OpenAI宫斗大反转：奥特曼重返CEO岗位

前情提要：OpenAI宫斗。

近日，OpenAI宫斗大戏终于迎来大结局：OpenAI发文称，已与山姆·奥特曼（Sam Altman）达成协议，恢复CEO职务，并将重新组成董事会。

🤔️小作业：

1. What was a significant factor that influenced the reinstatement of Sam Altman as OpenAI's CEO?

A) A unanimous decision by the original board members.

B) The intervention of a government regulatory body.

C) A campaign led by employees, allies, and investors.

D) A legal settlement resulting from a lawsuit.

A) The board would consist exclusively of OpenAI employees.

B) The board would be restructured without several opposing members. C) The board would expand to include international members.

D) The board would dissolve and be replaced by an advisory council.

无注释原文：

Sam Altman Is Reinstated as OpenAI's Chief Executive

From: The New York Times

Sam Altman was reinstated late Tuesday as OpenAI's chief executive, successfully reversing his ouster by the company's board last week after a campaign waged by his allies, employees and investors, the company said.

The board would be remade without several members who had opposed Mr. Altman.

“We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo,” OpenAI said in a post to X, formerly known as Twitter. “We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.”

The return of Mr. Altman and the potential remaking of the board, capped a frenetic five days that upended OpenAI, the maker of the ChatGPT chatbot and one of the world's highest-profile artificial intelligence companies.

“I love openai, and everything I've done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together,” Mr. Altman said in a post to X. “with the new board and w satya's support, I'm looking forward to returning to openai, and building on our strong partnership with msft.”

OpenAI's board surprised Mr. Altman and the company's employees on Friday afternoon when it told him he was being pushed out. Greg Brockman, the company's president who co-founded the company with Mr. Altman and others, resigned in protest.

The ouster kicked off efforts by Mr. Altman, 38, his allies in the tech industry and OpenAI's employees to force the company's board to bring him back. On Sunday evening, after a weekend of negotiations, the board said it was going to stick with its decision.

But in a head-spinning development just hours later, Microsoft, OpenAI's largest investor, said that Mr. Altman, Mr. Brockman and others would be joining the company to start a new advanced artificial intelligence lab.

Nearly all of OpenAI's more than 700 employees signed a letter telling the board they would walk out and follow Mr. Altman to Microsoft if he wasn't reinstated, throwing the future of the start-up into jeopardy.

Four board members — Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI founder; Adam D'Angelo, the chief executive of Quora; Helen Toner, a director of strategy at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology; and Tasha McCauley, an entrepreneur and computer scientist — had initially decided to push Mr. Altman out.

But as the employee revolt grew, Mr. Sutskever repented in a message on X: “I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions.” He also signed the letter.

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注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为纽约时报官方译文，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Sam Altman Is Reinstated as OpenAI's Chief Executive

From: The New York Times

Sam Altman was reinstated late Tuesday as OpenAI's chief executive, successfully reversing his ouster by the company's board last week after a campaign waged by his allies, employees and investors, the company said.

OpenAI宣布，萨姆·奥尔特曼于周二晚间恢复担任公司首席执行官职务。在盟友、员工和投资者的共同推动下，他成功扭转了上周被公司董事会罢免的结果。

reinstate /ˌriː.ɪnˈsteɪt/ 表示“使重返岗位，使恢复原职；把…放回原处；使恢复原状”，英文解释为“to give someone back their previous job or position, or to cause something to exist again”举个🌰：A month after being unfairly dismissed, he was reinstated in his job. 在被不公正解职1个月后，他又重新返回工作岗位。

1）表示“失败；挫折”，英文解释为“a defeat or failure”举个🌰：They suffered a serious military reverse. 他们遭受了一次重大的军事失败。也可以表示“相反的情况（或事物）；对立面”，英文解释为“the opposite of what has been suggested”

2）作动词，表示“（使）反向；（使）倒转；彻底改变；推翻”，英文解释为“to change the direction, order, position, result, etc. of something to its opposite”举个🌰：The new manager hoped to reverse the decline in the company's fortunes. 新经理希望能够扭转公司江河日下的状况。

ouster /ˈaʊ.stər/ 表示“废黜，革职，罢免”，英文解释为“the process of removing someone from an important position or job”举个🌰：The committee's chairperson is facing a possible ouster. 委员会的主席面临着可能被解职的命运。

威尔·史密斯被禁止出席奥斯卡活动十年文中提到，board作名词，表示“董事会；理事会；委员会”，英文解释为“the group of people who are responsible for controlling and organizing a company or organization”举个🌰：Every decision has to be approved by the board (of directors). 每项决定都必须由董事会通过。

board作动词，表示“（使）上（船、火车或飞机）”，英文解释为“to get onto or allow people to get onto a boat, train, or aircraft”举个🌰：At the airport she boarded a plane to Hangzhou. 在机场她登上了去杭州的飞机。

作名词，表示“工资，工钱，报酬”，此处作动词，表示“发动（战争）；组织，筹备（活动）”，英文解释为“to fight a war or organize a series of activities in order to achieve something”举个🌰：They've been waging a long campaign to change the law. 他们为修改这一法律已组织发起了一场持久的运动。

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇介绍拉美电商平台美卡多的文章中提到：The biggest is Amazon, against which his firm has waged a costly battle in Mexico. 最大的威胁来自亚马逊，美卡多与它在墨西哥展开了一场较量，代价高昂。

ally /ˈæl.aɪ/ 表示“（尤指战时的）同盟国，盟友”，英文解释为“a country that has agreed officially to give help and support to another one, especially during a war”举个🌰：The US is one of Britain's staunchest allies. 美国是英国最忠实的盟友之一。

📍the Allies 特指“（第二次世界大战期间的）同盟国”，英文解释为“the countries, including the US, the UK, the USSR, and France, that fought against the Axis countries in the Second World War”

The board would be remade without several members who had opposed Mr. Altman.

董事会将进行改组，反对奥尔特曼的成员将被排除在外。

oppose /əˈpəʊz/ 表示“反对；反抗；抵制”，英文解释为“to disagree with something or someone, often by speaking or fighting against it, him, or her”举个🌰：The proposed new testing system has been vigorously opposed by teachers. 实行新考试制度的提议遭到了教师们的强烈反对。

“We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo,” OpenAI said in a post to X, formerly known as Twitter. “We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.”

“我们已达成原则性协议，让萨姆重返OpenAI担任首席执行官，并由布雷特·泰勒（主席）、拉里·萨默斯和亚当·迪安吉洛组建新的初始董事会，”OpenAI在X上发帖称。“我们正在通力合作解决细节问题。感谢您在此期间给予的耐心。”

The return of Mr. Altman and the potential remaking of the board, capped a frenetic five days that upended OpenAI, the maker of the ChatGPT chatbot and one of the world's highest-profile artificial intelligence companies.

奥尔特曼的回归和董事会可能的重组给OpenAI这天翻地覆的五天画上了句号。作为聊天机器人ChatGPT的开发者，这家公司是全世界最受关注的人工智能公司之一。

cap /kæp/ 可以作名词，也可以作动词，1）表示“对（收费或花费）定限额，限制；限额收取（或支出）”，英文解释为“to limit the amount of money that can be charged for sth or spent on sth”如：a capped mortgage 限额按揭，举个🌰：Our mortgage is capped at 8.75 percent for five years. 我们的按揭贷款5年期的利率上限为8.75%。

2）表示“成为…的结尾；使达到高潮；结束”，英文解释为“If someone says that a good or bad event caps a series of events, they mean it is the final event in the series, and the other events were also good or bad.” 举个🌰：He capped a memorable season by becoming champion of champions. 他以成为冠军中的冠军的方式结束了这个难忘的赛季。

3）作名词，表示“（有帽舌的）帽子，制服帽；（防水的）帽”，英文解释为“a soft flat hat that has a curved part sticking out at the front, often worn as part of a uniform”

frenetic /frəˈnet.ɪk/ 表示“发狂的，狂乱的”，英文解释为“involving a lot of excited movement or activity”举个🌰：After weeks of frenetic activity, the job was finally finished. 经过几个星期的疯狂忙活，工作终于完成了。

表示“翻倒；倒放；使颠倒”，英文解释为“If you upend something, you turn it upside down.”举个🌰：He upended the beer, and swallowed. 他把啤酒倒出来，大口喝了。

引申的，也有“使...结束；打倒；推翻”（To end up; to set on end）的含义。

🎬电影《云图》（Cloud Atlas）中的台词提到：And those who try to upend it do not fare well. 那些企图颠覆秩序的人不会善终。

补充：

📍fare well值得积累的一个表达，此前在「经济学人」足球客队为啥总是输？文中提到过，fare作动词，表示“进展；成功；遭遇”，直白地解释就是，xxx做得好/做得不好，表现得好/表现不好，后面可接well或者是badly（文中为比较级），英文解释为“If you say that someone or something fares well or badly, you are referring to the degree of success they achieve in a particular situation or activity.”举个🌰：How did you fare in your exams? 你考得怎么样？

🎬电影《总统杀局》（The Ides of March）中的台词提到：And you wouldn't fare too well in federal prison. 你在联邦监狱也不会好过。

profile一词经常出现，1）表示“（有关某人的）简介，概况”，英文解释为“A profile of someone is a short article or programme in which their life and character are described.”举个🌰：A newspaper published comparative profiles of the candidates' wives. 一份报纸刊登了候选人妻子们的对比简介。

2）表示“关注度”，英文解释为“If someone has a high profile, people notice them and what they do. If you keep a low profile, you avoid doing things that will make people notice you.”常用：a high profile 惹人注目/关注；高姿态，a low profile 不惹人注目，低姿态；如：a move that would give Egypt a much higher profile in the upcoming peace talks 会给埃及在即将到来的和平谈判中高关注度的一个行动。

📍如果你把微信语言设置成英文，你就会发现微信官方把头像处理成：Profile Photo，上面的“My Profile”对应的中文则是“个人信息”。

“I love openai, and everything I've done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together,” Mr. Altman said in a post to X. “with the new board and w satya's support, I'm looking forward to returning to openai, and building on our strong partnership with msft.”

“我爱OpenAI，过去几天我所做的一切都是为了保住这个团队及其使命，”奥尔特曼在X上写道。“在新董事会和萨蒂亚（萨蒂亚·纳德拉，现任微软首席执行官——编注）的支持下，我对重回OpenAI并进一步巩固与微软的紧密合作充满了期待。”

OpenAI's board surprised Mr. Altman and the company's employees on Friday afternoon when it told him he was being pushed out. Greg Brockman, the company's president who co-founded the company with Mr. Altman and others, resigned in protest.

上周五下午，OpenAI董事会告知奥尔特曼他将被免职的消息，这令他本人和公司员工都无比震惊。与奥尔特曼等人联合创立OpenAI的总裁格雷格·布罗克曼辞职以示抗议。

push /pʊʃ/ 表示“把（某人）排挤走”，英文解释为“to make someone leave a job or stop being involved in an activity by being unpleasant or unfair to them”举个🌰：I felt I was being pushed out of the job. 我觉得我在被排挤出这个工作岗位。

resign /rɪˈzaɪn/ 1）表示“辞职”，英文解释为“If you resign from a job or position, you formally announce that you are leaving it.”举个🌰：He resigned his position last month. 他上个月辞去了他的职位。

2）表示“使屈从”，英文解释为“If you resign yourself to an unpleasant situation or fact, you accept it because you realize that you cannot change it.”举个🌰：Jane and I resigned ourselves to yet another summer without a boat. 简和我将就着又过了一个没有船的夏天。

The ouster kicked off efforts by Mr. Altman, 38, his allies in the tech industry and OpenAI's employees to force the company's board to bring him back. On Sunday evening, after a weekend of negotiations, the board said it was going to stick with its decision.

罢免事件发生后，38岁的奥尔特曼与他在科技行业的盟友，再加上OpenAI的员工马上开始寻求迫使公司董事会为他复职的办法。在周末的谈判之后，董事会于周日晚间宣布将坚持其决定。

kick (sth) off 表示“开始（讨论或活动）；（足球比赛）开球，开始”，英文解释为“If you kick off a discussion or an activity, you start it.”举个🌰：I'd like to kick off the discussion with a few statistics. 我想以几个统计数据来开始讨论。What time does the game kick off? 比赛什么时候开始？

🎬电影《又一年》（Another Year）中的台词提到：- Shall I kick off? - You take the honour.-可以让我开球吗 -当然可以。

📍kick-off 名词，表示“（足球比赛的）开球，开赛，中线开球”，英文解释为“the time when a game of football starts, or when it begins again after it has stopped because of a goal, etc.”

stick at sth = stick to/with sth 表示“继续努力做，坚持干”，英文解释为“to continue trying hard to do something difficult”举个🌰：You'll never learn to play the piano if you're not going to stick at it. 如果你不打算持之以恒的话，你永远也学不会弹钢琴。

But in a head-spinning development just hours later, Microsoft, OpenAI's largest investor, said that Mr. Altman, Mr. Brockman and others would be joining the company to start a new advanced artificial intelligence lab.

但仅过了几个小时就出现了令人应接不暇的进展：OpenAI的最大投资方微软宣布，奥尔特曼、布罗克曼等人将加入该公司，成立一个新的高级人工智能实验室。

“Head-spinning”在这里形容一个令人震惊或难以置信的发展或变化，是一种比喻表达，意味着情况发展得如此快速和出乎意料，以至于让人感觉仿佛“头都要转晕了”。

spin可作名词也可以作动词，动词可表示“（使）快速旋转”，英文解释为“to turn around and around very quickly, or to make something do this”，举个🌰：The plane's propellers were spinning. 飞机的螺旋桨在快速旋转。

Nearly all of OpenAI's more than 700 employees signed a letter telling the board they would walk out and follow Mr. Altman to Microsoft if he wasn't reinstated, throwing the future of the start-up into jeopardy.

在OpenAI的超过700名员工中，几乎所有人都签署了一封信，告知董事会如果奥尔特曼不能复职，他们将离开公司追随他加入微软，这家初创公司的未来将因此陷入危殆。

1）表示“（因愤怒或反对而）退场，退席”，英文解释为“to leave an event such as a meeting or performance because you are angry or disapprove of something”举个🌰：All the parents walked out (of the meeting). 所有的父母都退（出会）场。

2）表示“突然离开，抛弃（配偶等）”，英文解释为“to suddenly leave your husband, wife, or partner and end your relationship with them”举个🌰：He walked out on his wife and two kids. 他突然抛下他的妻子和两个孩子出走了。

3）表示“罢工”，英文解释为“to stop working or leave your job because of a disagreement with your employer”

start-up /ˈstɑːt.ʌp/ 表示“刚起步的小企业，新兴小型企业；初创公司”，英文解释为“a small business that has just been started”举个🌰：Start-ups are very vulnerable in the business world. 商界中刚起步的小企业非常脆弱。

in jeopardy /ˈdʒep.ə.di/ 表示“处于危险之中”，英文解释为“in danger of being damaged or destroyed”举个🌰：The lives of thousands of birds are in jeopardy as a result of the oil spill. 石油泄漏使成千上万只鸟的生命受到威胁。

Four board members — Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI founder; Adam D'Angelo, the chief executive of Quora; Helen Toner, a director of strategy at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology; and Tasha McCauley, an entrepreneur and computer scientist — had initially decided to push Mr. Altman out.

OpenAI创始人之一伊利亚·苏茨克维尔、Quora首席执行官亚当·迪安吉洛、乔治城大学安全与新兴技术中心战略总监海伦·托纳和企业家兼计算机科学家塔莎·麦考利四人是起初决定将奥尔特曼免职的董事会成员。

entrepreneur /ˌɒn.trə.prəˈnɜːr/ 表示“企业家，创业者”，英文解释为“someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves seeing a new opportunity”举个🌰：He was one of the entrepreneurs of the 80s who made their money in property. 他是80年代靠做房地产生意赚钱起家的企业家之一。

But as the employee revolt grew, Mr. Sutskever repented in a message on X: “I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions.” He also signed the letter.

但随着员工的反对情绪愈发强烈，苏茨克维尔在X上发出了表示悔悟的信息：“我对自己参与了董事会的行动深表遗憾。”他也签署了员工联名信。

revolt /rɪˈvəʊlt/ 表示“反抗；造反；反叛”，英文解释为“an attempt to get rid of a government by using violence”

repent /rɪˈpent/ 表示“后悔；悔过，忏悔”，英文解释为“to be very sorry for something bad you have done in the past and wish that you had not done it”举个🌰：He repented (of his sins) just hours before he died. 在临死前数小时，他才（对自己的罪孽）做了忏悔。

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