Inside Sam Altman's ousting—How OpenAI's board turned against its CEO
What's the story
An excerpt from the new book The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future, by WSJ reporter Keach Hagey, reveals the events leading to Sam Altman's brief firing as OpenAI's CEO in 2023. The non-profit's board became increasingly worried after learning that an OpenAI Startup Fund was privately owned by Altman. This led co-founder Ilya Sutskever and CTO Mira Murati, who were concerned about Altman's behavior, to collect evidence of what they believed was his dishonesty.
Claims
Allegations of dishonesty and misconduct
The evidence gathered by Sutskever and Murati included screenshots from Murati's Slack channel. Among the allegations was a claim that Altman said the company's legal department had approved GPT-4 Turbo for release without requiring a review by the joint safety board. However, OpenAI's top lawyer refuted this assertion, adding to the concerns about Altman's conduct.
Fallout
Board's decision and employee backlash
After Sutskever presented the evidence to the board, they decided to dismiss Altman and appoint Murati as interim CEO. However, the decision was met with immediate backlash from OpenAI employees, including Sutskever and Murati themselves. They collectively signed a letter demanding Altman's reinstatement, which led to his swift return to the company. After the incident, both Sutskever and Murati left OpenAI to start their own ventures.