In a shocking surprise, AI wunderkind and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was ousted from the company by its board of directors on Friday for reasons that are still unclear. The unexpected change was met with outrage by company executives, employees, partners, and investors, in particular Microsoft, which learned about the decision just one minute before it was announced publicly.
“The board of directors of OpenAI that acts as the overall governing body for all OpenAI activities, today announced that Sam Altman will depart as CEO and leave the board of directors,” an OpenAI statement explains. “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. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”
OpenAI’s senior executive staff demanded to understand why the board had fired Altman, and it was quick to reveal to the public that it had nothing to do with “malfeasance or anything related to [OpenAI’s] financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices,” OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said. “This was a breakdown in communication between Sam and the board.”
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OpenAI also reached out to Microsoft, its key investor and partner, and was told that the software giant remains “fully committed” to the partnership. Microsoft has invested over $11 billion in OpenAI so far, not to mention the several billions of dollars it invests each quarter in its own AI infrastructure.
“We have a long-term agreement with OpenAI with full access to everything we need to deliver on our innovation agenda and an exciting product roadmap,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement. “We remain committed to our partnership, and to [interim CEO] Mira [Murati] and the team. Together, we will continue to deliver the meaningful benefits of this technology to the world.”
But the reverberations aren’t over. In the wake of Altman’s firing, OpenAI president and board chairman Greg Brockman announced that he was quitting the company he had co-founded. “Based on today’s news, I quit,” he tweeted. And at an all-hands meeting Friday afternoon, employees complained that the board had engaged in a “hostile takeover” of the company, a charge the board denied.
“I loved my time at OpenAI,” Altman tweeted. “It was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. Most of all, I loved working with such talented people. Will have more to say about what’s next later.”
