OpenAI, the most remarkable artificial intelligence research company of the last period, made the agenda with an internal chaos at the end of last year. On November 17, 2023, OpenAI’s board of directors abruptly dismissed co-founder and CEO Sam Altman. What happened behind the scenes of this development, which is not very common in companies and shocked everyone, was finally revealed. In a recent interview, former board member Helen Toner explained in detail why they fired the CEO.
The board had to go behind her back to fire the OpenAI CEO
Sam Altman led one of the fastest growing companies in history, but what mistake led to his firing? Helen Toner first explained how they did it because it’s very difficult to fire the head of a company.
Toner first explained that the board had no choice but to go behind Sam Altman’s back to make it happen:
“It was very clear to all of us that if Sam got the impression that he thought we were going to do something against him, he would pull out all the stops, he would do everything he could to weaken the administration, even to the point of firing him.”
The State of Play event, where new games coming to PlayStation consoles are introduced, will take place tomorrow.
Helen Toner also explained that the OpenAI board made this decision because they no longer trusted Sam Altman. Toner explained that one of the reasons Altman lost credibility was that he did not inform the board that he owned the OpenAI Startup Fund.
The decision was also clarified by the revelation that Altman had shared false information about the company’s security processes to the board on many occasions. Toner also revealed that the former OpenAI CEO had also targeted him after publishing an article:
“Sam started lying to other board members to get me off the board.”
After the two directors spoke directly to the board about their experiences with Altman, the process of firing the OpenAI CEO began. Toner explained that the executives described the toxic atmosphere at OpenAI, accused Altman of psychological harassment, and presented evidence that Altman had lied and acted manipulatively on different occasions.
“We found out about ChatGPT on Twitter”
After all this, the board made its decision and fired Sam Altman as CEO of OpenAI. Toner also cited the ChatGPT launch as an example of the board having no oversight over the company:
“When ChatGPT came out in November 2022, the board was not informed in advance. We found out about the release of ChatGPT on Twitter.”
OpenAI CEO’s firing didn’t change anything
And now we come to the most shocking part of all this. Sam Altman announced that he would start at Microsoft the same weekend he was fired. Following this development, OpenAI’s 700 employees wrote a letter to management saying they would resign if Altman was not reinstated.
Following this development, the CEO was reinstated and some board members, such as Toner, resigned. Toner also gave a few reasons why employees were pushing so hard for Altman’s return.
Toner claimed that after the CEO’s departure, employees were given only two choices about how things would go. Leave the company to bring Altman back or watch the company disappear. Toner thinks that people walked away from the first option because they didn’t want the company to fall apart. He also explained that many in the company were also afraid to stand up to Altman.
Sam Altman, whom Elon Musk also accused of betrayal and filed a lawsuit, is currently continuing his duty as OpenAI CEO. As a user, how much do you trust OpenAI after these developments?
