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Join Wundery Plus in the Wundery app or on Apple Podcasts. It's Wednesday, Wednesday, It's Wednesday, November 29th, 2023 at the Open AI Headquarters.

Sam Altman looks out his office window at the hustle and bustle on the streets of San Francisco.

Outside his door he hears employees chatting and typing walking the halls.

It's music to allman's ears.

When the board of Open AI had initially asked him to come back, he wasn't even sure how to react.

It was a stunning reversal, coming just a day after his abrupt firing. He was hurt, angry, and

humiliated. It would have been easy, maybe even gratifying, to tell them to shove it.

But then he thought about how he had poured almost eight years of his life

into the company and over the course of the five bewildering days that it took to reach an agreement

for his return, so many of his coworkers were right there

with him. In the end, it had been an easy decision to take the helm again.

He's relished the exhilaration of his return, but now it's time to tell the crew that his

return is official and to thank them, while also setting the tone for the path ahead.

He opens up his laptop and starts typing.

I am extremely grateful for everyone's hard work in an unclear and unprecedented situation

and I believe our resilience and spirit set us apart in the industry.

I feel so, so good about our probability of success for achieving

our mission. He tells the team that he is returning as the CEO and that Mira will resume her role as

CTO. Brett Taylor will chair the board that at the moment is just Larry

Summers and Adam Diangelo. To Ilia Sutzkiver, who lit the match for the coup, he shows mercy.

I love and respect Ilia. I think he's a guiding light in the field and a gem of a human being.

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