So, that just happened.
Over the past week, the entire tech industry has been glued to their screens as the leading artificial intelligence company and creator of ChatGPT, OpenAI, was embroiled in a power struggle that saw its CEO fired, replaced twice, and eventually brought back, all within five days’ time.
The saga began after the OpenAI board of directors suddenly fired CEO Sam Altman, one of the original founders of OpenAI, who founded the company in 2015 alongside investors like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. Altman would go on to officially join OpenAI as its CEO in 2019 and remain there…until all of this.
That’s why it was such a shock when OpenAI’s board of directors suddenly announced on Friday evening that Altman was gone from the company. Then, less than 24 hours later, reports quickly spread that OpenAI was looking to bring Altman back. What?!
Let’s recap what went on day by day so it’s easier to digest.
Fired Friday
Friday, Nov. 17 was shaping up to be just a regular day in the growing AI space until suddenly, in the late afternoon, the OpenAI board of directors announced the company was firing CEO Sam Altman.
The tech industry was shocked, as there’d been no indication that Altman and the leading AI organization and its boardroom were at odds. The way in which Altman was let go and what OpenAI’s board said was even more surprising.
“Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities,” OpenAI’s post said. “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”
OpenAI’s board did not share what exactly its issue with Altman was. Whatever it was, though, seemed extremely serious, as the board didn’t even wait until the markets closed. Many companies try to dump any negative press at the end of the day in order to control the most damaging fallout. This was not the case here.
The board also announced that OpenAI CTO Mira Murati would take over as interim CEO.
Rumors and speculation swirled on social media, with tech industry heads, reporters, and onlookers trying to make sense of the situation based on what little information was provided in the board’s announcement. Tech journalist Kara Swisher quickly reported that based on what information she had from sources, there was a “misalignment” between OpenAI’s for-profit side, represented by Altman, and the nonprofit side, which is controlled by the board.
According to Swisher, OpenAI cofounder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever was recently able to get the board behind him regarding concerns he had about the more profit-driven direction that OpenAI was moving into. OpenAI was originally founded as an open-source nonprofit. However, as the years went on, the company’s focus shifted into the more traditional tech startup, with Altman allegedly more focused on profit and product development than issues like AI safety, which caused concern amongst OpenAI’s nonprofit organization, which controls the company.
What went down on Friday night appeared to be the two sides butting heads.
Soon after OpenAI’s announcement, Altman broke his silence via X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly known as Twitter.
“i loved my time at openai. it was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. most of all i loved working with such talented people,” Altman posted. “will have more to say about what’s next later.”
But Friday still wasn’t over yet.
OpenAI cofounder and president Greg Brockman announced that he had decided to quit the company based on the news. Brockman had been mentioned in OpenAI’s announcement as stepping down as board chair, but the company explicitly stated he was staying with the company in his other capacities. So Brockman’s sudden Friday night resignation seemed a surprise to everyone on the OpenAI board of directors, too.
“Based on today’s news, I quit,” Brockman posted, adding that he was proud of his time at OpenAI.
Three senior OpenAI researchers — OpenAI’s director of research, Jakub Pachocki; the head of an AI risk team, Aleksander Madry; and a senior researcher, Szymon Sidor — also announced their resignations from the company.
Brockman then followed up that announcement with another post, sharing his own version of how Altman’s firing went down.
According to Brockman, Altman received a text message on Thursday evening from Sutskever about a meeting the next day. At that Friday meeting over Google Meet, Altman was fired by the entire board, minus Brockman, who was not in attendance. Brockman says he was later informed he was being removed from the board but being retained in his other roles at the company.
According to Brockman, most of OpenAI’s management was unaware of Altman’s removal until that day.
Saturday: OpenAI wants Altman back
Altman was as good as gone, so it seemed. But if Friday was driven by OpenAI’s nonprofit side, then Saturday would see a news cycle driven by the for-profit arm’s investors, who were not happy with Altman’s dismissal.
Big tech companies like Microsoft have invested heavily in OpenAI. The computer giant alone has pledged $13 billion to the company. And it’s certainly not because Microsoft feels strongly about the AI safety ethos of the nonprofit organization. It is investing in for-profit OpenAI led by Sam Altman.
According to a report published by Forbes, on Saturday, OpenAI’s big-money investors were using whatever power they had to convince OpenAI’s board of directors to reverse their decision and bring Altman back to the company.
It worked. The Verge reported shortly after the Forbes report that OpenAI’s board reached out to Altman in an attempt to work out a return to the company. This was all occurring less than 24 hours after Altman’s firing.
An agreement was reportedly made on Saturday that brought Altman and Brockman back to the company. In addition, the current OpenAI board would resign. However, a Saturday night deadline passed, and the deal wasn’t closed.
At this point on Saturday night, it wasn’t exactly clear what was happening at OpenAI. Was Altman back? Was he going to start his own AI company? The uncertainty was starting to become too much for the majority of OpenAI employees, who voiced their disapproval of Altman’s firing. By late Saturday night, it was clear that Altman had their support, as many began publicly standing beside OpenAI’s then-former CEO. Altman, in return, shared his appreciation for his colleagues’ support.
“i love the openai team so much,” he said in one post on X.
As the day ended, OpenAI was assuring its employees that an agreement to bring Altman back was in the works and that the organization “remains optimistic.”
Sunday stunners
“First and last time i ever wear one of these,” Altman posted on X, alongside a selfie showing him wearing an OpenAI guest badge.
Altman appeared to be back in the OpenAI offices, ostensibly continuing the negotiations for his return to the company. According to a report from The Information, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella became personally involved in the discussions in order to bring Altman back to the AI company. Interm CEO Murato also rallied in support for Altman’s return.
But it all seemed to fall apart for good later that day. OpenAI announced it was bringing former Twitch executive Emmett Shear onboard as its new interim CEO.
At this point, it appeared the saga was over. Altman, the interim CEO, and OpenAI’s moneyed backers tried to negotiate a return and get the board that fired Altman to step down. The power play seemingly failed. OpenAI seemed poised to move on without Altman and even Murati now.
Microsoft Monday
Monday started off with a bang as Microsoft CEO Nadella had a big announcement to make in the early hours of the morning: Altman and Brockman were joining Microsoft.
“We’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team,” Nadella posted on X. “We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success.”
Nadella also said in his post that Microsoft was committed to its partnership to OpenAI. But, this arrangement seemed like a difficult one to maintain. Microsoft was clearly bringing Altman in to work on an AI product of the company’s own.
Furthermore, by this point, hundreds of OpenAI employees were threatening to quit the company and jump ship to Microsoft over Altman’s firing. Even more alarming, Sutskever, the OpenAI cofounder and chief scientist who allegedly started the whole issue, had now turned on OpenAI’s board.
“I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions,” Sutskever posted on X. “I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we’ve built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.”
A petition signed by Sutskever and hundreds of OpenAI employees later circulated, demanding that the OpenAI board of directors step down.
By this point, this all seemed for naught, right? Altman had signed on with Microsoft, according to Microsoft’s own CEO. Well, not quite. New reports claimed that despite what Nadella said, the reason so many OpenAI employees were still pushing for Altman’s return was because the Microsoft deal had yet to become official.
And Nadella would confirm it during a CNBC interview on Monday evening where he avoided giving a straightforward answer to the question, “Is Sam Altman going to be a Microsoft employee?”
A Tuesday/Wednesday return
We now know that Sam Altman is indeed not an official Microsoft employee, and that’s because Sam Altman is officially back as CEO at OpenAI.
Late Tuesday/early Wednesday morning, OpenAI announced on X that Sam Altman was officially back as CEO, and that the vast majority of the board of directors were gone.
“We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo,” the official OpenAI account posted on X. “We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.”
There are still many unanswered questions about the whole OpenAI saga. For one, we still don’t know OpenAI’s concerns about Altman that led the board to abruptly fire him and say they basically could not trust him.
Maybe we will soon find out exactly what went on from some of those very same board members who fired Altman, but who are no longer in the boardroom.
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Sam Altman went from fired to Microsoft employee to rehired at OpenAI in less than a week. Here’s how it all went down.
