In a dramatic turn of events late Friday, former Y Combinator CEO Sam Altman was ousted from his position as CEO of AI startup OpenAI, the company behind viral AI successes like ChatGPT, GPT-4, and DALL-E 3, by the board of OpenAI management. Subsequently, the company’s president and co-founder, Greg Brockman, resigned, as did three of OpenAI’s senior researchers. The repercussions continue.
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It’s a fast-moving situation and we’re still trying to get to the bottom of it. No doubt more will become clear over time. To make it easier to keep track of everything that’s happened in the meantime, we’ve put together a timeline; We will do our best to keep it updated.
Timeline for Sam Altman’s firing from OpenAI
November 16
Ilya Sutskever schedules a call with Altman
According to a post on X (formerly Twitter) from Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist and co-founder, texted Altman on Thursday evening about scheduling a call for Friday afternoon.
Moratti spoke about Altman’s firing
Brockman claims that Mira Moratti, OpenAI’s CTO and now interim CEO, was informed Thursday night that Altman would be fired.
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November 17
Brockman was demoted
Brockman says he received a text from Sutskever shortly after noon Friday asking for a quick call. After sending the Google Meet link, Brockman was told that he had been removed from the board as chairman “but was vital to the company and would retain his role” as chairman, and that Altman had been fired.
Altman’s firing was publicly announced
OpenAI published a post on its blog advertisement Executive tremor. The company’s management team was aware of this soon after.
A meeting with all hands
OpenAI held an all-hands meeting on Friday afternoon during which Sutskever defended Altman’s ouster. He rejected suggestions that Altman’s firing amounted to a “hostile power grab.” claimed That it was necessary to protect OpenAI’s mission of “making AI useful to humanity.”
Microsoft issues a statement
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, a major investor in — and partner with — OpenAI, published an article statement About Altman’s firing:
“As you saw in Microsoft Ignite this week, we continue to innovate rapidly for this age of AI, with more than 100 announcements across the full technology stack from AI systems, models, and tools in Azure to Copilot. Most importantly, we are committed to delivering all of this to our customers while “Building for the future. We have a long-term agreement with OpenAI with full access to everything we need to deliver on our innovation agenda and exciting product roadmap; we remain committed to our partnership, to Mira and the team. Together, 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.
Senior OpenAI researchers resign
Three senior researchers at OpenAI resigned after Brockman, including research director Jakub Paczucki and head of preparedness Alexander Madry.
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November 18
“No…in response to the violations.”
In an internal memo Acquired By Axios Sent on Saturday morning Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s COO, said yesterday’s announcement “made a decision [the management team] “By surprise” and that management had “multiple conversations with the board to try to better understand the reasons and processes behind their decision.” Discussions were continuing until Saturday morning, according to the memo.
“We can categorically say that the Board’s decision was not made in response to wrongdoing or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices,” Lightcap added. “This was a breakdown in communication between Sam and the Board… We continue to share your concerns about how the process was handled, are working to resolve the situation, and will provide updates as we are able.”
OpenAI’s funding is at risk
A planned sale of OpenAI employee stock that would value the startup at about $86 billion could be in jeopardy. Information, I spoke to three sources previously with the company, Reports They no longer expect the sale – led by Thrive Capital – to happen or, if it does, to come at a lower valuation due to the recent turn of events.
Altman is planning a new project
Altman has told investors that he plans to launch a new venture, According to To the information. Brockman is expected to join the effort, whatever form it takes.