In a dramatic flip of occasions late Friday, ex-Y Combinator president Sam Altman was fired as CEO of AI startup OpenAI, the firm behind viral AI hits like ChatGPT, GPT-4 and DALL-E 3, by OpenAI’s board of administrators. Then, the firm’s longtime president and co-founder, Greg Brockman, resigned — as did three senior OpenAI researchers. And the fallout continues.
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It’s a fast-moving scenario that we’re nonetheless making an attempt to get to the backside of. No doubt extra will turn out to be clear as time goes on. To make it simpler to comply with all that’s occurred in the meantime, although, we’ve put collectively a timeline; we’ll do our greatest to maintain it present.
Timeline of Sam Altman’s firing from OpenAI
November 16
Ilya Sutskever schedules name with Altman
According to a publish on X (previously Twitter) from Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, the chief scientist at OpenAI and a co-founder, texted Altman on Thursday night about scheduling a Friday midday name.
Murati instructed of Altman’s firing
Brockman alleges that Mira Murati, OpenAI’s CTO and now interim CEO, was knowledgeable on Thursday night time that Altman can be fired.
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November 17
Brockman demoted
Brockman says he bought a textual content from Sutskever shortly after midday on Friday asking for a fast name. After sending a Google Meet hyperlink, Brockman was instructed that he was being eliminated from the board as chairman “but was vital to the company and would retain his role” as president, and that Altman had been fired.
Altman’s firing publicly introduced
OpenAI published a publish on its weblog announcing the government shake-up. The firm’s administration staff was conscious shortly after.
All-hands assembly
OpenAI held an all-hands assembly Friday afternoon throughout which Sutskever defended Altman’s ouster. He dismissed strategies that pushing Altman out amounted to a “hostile takeover,” and claimed that it was needed to guard OpenAI’s mission of “making AI beneficial to humanity.”
Microsoft releases a press release
Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, a significant investor in — and partner with — OpenAI, revealed a statement about Altman’s firing:
“As you saw at Microsoft Ignite this week, we’re continuing to rapidly innovate for this era of AI, with over 100 announcements across the full tech stack from AI systems, models and tools in Azure, to Copilot. Most importantly, we’re 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 an exciting product roadmap; and remain committed to our partnership, and to Mira and the team. Together, we will continue to deliver the meaningful benefits of this technology to the world.”
Brockman quits
Brockman introduced his resignation from OpenAI, citing “today’s news.” After sending a memo internally, he revealed the textual content on X.
Senior OpenAI researchers resign
Three senior OpenAI researchers resign after Brockman, together with the director of analysis Jakub Pachocki and head of preparedness Aleksander Madry.
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November 18
“Not … in response to malfeasance”
In an inside memo obtained by Axios despatched Saturday morning, OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap mentioned yesterday’s announcement “took [the management team] by surprise” and that administration had had “multiple conversations with the board to try to better understand the reasons and process behind their decision.” Discussions have been ongoing as of Saturday morning, per the memo.
“We can say definitively that the board’s decision was not made in response to malfeasance 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 still share your concerns about how the process has been handled, are working to resolve the situation, and will provide updates as we’re able.”
OpenAI’s funding in jeopardy
The deliberate sale of OpenAI worker shares that will worth the startup at about $86 billion may very well be in jeopardy. The Information, talking to a few sources previously with the firm, reports that they now not anticipate the sale — led by Thrive Capital — to occur, or, if it does, to return with a lesser valuation as a result of of the current flip of occasions.
Altman planning new enterprise
Altman has been telling traders that he’s planning to launch a brand new enterprise, according to The Information. Brockman is anticipated to affix the effort — no matter kind it takes.
