ICYMI: OpenAI Fires CEO Sam Altman, Rehires Him After Mass Employee Backlash

OpenAI, creator of hugely popular chatbot ChatGPT, fired its CEO Sam Altman, then rehired him amid massive employee backlash and threats of mass resignation, all in less than one week.

What happened?

OpenAI’s board of directors hastily kicked Altman, OpenAI’s CEO since 2019, out of the company on Friday. The AI company said in a blog post that Altman has not been transparent with the board.

“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 OpenAI blog post said.

“The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI,” the blog post further read.

Following Altman’s ouster, OpenAI executives and other employees said that they were blindsided, prompting them to call for the board of directors’ removal.

The backlash

An open letter from the employees was sent to the board of directors, with over 700 employees signing on it.

The open letter also said that should the board of directors not be removed, all of them will leave. This includes then interim CEO Mira Murati and OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever.

The letter also said that OpenAI’s board of directors does not have the capability to manage the company multiple times.

“The process through which you terminated Sam Altman and removed Greg Brockman from the board has jeopardized all of this work and undermined our mission and company. Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAl,” the open letter read.

The letter also added that the board of directors could not give evidence to the Altman allegations. “Despite many requests for specific facts for your allegations, you have never provided any written evidence. They also increasingly realized you were not capable of carrying out your duties and were negotiating in bad faith,” the open letter read.

“The leadership team suggested that the most stabilizing path forward – the one that would best serve our mission, company, stakeholders, employees, and the public – would be for you to resign and put in place a qualified board that could lead the company forward in stability,” the letter added.

The letter further said that Microsoft, a leading OpenAI investor and was not aware of the abrupt changes in leadership, is willing to take in all of the employees who will leave OpenAI to join a newly announced Microsoft subsidiary, led by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.

“Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAl. We are unable to work for or with people who lack competence, judgment, and care for our mission and employees. We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAl and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAl employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join. We will take this step imminently unless all current board members resign, and the board appoints two new lead independent directors, such as Bret Taylor and Will Hurd, and reinstates Sam Altman and Greg Brockman,” the open letter read.

Altman said in a tweet on X, formerly Twitter, that he “loved” his time with the company and that it had been a transformative tenure for him.

The rehiring of Altman, Brockman

After a very significant pushback of employees and investors, OpenAI reinstated Altman as its CEO on Wednesday. Moreover, Brockman will also rejoin the company.

The deal to reinstate Altman and Brockman also included that the company have a new set of directors, which include Bret Taylor, Twitter’s board of directors chair before the Elon Musk takeover, former U.S. treasury secretary Larry Summers, and question-and-answer startup Quora chief executive Adam D’Angelo.

OpenAI made the announcement in a post on X.

“We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo. We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this,” the X post read.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that the company was “encouraged” by the changes made to OpenAI’s board following the Silicon Valley drama.

“Sam, Greg, and I have talked and agreed they have a key role to play along with the OAI leadership team in ensuring OAI continues to thrive and build on its mission,” his post on X read, adding “We look forward to building on our strong partnership and delivering the value of this next generation of AI to our customers and partners.” (GFB)