Sam Altman in talks to rejoin OpenAI board

After the shock dismissal of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, members of the OpenAI board and the company’s interim CEO are in talks for a possible reinstatement, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Most of the staff member at OpenAI has threatened to leave unless Mr Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman are rejoined.

Sam Altman has been offered a job from Microsoft, the biggest investor in OpenAI..

According to reports in different media, the AI company is exploring various options, including bringing Mr Altman back in his former position or as a board director.

It is still unclear whether Mr Altman will join Microsoft which has also offered to match the pay of any staff who join it from OpenAI.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said he was "committed to OpenAI and Sam, irrespective of what configuration".

"Obviously that depends on the people at OpenAI staying there or coming to Microsoft, so I'm open to both options," Nadella told news site CNBC.

Last week, the OpenAI board decided to remove Mr Altman which led to Mr Brockman's resignation, sending the star AI company into chaos.

The decision was made by the three non-employees board members, Adam D'Angelo, Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner, and a third co-founder and the firm's chief scientist Ilya Sutskever.

Mr Sutskever has since apologised on X, formerly known as Twitter, and signed the letter calling on the board to reverse course.

Unusually for a company that is reportedly valued at $80 billion, the company's board comprised of just six people as of last week.

Evan Morikawa, an engineering manager at OpenAI, has said that 743 out of 770 employees at OpenAI have signed a letter calling on the board to resign - with staff themselves threatening to leave if their demands are not met.