According to sources familiar with the case, OpenAI’s CTO Mira Murati raised concerns about Mr. Altman’s management to the board of directors last year, which led to his temporary dismissal from the company. A little over three months have passed since the board of directors of prominent AI firm OpenAI briefly removed CEO Sam Altman, but many still don’t know why they did it.
A report by an external legal firm is anticipated shortly and may provide further clarity into the board’s decision and the rocky five days preceding Mr Altman’s return to the organization. However, as interest in the article increases, information regarding OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s involvement in Mr. Altman’s dismissal is beginning to surface.
After voicing her displeasure with Mr. Altman’s management in a private memo, Ms. Murati informed the board of her concerns. According to anonymous sources familiar with the board’s discussions over the matter, which contributed to their decision to remove him from his position, the move was made in response to the delicate nature of the personnel matter.
According to the sources, at about the same time, OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever voiced similar concerns, referring to Mr. Altman’s alleged history of deceptive behavior. The relationship between the two executives and Mr. Altman was described as volatile. The executives said that he occasionally made the workplace poisonous by isolating those who disagreed with his policies, however it was unclear if they provided particular examples.
The board’s discussions with Ms. Murati shed light on issues that had been simmering at OpenAI’s senior levels, even though both executives openly supported Mr. Altman’s return to the firm.
The legal firm WilmerHale is anticipated to conclude the inquiry soon. According to some sources, the announcement of the company’s new board of directors is also scheduled at the same time. Following Mr. Altman’s November return to the company, a number of directors resigned from the board.
According to a statement released by OpenAI’s Hannah Wong, the company’s senior leadership team, which Ms Murati led while she was interim chief executive, and a letter that was signed by 95% of OpenAI’s employees both demanded Mr Altman’s return.
“The strong support from his team underscores that he is an effective CEO who is open to different points of view, willing to solve complex challenges, and who demonstrates care for his team,” Ms Wong added. “We look forward to findings from the independent review versus unsubstantiated claims.” Alex Weingarten, who represents Mr. Sutskever, stated that assertions that his client had contacted the board were “categorically false.”
When asked for her opinion, Ms. Murati remained silent. Mr Altman and she “have a strong and productive partnership, and I have not been shy about sharing feedback with him directly,” she wrote in an email she sent to OpenAI workers following the article’s publication.
While she did not actively contact the board, she did provide feedback on Sam: “When individual board members reached out to me for feedback about Sam, I provided it — all feedback Sam already knew.” However, she clarified that this did not imply that she was “responsible for or supported the actions of the previous board.”
One of the most important startups in the IT world, OpenAI, and its investors have been frantically trying to contain the incident’s consequences since November. In its most recent funding round, OpenAI was given a valuation of over $80 billion. After Mr. Altman’s dismissal in November, many of OpenAI’s 700+ surviving employees vowed to leave the company. Now, they’re all hoping to put November in the past.
On the other hand, some people are holding out hope that the WilmerHale investigation will reveal everything that happened leading up to Mr. Altman’s firing. No one knows yet if the public will get the complete report or just a summary.
Among the six members of OpenAI’s board of directors who were on the board when Mr Altman was fired were Dr. Sutskever, AI expert Helen Toner from a Georgetown University think tank, ex-Facebook executive Adam D’Angelo, company president and co-founder Greg Brockman, RAND Corporation adjunct senior management scientist Tasha McCauley, and, of course, Mr. Altman himself.
To bring back Mr. Altman, executives agreed to appoint a broader and independent group of directors to OpenAI’s board of directors. The six-person board of OpenAI was reduced to a three-person temporary board. Bret Taylor, a former executive at Salesforce and Facebook, became a board chairman and assisted in the appointment of new directors. Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers was also a member. Mr. D’Angelo is still a board member.
The individuals mentioned that in October, Ms. Murati contacted a few board members to voice her disapproval of Mr. Altman’s leadership.
She went into detail about the strategies employed by Mr. Altman, which were allegedly his playbook, including his use of executive manipulation to achieve his goals. To start, according to Ms. Murati, Mr. Altman would say to people what they liked to hear in order to win them over and get them to agree with his ideas. The individuals who spoke with him described how he would attempt to discredit those who dared to oppose him or oppose his plans if they were too slow to make a choice.
According to the sources, Ms. Murati informed the board that she had privately communicated her concerns about Mr. Altman’s conduct in a note and had shared certain parts of the message with the board. According to the sources, Dr. Sutskever also met board members in October and voiced similar concerns regarding Mr. Altman.
Several board members feared that if Mr. Altman’s behavior was not addressed, Ms. Murati, along with Dr. Sutskever, would quit the company. Additionally, they began to worry that if senior lieutenants left, the organization might suffer a talent loss.
The choice was based on more than just that. Concerns were voiced by several members over Mr. Altman’s venture fund, the OpenAI Startup Fund. Mr. Altman collected capital from outside investors and maintained legal ownership of the OpenAI fund, distinguishing it from a conventional firm investment fund that is an extension of the corporation. According to OpenAI, the framework was only there for a limited time, and Mr. Altman could not benefit financially from it.
Those funds were subsequently invested in other AI startups by the OpenAI fund. There was growing worry among some board members that Mr. Altman was abusing the fund to avoid responsibility under OpenAI’s nonprofit governance framework. Last year, they questioned Mr. Altman regarding the fund’s legal ownership and his operational management. According to earlier reports from Axios, Mr. Altman is the one in charge for the OpenAI fund.
After being contacted by Ms. Murati and Dr. Sutskever, members of the board started to consider what they should do next. According to sources, the board intended to appoint Ms. Murati as interim CEO by mid-November while continuing its search for a new CEO. Last November 17th, the board removed Mr. Altman from his position.
In the days that followed, Mr. Altman publicly fought for his reinstatement, drawing on a combination of public pressure along with influential Silicon Valley allies. Without his return as CEO, the majority of OpenAI’s 770 staff vowed to leave. Mr. Altman’s return to the company was openly and promptly endorsed by Ms. Murati and Dr. Sutskever. One or more of the sources mentioned that Dr. Sutskever is still not back to his usual work at the company. Following a public dispute that lasted five days, Mr. Altman went back to work.
