Sam Altman, the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, was fired on November 17, 2023, after the company's Board determined that he needed to be more consistently candid in his communications with them. According to the Board, this lack of candor hindered its ability to exercise its responsibilities effectively. It led to losing confidence in Altman's ability to continue leading the company.

According to CNN Kara Swisher, this was more of an those who want to move slower with AI ousted those who tried to move faster. Altman advocated rapidly developing AI and was utterly blind-sided by the Board.

More on @OpenAI: Several sources told me Board told Sam Altman 30 mins in advance, Greg Brockman 5 mins in advance about the move. Brockman is chair of the Board, so not sure how that worked. Microsoft also was told just before, and employees not told in advance. 🤡 🚗

— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) November 18, 2023

More scoopage: sources tell me chief scientist Ilya Sutskever was at the center of this. Increasing tensions with Sam Altman and Greg Brockman over role and influence and he got the Board on his side.

— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) November 18, 2023

The specific details of Altman's communications with the Board have not been publicly disclosed, but the company's statement suggests that the issues were significant enough to warrant his dismissal.

Greg Bockman, President and co-founder of OpenAI, was apparently only informed of the Board decisions after releasing this statement. He later resigned from Open AI due to the Board's actions.

Sam and I are shocked and saddened by what the Board did today.

Let us first say thank you to all the incredible people who we have worked with at OpenAI, our customers, our investors, and all of those who have been reaching out.

We too are still trying to figure out exactly…

— Greg Brockman (@gdb) November 18, 2023

The funny thing - which more than one person has pointed out -- is that a company, OpenAI, which is 49% owned by Microsoft, uses Google Meet for its board meetings. Nor did the board inform Microsoft of their decision prior.

Altman has not commented much on the matter except a cryptic message indicating this isn't over and he needs to guard his shares.

if i start going off, the openai Board should go after me for the full value of my shares

— Sam Altman (@sama) November 18, 2023

Altman's firing surprised many, as he was widely seen as a visionary leader in artificial intelligence. He has been at the helm of OpenAI since its inception in 2015, and he played a key role in developing some of the company's most groundbreaking technologies, including the GPT-3 language model. However, it underscores the concern other AI developers have, including the likes of Elon Musk, with the pace of AI development and the need to slow down to implement guardrails for the technology.

Altman is replaced with CTO Mira Murati
It remains to be seen what the future holds for OpenAI without Altman. The company is still in its early stages and will need to find a new leader who can navigate the challenges of developing and deploying AI responsibly.

I can't help but envision Elon Musk, also a co-founder of Open AI, who exited in 2018, sitting back, monitoring X, and eating popcorn as this soap opera unfolds on his social platform right after he announced his competing chatbot, Gork. Further, Elon recruited Ilya Sutskever, Chief Scientist at OpenAI, to OpenAI in 2015. Sutskever was the spearhead of the movement to remove Altman. Hmmmmmmmm........


Stay tuned -- This is getting juicy!