On Thursday, OpenAI announced the appointment of Paul M. Nakasone, a retired U.S. Army general and former head of the National Security Agency, to its board. Nakasone was the longest-serving commander of the U.S. Cyber Command and also led the Central Security Service.
Nakasone will also serve on OpenAI’s newly established Safety and Security Committee. This committee is tasked with a 90-day review of the company's processes and safeguards, after which it will offer recommendations to the board and later share updates with the public.
Nakasone joins current board members Sam Altman, Adam D’Angelo, Larry Summers, and Bret Taylor, along with recently appointed members from March: Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, former executive vice president and general counsel at Sony; and Fidji Simo, CEO and chair of Instacart.
As OpenAI's large language models become increasingly influential in the tech industry and as competition heats up in the emerging generative AI market, the company is strengthening its board and executive team. Despite its rapid growth since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, OpenAI has faced controversies and high-profile staff departures.
In addition to announcing Nakasone's appointment, OpenAI revealed on Monday the hiring of two senior executives and a new partnership with Apple to integrate ChatGPT with Siri.
Sarah Friar, the former CEO of Nextdoor and former CFO of Square, joins as the new chief financial officer. OpenAI stated in a blog post that Friar will lead a finance team supporting the company’s mission by ensuring continued investment in core research and scalability to meet the demands of a growing customer base in a complex global environment.
Kevin Weil, formerly the president of Planet Labs and a senior executive at Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, has been named the new chief product officer. Weil's team will focus on transforming research into products and services that benefit consumers, developers, and businesses.
