Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella hints at potential return of Sam Altman to OpenAI

In interviews on CNBC and Bloomberg TV tonight, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made it clear that it’s possible Sam Altman, who was fired from his role as CEO at OpenAI by the AI startup’s board of directors on Friday, could return to OpenAI in some capacity. That’s despite the fact that Altman announced this morning that he intended to join a newly-formed AI research team at Microsoft alongside ex-OpenAI president Greg Brockman and several former OpenAI researchers. Said Nadella in an interview on CNBC: “Obviously, we want Sam and Greg to have a fantastic home if they’re not going to be in OpenAI. Asked whether Altman would return to OpenAI, Nadella added: “That’s for, you know, [the] OpenAI board and management and the employees to choose … [Microsoft] chose to explicitly partner with OpenAI [and] obviously that depends on the people at OpenAI staying there or coming to Microsoft, so I’m open to both options.” “It’s been a rollercoaster at OpenAI since Altman’s firing, to say the least.”