Introduction to the Book Excerpt

A passage from the forthcoming book, “The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future,” provides new insights into the reasons behind the brief dismissal of Sam Altman as CEO of OpenAI by the company’s board in 2023.

Concerns of the Board Members

The book, written by Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey, reveals that the nonprofit’s board members grew increasingly concerned upon discovering issues such as the OpenAI Startup Fund, which was actually personally owned by Altman.

Evidence of Toxic Behavior

Around the same time, co-founder Ilya Sutskever and CTO Mira Murati were reportedly gathering evidence of what they perceived as Altman’s toxic and dishonest behavior, including screenshots from Murati’s Slack channel. For instance, Altman allegedly claimed that the company’s legal department stated that GPT-4 Turbo did not require review by the joint safety board, but the company’s top lawyer denied making such a statement.

Aftermath of the Evidence

Following Sutskever’s presentation of this evidence to the board members, they decided to remove Altman and appoint Murati as interim CEO. However, this move backfired rapidly, as OpenAI employees (including Sutskever and Murati) signed a letter demanding Altman’s reinstatement — which he soon received, leading to Sutskever and Murati leaving to establish their own startups.