Things took a dramatic turn late Friday when former Y Combinator president Sam Altman was fired as CEO of OpenAI, the company behind the viral AI hit. Chat GPT, GPT-4 and Dahl-E 3, elected by the OpenAI Board of Directors. Then the company’s longtime president and co-founder Greg Brockman was elected, as were three senior OpenAI researchers. The impact continues.
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This is a rapidly evolving situation and we are still working to get to the bottom of it. No doubt more will become clear over time. However, to make it easier for you to keep up with everything happening at the same time, we’ve put together a timeline; we’ll try to keep it up to date.
Timeline of Sam Altman’s firing from OpenAI
November 21
Altman held talks with the board of directors
According to Bloomberg, the OpenAI board of directors is negotiating with former Y Combinator president and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO as soon as possible. briefly Citing people familiar with the matter, discussions are ongoing between Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, a current member of OpenAI’s board of directors, and Altman, as well as possibly other board members.
Tensions boil over in boardroom
According to the New York Times, Sam Altman made the move to oust board member Helen Toner before he was ousted because he believed a paper she co-wrote was too critical of OpenAI. Among other issues, this has contributed to OpenAI’s current woes. Speaking of which, the Times says talks to rehire Altman are continuing, but a major remaining sticking point is an effort to improve Altman’s communication with the board. The “guardrail”.
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November 20
Ultraman joins Microsoft
Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and colleagues declare They will join Microsoft to lead a new artificial intelligence research team. Nadella opened the door to other OpenAI employees, saying they would receive the resources they need if they chose to join.
Suzkville’s fault
Sutskever published a post on X saying he regretted the decision to oust Altman and said he would make every effort to reinstate Altman as CEO.
Employees threaten to resign
Nearly 500 of OpenAI’s roughly 770 employees—including, unusually, Sutskever— release A letter said they may exit unless the startup’s board resigns and reappoints the ousted Altman. Late Monday, the number surpassed 650.
Ultraman and Brockman consider returning
as report According to The Verge, Altman’s deal to switch to Microsoft has not yet been finalized, and Altman and Brockman are still open to returning to OpenAI. That is, if the remaining board members who initially fired him resigned.
OpenAI board considers merger
OpenAI’s board of directors has approached Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of rival large language model developer Anthropic, about a potential merger of the two companies. ReportThe move was part of OpenAI’s efforts to convince Amodei to replace Altman as CEO, but Amodei quickly rejected the CEO offer.
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November 19
Altman will meet at OpenAI headquarters
According to The Information, Altman is expected to meet at OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters as OpenAI executives push for his reinstatement as CEO. Brockman was invited to join, but it’s unclear whether he will accept the offer from senior executives.
Board negotiations hit roadblocks
Bloomberg Report Lightcap and Murati are among those pushing for the board to reinstate Altman. But predictably, directors are resisting. As of noon Sunday, the board wasn’t looking past concerns about who could replace them and was reviewing candidates. A possible new member could be Salesforce co-chief executive Bret Taylor.
Ultraman exits and cuts in
Altman will not return as CEO, according to a person familiar with the matter Report The Information cites an internal memo sent by Sutskever.As the search for a new permanent CEO continues, OpenAI has appointment Emmett Shear, co-founder of video streaming site Twitch, succeeds Murati as interim CEO.
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November 18
“Not…for malfeasance”
in internal memo get By Axios Sent on Saturday morning, OpenAI chief operating officer Brad Lightcap said yesterday’s announcement “ [the management team] Surprising” and management “had multiple conversations with the board to try to better understand the reasons and process behind its decision. “As of Saturday morning, discussions were still ongoing, according to the memo.
“We can unequivocally say that the board’s decision was not in response to malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, security or security/privacy practices,” Lightcap added. “This was a barrier to communication between Sam and the board. … We continue to share your concerns about the way the process was handled, are working to resolve the issues, and will provide the most up-to-date information possible.”
OpenAI’s funding is in trouble
planned Sale The value of OpenAI employee shares, which could value the startup at about $86 billion, could be in jeopardy. The Information told three sources at the company that Report They no longer expect the sale, led by Thrive Capital, to happen or, if it does, to see a reduction in valuation as a result of recent developments.
Ultraman plans new business
Altman has been telling investors he plans to launch a new venture, according to Brockman is expected to join the effort — in whatever form it takes.possible An artificial intelligence chip startup company. )
Investors urge Ultraman’s return
Investors are furious at turn of events Pressure reportedly exerted OpenAI’s board of directors reinstated Altman and even recruited Microsoft. Nadella expressed sympathy.
Board of Directors agrees in principle to change direction
edge Report The board agreed in principle to resign and allow Altman and Brockman to return. However, it missed yesterday’s deadline for many OpenAI employees to leave the company. Altman was said to be conflicted about coming back and asking to leave the company. “Major” governance changes.
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November 17
Brockman was demoted
Brockman said he received a text message from Sutskville shortly after noon Friday asking for a call as soon as possible. After sending the Google Meet link, Brockman was told that he would be removed as chairman of the board “but is critical to the company and will retain his position.” as president” and Altman had been fired.
Ultraman was publicly announced as being fired
Open artificial intelligence publish Posts on his blog announcement It wasn’t long before the company’s management team became aware of the executive changes.
plenary meeting
OpenAI held an all-hands meeting Friday afternoon, at which Sutskever defended Altman’s ouster.He dismissed suggestions that ousting Altman amounted to a “hostile takeover” and claim It is necessary to protect OpenAI’s mission of “making artificial intelligence benefit mankind.”
Microsoft issued a statement
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft Corporation investor be with partner Published with — OpenAI statement Regarding Ultraman’s dismissal:
“As you saw this week on Microsoft Ignite, we continue to innovate rapidly for this AI era, with more than 100 announcements across the entire technology stack, from AI systems, models and tools in Azure to Copilot. Most importantly, we are committed to delivering all of this to our client customers while building the future. We have a long-term agreement with OpenAI that provides full access to everything we need to deliver on our innovation agenda and exciting product roadmap; and remain committed to our partnership and to Mira and the team. , we will continue to deliver the meaningful benefits of this technology to the world. “
Brockman resigns
Brockman announced his resignation from OpenAI citing “today’s news”. After sending a memo internally, he posted the text on X.
OpenAI senior researcher resigns
Following Brockman, three senior OpenAI researchers resigned, including research director Jakub Pachocki and readiness lead Aleksander Madry.
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November 16
Ilya Sutskever arranges a call with Altman
According to a post by Brockman on
Mulati tells the story of Ultraman’s dismissal
Brockman claims Mira MulatiOpenAI’s chief technology officer and current interim CEO learned late Thursday that Altman would be fired.