sole surviving director named to a new board of the artificial-intelligence company that took over on Wednesday.

Sam Altman will return to lead OpenAI less than five days after he was pushed out of one of the world's most valuable startups, setting off a shock back-and-forth drama that transfixed Silicon Valley and the global AI industry. Altman is returning as chief executive officer and the initial board will be led by Bret Taylor, a former co-CEO of Salesforce Inc. The other directors are Larry Summers, the former U.S. Treasury Secretary, and existing member Adam D'Angelo, the co-founder and CEO of Quora Inc. OpenAI is now working "to figure out the details," the company said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo. We are collaborating to figure out the details.

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.

The ascension of an insider CEO can be a bit underwhelming. When Satya Nadella took the helm of Microsoft in 2014, some employees and investors were disappointed. The search committee had spent months sifting through more than 100 potential leaders, looking for someone who could revive the spirit of innovation that had once defined the company. Along the way, some Wall Street analysts interpreted the fact that no clear external candidate was emerging to indicate that "Microsoft couldn't attract an appealing CEO after years of dwindling relevance," the Wall Street Journal reported. And then, on a frigid January day, they got a 22-year Microsoft veteran as CEO.

OpenAI investors are pressing the company's board to reverse its decision to fire Sam Altman as chief executive officer and remove him as a director, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Some of the investors including Thrive Global are also in talks with Microsoft, the largest shareholder of OpenAI, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the overtures are private. Altman is open to returning to the company, one of the people said. In one scenario under consideration, members of the current OpenAI board would step down as soon as this weekend, according to multiple with knowledge of the situation. However, the situation is still fluid and no decisions have been made, the people said.