OpenAI CEO’s ouster followed debates between Altman, board
OpenAI's firing of Sam Altman followed wide-ranging disagreements between the chief executive officer and his board — in particular Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI co-founder and the company's chief scientist — according to a person familiar with the matter.
The debates included differences of opinion on AI safety, the speed of development of the technology and the commercialization of the company, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
Altman's ambitions may have also played a role in the divorce. Altman has been looking to raise tens of billions of dollars from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to create an AI chip startup to compete with processors made by Nvidia Corp., according to a person with knowledge of the investment proposal. Altman was also courting SoftBank Group Corp. chairman Masayoshi Son for a multibillion-dollar investment in a new company to make AI-oriented hardware in partnership with former Apple designer Jony Ive.
Sutskever and his allies on the OpenAI board may have been put off by Altman raising funds off of OpenAI's name and these new companies not sharing the same governance model as OpenAI, according to this person.
In a statement late Friday, former OpenAI President Greg Brockman said he and Altman were surprised by the company's decision. “Sam and I are shocked and saddened by what the board did today,” Brockman wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “We too are still trying to figure out exactly what happened.”
Brockman said that the board spoke to Altman on a Google Meet, where Sutskever delivered the news: “Ilya told Sam he was being fired and that the news was going out very soon.”
In another post on X, Altman said, “I love you all.” He added,
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