In a dramatic development late Friday, former Y Combinator president Sam Altman was fired as CEO of AI startup OpenAI, which created viral AI hits such as ChatGPT, GPT-4, and DALL-E 3, by the OpenAI board of directors. It was done. Since then, the company’s longtime president and co-founder Greg Brockman has resigned, as have three senior OpenAI researchers. And the aftermath continues.
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The situation is changing rapidly and we are still trying to get to the bottom of it. No doubt more will be revealed as time goes on. However, we’ve put together a timeline to make it easier to keep track of everything that happened in between. We do our best to keep you up to date.
Timeline of Sam Altman’s OpenAI firing
November 21st
Mr. Altman and the Board of Directors are in discussions
OpenAI’s board of directors is reportedly in talks with former Y Combinator president and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO as early as this week. This is according to Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the matter, which summarizes discussions between current members of the OpenAI board of directors, Quora CEO Adam DiAngelo and Altman, and possibly other board members. He said there was.
Tensions boil over on the board
Before being fired, Sam Altman moved to oust board member Helen Toner because he believed a paper she co-authored was overly critical of OpenAI, The New York Times reported. . This, among other things, led to her OpenAI’s current predicament. Speaking of which, the Times suggests that negotiations to rehire Mr. Altman are continuing, but one of the big sticking points remains: how to improve communication between Mr. Altman and the board of directors. It’s called a “guardrail.”
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November 20th
Altman joins Microsoft
Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and others announced they are joining Microsoft to lead a new AI research team. Nadella says he is keeping the door open for other members of his OpenAI staff and will provide them with the necessary resources if they choose to participate.
Mia Krupa of Sutskeva
In a post on X, Sutskever suggested he regretted his decision to fire Altman and would do everything in his power to have him reinstated as CEO.
employee threatens to quit
Of OpenAI’s approximately 770 employees, nearly 500, including Sutskever, surprisingly Release The startup’s board of directors has resigned, and Altman, who was ousted, was sent a letter saying he could leave unless he is reappointed. That number rose to more than 650 late Monday.
Altman and Brockman are considering returning.
as report According to The Verge, Altman’s move to Microsoft is not a deal, and both Altman and Brockman remain open to returning to OpenAI. That is if the remaining board members who fired him in the first place step down.
OpenAI Board Considers Merger
OpenAI’s board has approached Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of rival large language model developer Anthropic, about a potential merger between the two companies, The Information reported. report. This approach was part of OpenAI’s efforts to persuade Amodei to replace Altman as CEO, but Amodei quickly rejected the CEO offer.
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November 19th
Mr. Altman meets at OpenAI headquarters
According to The Information, OpenAI executives have asked for Altman to return as CEO, and Altman is scheduled to meet at OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters. Mr. Brockman has been invited to participate, but it’s unclear whether his executives will accept the invitation.
Board negotiations stalled
bloomberg report Mr. Lightcap and Mr. Murati are asking the board, among other things, to reinstate Mr. Altman. But, understandably, coaches are resisting. As of midday Sunday, the board had not resigned over concerns about who would replace him and was vetting candidates. Another potential addition would be Salesforce co-CEO Brett Taylor.
Altman out, shear in
Sources say Altman will not be returning as CEO. report The Information cites an internal memo sent by Sutskever. OpenAI has appointed Emmet Shea, co-founder of video streaming site Twitch, as interim CEO to replace Murati as the search for a new permanent CEO continues.
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November 18th
“This is not a response to misconduct.”
In-house memo obtained In an Axios article sent Saturday morning, OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said yesterday’s announcement was “a long time coming.” [the management team] “This happened out of the blue,” he said, adding that management had “multiple discussions with the board to better understand the reasoning and process behind the decision.” Discussions were ongoing as of Saturday morning, according to the memo.
Lightcap added: “I can unequivocally say that the board’s decision was not made in response to any wrongdoing or anything related to our financial, business, safety or security/privacy practices.” “This was a breakdown in communication between Sam and the board. We still share our concerns about how the process was handled and are working to resolve the situation and will update you as soon as possible.” I’m going to give you information.”
OpenAI funding at risk
Plans to sell OpenAI employee stock, which values the company at about $86 billion, could be in jeopardy. The Information spoke to three of his former sources at the company: report They no longer expect a sale led by Thrive Capital to take place, and even if a sale does occur, they do not expect the valuation to decline due to recent developments.
Altman is planning a new business
Mr. Altman has told investors that he plans to launch a new business. according to Go to information. Mr. Brockman is expected to participate in this effort in any capacity. (probably AI chip startup)
Investors want Altman to return
Investors outraged by the turn of events reportedly pressured OpenAI’s board to reinstate Altman, even going so far as to hire Microsoft. Nadella is said to be sympathetic.
The board of directors agreed in principle to the policy change.
The Verge report The board agreed in principle to resign and allow Altman and Brockman to return to the company. But he was baffled by yesterday’s deadline for many of his OpenAI staffers to leave the company. Altman is said to be vague about returning and seeking “significant” governance changes.
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November 17th
Brockman demoted
Brockman said he received a text message from Sutskever shortly after noon Friday asking him to call him immediately. After sending the Google Meet link, Brockman was removed from the board as chairman, but “he remains an integral part of the company and will remain president,” and Altman was fired. I was informed.
Mr. Altman’s dismissal was announced.
OpenAI published a post on its blog announcement Renewal of management team. The company’s management noticed this soon after.
All-hands meeting
OpenAI held an all-hands meeting Friday afternoon during which Sutskever defended Altman’s firing. He dismissed suggestions that forcing Altman out amounted to a “hostile takeover.” claimed We felt it was necessary to uphold OpenAI’s mission of “making AI beneficial to humanity.”
Microsoft issues a statement
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, a major investor and partner in OpenAI, said: statement Regarding Mr. Altman’s dismissal:
“As you saw this week at Microsoft Ignite, we are rapidly innovating for this era of AI with more than 100 announcements across our technology stack, from AI systems, models and tools in Azure to Copilot. Most importantly, we are committed to delivering all of this to our customers as we build for the future. We have a long-term agreement with OpenAI. You’ll have full access to everything you need to deliver our innovation agenda and exciting product roadmap. And we remain committed to our partnership, and to Mira and the team. Together, we We look forward to continuing to bring the meaningful benefits of this technology to the world.”
Brockman quits
Brockman announced his resignation from OpenAI, citing Today’s News. After sending a memo internally, he published the text to X.
OpenAI senior researcher resigns
Brockman was followed by three senior OpenAI researchers who resigned, including head of research Jakub Paciocki and head of preparation Alexander Madrid.
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November 16th
Ilya Satskeva schedules call with Altman
According to a post by Brockman on He said he sent it.
Murati spoke about Altman’s firing.
Brockman claims that Mira Murati, OpenAI’s CTO and current interim CEO, was informed on Thursday night that Altman would be fired.