Sam Altman was about to attend Formula One festivities in Las Vegas on Friday when OpenAI’s board of directors emailed him before removing him as the company’s CEO, according to a new report.
Altman received a Google Meet link while in his hotel room, during which board members briefed him on the decision that shocked Silicon Valley. The Wall Street Journal reported On Wednesday.
Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI and the company’s chief scientist, was the one who broke the news about Altman, according to the outlet.
Without explanation, he told Altman that he was being fired from the company he founded nearly a decade earlier and that the news would soon be announced publicly, according to The Journal.
Shortly after the video call ended, Altman was locked out of his computer and the board of directors, which also consisted of Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, Tasha McCauley of GeoSim Systems, and Helen Toner, director of the Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology released a painstakingly vague statement calling Altman “not consistently candid in his communications with the board.”
The directors argued that Altman’s errors were “hindering his ability to exercise his responsibilities.”
OpenAI representatives did not immediately respond to the Post’s request for comment.
The board’s surprising decision led to most OpenAI staff threatening to resign before Altman was reinstated on Wednesday and board members were fired.
An “initial board” was reportedly created consisting of Chairman Bret Taylor, former Salesforce co-CEO, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and current member D’Angelo.
Altman did not share anything on social media during his stay at the F1 event, but shared with X on friday: “i loved my time at openai. It was transformative for me personally and, hopefully, a little bit for the world. Most of all, I loved working with such talented people. I’ll have more to say about what comes next.”
The Google Meet call served as a catalyst for a chaotic weekend at the San Francisco-based company that began with the appointment of OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati as interim CEO.
About 48 hours later, former Twitch boss Emmett Shear was tapped to lead the company as Altman announced plans to join OpenAI’s largest investor, Microsoft.
About 72 hours after that, Altman was given his job back.
Sutskever, who resigned from the board, admitted that he wished Altman’s ouster had been handled differently.
“I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we have built together and will do everything I can to reunite the company,” Sutskever said.
Meanwhile, Shear said he was “deeply pleased” by OpenAI’s decision to reinstate Altman.
“Coming to OpenAI, I wasn’t sure what the right path would be. This was the path that maximized safety as well as doing the right thing by all stakeholders involved. I am glad to have been part of the solution,” he added in a Wednesday morning tweet.
