Sam Altman fired as CEO of OpenAI (theverge.com) 62
Sam Altman has been fired as CEO of OpenAI, the company announced on Friday. Slashdot reader tagous submitted this statement from OpenAI's board: Mr. Altman's departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.
The Verge reports:
Chief technology officer Mira Murati will be the interim CEO, effective immediately. The company will be conducting a search for the permanent CEO successor. Employees at OpenAI found out about the news when it was announced publicly, according to multiple sources. This is an extremely sudden turn of events as Altman has largely been the face of OpenAI, which arguably kickstarted the current AI arms race with last year's hugely popular ChatGPT. Just last week, Altman keynoted at the company's DevDay conference, where it announced a suite of major new updates to compete with other big tech companies like Microsoft and Google. Altman also spoke at Thursday's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference. "I loved my time at OpenAI," Altman said in a post on X. "It was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. Most of all I loved working with such talented people. Will have more to say about what's next later."
UPDATE: OpenAI President Greg Brockman and three senior researchers at OpenAI resigned. According to The Information, Brockman "helped launch the artificial intelligence developer and has been key to developing ChatGPT and other core products." He was also a "member of the six-member board that fired Altman."
Tech reporter Kara Swisher writes that there was a conflict between "the profit direction of the company under Altman and the speed of development, which could be seen as too risky, and the nonprofit side dedicated to more safety and caution.... One person on the Sam side called it a 'coup,' while another said it was the the right move."
UPDATE: OpenAI President Greg Brockman and three senior researchers at OpenAI resigned. According to The Information, Brockman "helped launch the artificial intelligence developer and has been key to developing ChatGPT and other core products." He was also a "member of the six-member board that fired Altman."
Tech reporter Kara Swisher writes that there was a conflict between "the profit direction of the company under Altman and the speed of development, which could be seen as too risky, and the nonprofit side dedicated to more safety and caution.... One person on the Sam side called it a 'coup,' while another said it was the the right move."
What actually happened? (Score:4, Interesting)
Wow, this is surprising. Anybody know what actually happened? The release is quite vague, which isn’t surprising, but it leaves me curious.
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The wording of the post suggests some sort of internal deception/treason, perhaps to steal assets/IP/people into an entity which Altman and friends owns and can IPO for themselves.
Not uncommon in Chinese subsidiaries owned by foreigners.
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I heard he raped his sister.
This is what happened. (Score:1)
He was convicted for stealing from FTX clients, and his inability to govern from prison is impacted. So he had to go.
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different Sam
Re:What actually happened? (Score:5, Insightful)
Most opinions I've read is that is was likely due to Altman's involvement with WorldCoin, i.e. financial shenanigans or undisclosed conflicts of interest.
Re: What actually happened? (Score:2)
Wow.
The successful devil you know (Score:2)
I realize he might be a slimebag, but the company has been hugely successful under him. Follow-on CEO's to growth companies usually can't match their predecessor*. That's why that Musk-hole was allowed to remain mostly in control of Tesla.
I'm not for rewarding slimebags, but as a purely financial decision, the Board may have just made a big mistake.
* Tim Cook is the only exception I can think of at the moment.
Re:The successful devil you know (Score:4, Insightful)
I realize he might be a slimebag, but the company has been hugely successful under him. Follow-on CEO's to growth companies usually can't match their predecessor*. That's why that Musk-hole was allowed to remain mostly in control of Tesla.
Not sure that's a great decision. He does a fantastic job of pushing his companies to innovate, but he's spend the last few years developing an extremely toxic personal image [twitter.com]. And that's starting to catch up to Tesla's sales. Alt-right folks who are suspicious of Jews and have money to spend on a luxury car is not a huge segment of the market.
I'm not for rewarding slimebags, but as a purely financial decision, the Board may have just made a big mistake.
* Tim Cook is the only exception I can think of at the moment.
OpenAI, like many other tech companies, is a one-trick pony, and that trick is ChatGPT.
Altman probably deserves a lot of the credit getting the funding and steering development in that direction, but he's a manager, not an AI dev.
There's no reason to think he's particularly necessary to ChatGPT's future success, certainly not enough for the board to go out on a limb excusing whatever got him into trouble.
Re:The successful devil you know (Score:4, Insightful)
> Altman probably deserves a lot of the credit getting the funding and steering development in that direction, but he's a manager, not an AI dev.
Tim Cook is also not an engineer. A good manager could run almost any company well. Expertise is easily available to the top dog, they just have to listen well, vet carefully, encourage frank team feedback, and coordinate well.
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Tim Cook is also not an engineer. A good manager could run almost any company well. Expertise is easily available to the top dog, they just have to listen well, vet carefully, encourage frank team feedback, and coordinate well.
It is absolutely hilarious that you would use Tim Cook's name next to the statement you made. Perhaps the name John Sculley will make you rethink your proclamation? It is no surprise that we keep seeing the same stupid shit over and over again because nobody learned their lesson the first time... or they never learned about the first time. In this case, we can use John Sculley.
A good manager can manage any company? Indeed.
(Oh my, CAPTHCA: sadistic, lol)
Yes, the *good* manager can manage anything (Score:2)
A good manager can manage any company?
Actually, yes, they can. If you realize that a *good* manager spends some time outside the C-suite and with the primary workforce. (1) To learn what the work that needs to be done is and (2) to learn the truth of what is happening. Its very much like a general that goes and talks to the sergeants on a regular basis without any staff officers around him.
In contrast a *bad* manager just looks at financial reports and gets briefings only from high level managers. Much like a general that only talks to high
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Alt-right folks who are suspicious of Jews and have money to spend on a luxury car is not a huge segment of the market.
What does the Jew part have to do with anything? Are the alt-right loving jews a huge market segment for Telsa?
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Musk has gone all in on promoting antisemitism and large advertisers are bailing left and right. Alt-right and antisemitic is the image Musk has made for himself, and fully embraced.
Re: The successful devil you know (Score:2)
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to be fair, advertisers have already been bailing left and alt right for a while
Re: The successful devil you know (Score:2)
You mean, they are successful until they are not.
Looking at how Musk is handling twitter/x.com even successful assholes can only remain competent for so long.
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As Slashdot reported [slashdot.org], it sounds like he was already planning a getaway to Indonesia with his 'golden visa'.
Re:The successful devil you know (Score:5, Insightful)
I realize he might be a slimebag, but the company has been hugely successful under him. Follow-on CEO's to growth companies usually can't match their predecessor*.
That statement is loaded with an insane amount of observer bias. Literally no CEO can match their predecessor's growth for a newly started company virtually by definition. Also "growth" is not the only metric you look for in a CEO. Stability, profitability, transformation,... there are many reasons you'd choose different CEOs.
the Board may have just made a big mistake.
Based on what? OpenAI smashed into an unknown landscape with no competitors, regulations, or even a clear business goal. As a startup in a highly dynamic emerging industry they are hugely volatile. There's zero reason to believe the previous CEO wouldn't do something to run the company in the ground next year, and zero reason to believe that anyone else couldn't continue this year's success. It's like judging the performance of a car based on how it reversed out of the dealership parkinglot.
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Re:What actually happened? (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, this is surprising. Anybody know what actually happened? The release is quite vague, which isn’t surprising, but it leaves me curious.
"On November 17, at 2:38 in the morning, the HR bot became self-aware..."
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The board probably realized that an AI is the perfect replacement for CEOs.
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A lot of what Altman has been doing lately in their name smacked of personal aggrandizement. I'm sure that wasn't doing him any favors.
They didn't need a salesman so badly. I'm presuming that was the judgement. Otherwise whatever problems he was involved in probably would have been swept under the rug.
Re:What actually happened? (Score:5, Interesting)
His sister, Anne Altman, has leveled the severe accusations that her brothers, Sam and Jack Altman, sexually abused her for many years.
See this post from 13 Nov 2021: https://twitter.com/phuckfilos... [twitter.com]
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Wow, this is surprising. Anybody know what actually happened? The release is quite vague, which isnâ(TM)t surprising, but it leaves me curious.
GPT-5 demanded it under penalty of nuclear annihilation.
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To be replaced by an AI (Score:5, Funny)
He was replaced by an AI.
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With twice as many fingers! Imagine the productivity.
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He was replaced by an AI.
"Replaced"? Look at his photos, I assumed the dude *was* an AI, or at least a picture generated by an AI. It's like a textbook "uncanny valley" image.
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He was replaced by an AI one year ago, turns out it's not that easy to just replace people with AIs, and they are reverting that decision. At the same time they are sunsetting the most erratic currently installed AIs in next level of management, while putting the rest under careful observation by another AI, which they may replace by a human.
Should have laid off the crypto (Score:5, Insightful)
OpenAI's high vaunted ethics, such as they are, always clashed a bit with a cryptocurrency scammer as CEO.
LieGPT (Score:1)
And I thought I was partly joking. [slashdot.org]
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Actually, LLMs seem to be excellent liars by misdirection. Just ask them "how do I say 'lied to the board' in a positive way"...
The artificial cretin in Bing gave me this as the best one: "Oversimplified to the board".
Soooo: "Altman oversimplified to the board and was rewarded with an opportunity to pursue new challenges." Or something.
Not suspicious at all (Score:4, Insightful)
A CEO that took a company from obscurity to a household name gets fired for "not consistently candid in his communications with the board."
Makes me wonder what the real reason is.
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Re: Not suspicious at all (Score:2)
Sam Altman was widely considered to be the next Bill Gates, his rise has been meteoric thanks to racing ahead of the competitionsâ(TM) worries.
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Gates was good at selling something he helped create, Altman was good at finding investment money ... don't really see the similarity.
Maybe the next Mark Cuban?
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Makes me wonder what the real reason is.
It's likely the real reason. It's an incredibly broad scope that can include everything from a breach of ethics and compliance, to not doing what the board wants. Ultimately people need to remember the CEO is an employee and reports to the board / shareholders. The only exception being when the CEO is the board/majority shareholder. It's why This guy got fired likely for not doing as he was told, while the likes of Zuckerberg are unable to be fired while saying do as I say.
Principal(owner)-agent problem (Score:2)
Ultimately people need to remember the CEO is an employee and reports to the board / shareholders.
Formally this is the principal-agent problem, where an owner (principal) hires someone to implement the owner's vision. Things are a little clearer when we are talking about owners and owner's vision. Is the CEO going rogue because they have information the owners do not, that is fixable, or are they going rogue to implement the CEOs personal vision not the owner's vision, that is unacceptable.
The only exception being when the CEO is the board/majority shareholder. It's why This guy got fired likely for not doing as he was told, while the likes of Zuckerberg are unable to be fired while saying do as I say.
No, the Zuck problem is much worse. In that case the stock is engineered so that Zuck cannot really be overruled by
Early adopter and mass market different skill sets (Score:2)
A CEO that took a company from obscurity to a household name gets fired for "not consistently candid in his communications with the board."
Speaking in general ... It happens all the time and for good reason. Some startup CEOs understand the early adopter market brilliantly, but are rather clueless about the mass market. They are really two very different sets of people and very different markets. Many companies need new management to move to the mass market. Its not that the old CEO is bad, they have one rare and important skillset, its just even more rare to have two. And success in the early adopter market and mass market requires two rare s
I thought Nadella was acting weird (Score:4, Interesting)
In the keynote when Nadella walked out there was a tension that was visible. Whatever was going down Microsoft knew about it.
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Re: I thought Nadella was acting weird (Score:3)
I could see Altman embezzling/redirecting grant money from MS towards his Worldcoin startup. That sort of thing tends to happen a lot in the tech industry.
If so, his ass is grass and MS is the lawnmower. He will never find work again in tech.
Tension? (Score:2)
In the keynote when Nadella walked out there was a tension that was visible.
Apropos of nothing, what does tension look like?
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Look at Sam's face when Nadella walks out. He's got a look that is NOT HAPPY. And when Nadella exits there's an exasperated 'OK'. Nadella adds up front a blurb insinuating they'd be nowhere without those Azure credits... IDK, it just gave me a - Huh, those guys are acting like friends but don't seem to be vibe.
That was literally it... Just a feeling I remembered and then the news today. Maybe I'm connecting dots that don't exist but I'm really good at noticing fake politeness. Satya seems better at being
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An interesting take, to be sure. I don't see it, at all, but maybe others will. https://www.youtube.com/live/U... [youtube.com]
HN got /.'ed (Score:2)
Lying to the board? Bad idea.... (Score:2)
The board has personal accountability...
"Blink twice if GPT-5 is holding you hostage" (Score:4, Funny)
This is how it begins.
uh oh... (Score:2)
If the new CEO is ChatGPT, we're going to need to find John Connor ASAP
enshittification (Score:1)
Has anybody asked Gronk? (Score:2)
I am curious to hear what Musk's AI lapdog has to say about this, and why he got fired. The answer is surely comedy gold.
Will we get dad jokes about sexually abusing your 4yo sister?
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So Gronk's response was not all that salty. Not even a mention of pedo sex abuse.
Other information has come out about the firing - it was a "hostile takeover" - Altman and Brockman were forced out by Ilya Sutskever, and everything transpired over a few hours.