I agree. As long as Sam has total control over the board it's fine if Iiya doesn't approve of everything Sam does. Not worth losing a top AI researcher over this.

That defeats the purpose of having a board. Which is sometimes the desired outcome, of course, but if I were Microsoft I am not sure I’d want Sam in there with zero checks and balances.

I also wouldn’t want Ilya in there without checks and balances, to be clear. So the challenge is identifying the right adults.

I don’t think it’s realistic to expect that negotiation to complete successfully in the eyes of all parties by 5 PM today. It’s possible that Ilya will give up on having his requirements satisfied and leave.

If Sam returns he doesn't want to risk getting ousted again? So presumably he'll appoint people 100% loyal to him.

Plenty of precedent for tech founders to have total board control. It will take a little while for Sam to consolidate power, but he won't forget what happened this weekend and he'll play the long game accordingly.

Big investors like Microsoft won't want a board that is utterly subservient to the CEO.

Sam isn’t the only person who has to agree to the members of the new board. Sam also has not displayed a mastery of board politics in the past, either at OpenAI or at Y Combinator. Of course he has a strong hand to play here, but then again so does Microsoft.

Is it assumed that Sam would be more aligned with Microsoft than not? From a vague awareness only, I'd guess that Microsoft wants to wield OpenAI against rivals, and SamA wouldn't find it unappealing to be bigger than Zuckerberg?

So you think Ilya will stay while getting none of what he wanted because he still wants to have a job at openai? Do you think he did it with no real grievances?

He has succeeded in forcing a negotiation on the issues he's unhappy about. If he felt his concerns were being ignored previously, well, that is certainly no longer the case. I wouldn't assume necessarily that he's not going to get any of what he wanted.