Removal of Sam Altman from OpenAI
[5] The for-profit division of the organization released the chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022,[6] contributing to a resurgence in generative artificial intelligence funding.
[16] Altman testified before the United States Congress speaking critically of artificial intelligence[17] and appeared at the 2023 AI Safety Summit.
[18] In the days leading up to his removal, Altman made several public appearances, announcing the GPT-4 Turbo platform at OpenAI's DevDay conference, attending APEC United States 2023,[6] and speaking at an event related to Burning Man.
[19] The resignation of LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, venture capitalist Shivon Zilis, and former Republican representative Will Hurd from the board allowed the remaining members to remove Altman.
[23] Prior to his removal, Altman was seeking billions from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to develop an artificial intelligence chip to compete with Nvidia and courted SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son to develop artificial intelligence hardware with former Apple designer Jony Ive.
[27] On November 22, 2023, reports emerged suggesting that Sam Altman's dismissal from OpenAI might be linked to his alleged mishandling of a significant breakthrough in the organization's secretive project codenamed Q*.
According to sources within OpenAI, Q* is aimed at developing AI capabilities in logical and mathematical reasoning, and reportedly involves performing math on the level of grade-school students.
[28] Concerns about Altman's response to this development, specifically regarding the potential safety implications of the discovery, were reportedly raised to the company's board shortly before his firing.
[1][2] A report from The Washington Post in December stated that OpenAI's board of directors were concerned over Altman's allegedly abusive behavior; the complaints were purportedly a major factor in his removal.
On November 17, 2023, at approximately noon PST,[31] OpenAI's board of directors ousted Altman effective immediately following a "deliberative review process".
[32] Altman was informed of his removal five to ten minutes before it occurred[33] on a Google Meet[34] while watching the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
[35] Within thirty minutes,[36] Sutskever invited OpenAI chairman and president Greg Brockman to a Google Meet to inform him of Altman's removal.
[47] A list of directors had been prepared by investors in the event that the board steps down, and purportedly included former Salesforce executive Bret Taylor.
[50] The Wall Street Journal reported that Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky and businesswoman Laurene Powell Jobs were also considered.
[57] In response, Microsoft appointed Altman as the chief executive of an artificial intelligence research team,[58] joined by Brockman, Pachocki, Sidor, and Madry.
[59] Shear expressed interest in commercializing OpenAI with the board's support[60] and stated his intentions to begin an investigation into Altman's removal.
[63] On November 21, The Verge reported that Altman was reinstated with Taylor, D'Angelo, and economist Lawrence Summers on an interim[64] board.
She also alleged that two executives in OpenAI had reported to the board "psychological abuse" from Altman, and provided screenshots and documentation of "lying and being manipulative in different situations".
She said that many employees feared retaliation if they didn't support Altman, and that he had already been fired from Loopt because of what the management team had called "deceptive and chaotic behavior".
[73] According to Bloomberg News, a significant number of OpenAI engineers threatened to resign if the board did not reconsider Altman's removal.
[82] Google DeepMind received an increase in applicants, according to The Information; Cohere and Adept engaged in an active effort to hire OpenAI employees.
[89] On December 8, the Competition and Markets Authority announced it was beginning a preliminary investigation into Microsoft's relationship with OpenAI and its non-voting board observership.
[109] In October 2024, Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton declared that he was proud that Ilya Sutskever, a former student of his, was responsible for firing Altman.
