A pretty big shakeup at OpenAI tonight and so far there are only cryptic hints about what brought it about. Sam Altman who was one of the co-founders of OpenAi and who was its CEO was just fired by the company’s board of directors. This is from the company press release:

The board of directors of OpenAI, Inc., the 501(c)(3) that acts as the overall governing body for all OpenAI activities, today announced that Sam Altman will depart as CEO and leave the board of directors. Mira Murati, the company’s chief technology officer, will serve as interim CEO, effective immediately…

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.

In a statement, the board of directors said: “OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity. The board remains fully committed to serving this mission. We are grateful for Sam’s many contributions to the founding and growth of OpenAI. At the same time, we believe new leadership is necessary as we move forward.

So what wasn’t Altman candid about? For the moment no one is saying.

i loved my time at openai. 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.

🫡

— Sam Altman (@sama) November 17, 2023

The press release goes on to say that Greg Brockman, the President and Chairman of the Board, would be stepping down as chairman and continuing to report to the new CEO. But Brockman posted this on twitter a couple hours ago.

After learning today’s news, this is the message I sent to the OpenAI team: https://t.co/NMnG16yFmm pic.twitter.com/8x39P0ejOM

— Greg Brockman (@gdb) November 18, 2023

Apparently Microsoft, which has helped bankroll ChatGPT to the tune of $13 billion, had no idea any of this was coming.

Microsoft, which has invested billions in OpenAI, learned that OpenAI was ousting CEO Sam Altman just a minute before the news was shared with the world, according to a person familiar with the situation.

You get the impression that whatever deliberative review happened it just happened in the last 24 hours. In fact, Altman himself was working on behalf of the company just last night:

On Thursday evening, Mr. Altman appeared at an event in Oakland, Calif., where he discussed the future of art and artists now that artificial intelligence can generate images, videos, sounds and other forms of art on its own. Giving no indication that he was leaving OpenAI, he repeatedly said he and the company would continue to work alongside artists and help to ensure their future would be bright…

Current and former OpenAI employees were shocked by the news. As recently as Friday morning, they were discussing Mr. Altman as if he had a long future with the company. Researchers, entrepreneurs and investors outside the company were equally surprised, with many scrambling to determine why the OpenAI had made its decision.

So the bottom line is the company is treating this like there was a scandal they are trying to distance themselves from but no one seems to have any idea what it could be about. I see some people speculating on X but none of them seem to know anymore than what you’ve just read above.

Of course there are lots of people making jokes that OpenAI is now self-aware and has taken over the company, but no one close to this seems to be laughing about whatever actually happened here. Maybe we’ll have some more clarity tomorrow. If so, I’ll try to update this post.

Update: The mystery deepens.

Sam and I are shocked and saddened by what the board did today.

Let us first say thank you to all the incredible people who we have worked with at OpenAI, our customers, our investors, and all of those who have been reaching out.

We too are still trying to figure out exactly…

— Greg Brockman (@gdb) November 18, 2023

The reset of this tweet reads:

We too are still trying to figure out exactly what happened. Here is what we know:

– Last night, Sam got a text from Ilya asking to talk at noon Friday. Sam joined a Google Meet and the whole board, except Greg, was there. Ilya told Sam he was being fired and that the news was going out very soon.

– At 12:19pm, Greg got a text from Ilya asking for a quick call. At 12:23pm, Ilya sent a Google Meet link. Greg was told that he was being removed from the board (but was vital to the company and would retain his role) and that Sam had been fired. Around the same time, OpenAI published a blog post.

– As far as we know, the management team was made aware of this shortly after, other than Mira who found out the night prior.

The outpouring of support has been really nice; thank you, but please don’t spend any time being concerned. We will be fine. Greater things coming soon.

But did they give Altman a reason for firing him? He’s not saying.

i love you all.

today was a weird experience in many ways. but one unexpected one is that it has been sorta like reading your own eulogy while you’re still alive. the outpouring of love is awesome.

one takeaway: go tell your friends how great you think they are.

— Sam Altman (@sama) November 18, 2023

if i start going off, the openai board should go after me for the full value of my shares

— Sam Altman (@sama) November 18, 2023

Mr. Beast is as confused as the rest of us.

This is a better cliffhanger then any show I’ve ever watched, I’d give anything to know what happened 😂

— MrBeast (@MrBeast) November 18, 2023

Was this about an underlying battle in the AI community between safety and growth?

At least two of the board members, Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner, have ties to the Effective Altruism movement, a utilitarian-inspired group that has pushed for A.I. safety research and raised alarms that a powerful A.I. system could one day lead to human extinction. Another board member, Adam D’Angelo, is the chief executive of Quora, a question-and-answer website…

Mr. Altman’s defenestration will almost certainly fuel the culture war in the A.I. industry between those who think A.I. should be allowed to move faster and those who think it should be slowed down to prevent potentially catastrophic harms.

This argument, sometimes referred to as one between “accelerationists” and “doomers,” has flared up in recent months as regulators have begun to circle the A.I. industry and the technology has become more powerful. Some prominent accelerationists have argued that big A.I. companies are lobbying for rules that could make it harder for small start-ups to compete with them. They have blamed safety advocates in the industry for inflating A.I.’s risks in order to entrench themselves.

Altman was considered a moderate in this fight, someone who tried to see both sides. Was this a coup by the “doomers” on the board?