OpenAI’s Open Letter to OpenAI Directors: A Toy Model for an Artificial Intelligence–Relational-Nonlinear Company?

The open letter was signed by more than 95 percent of Openai’s 770 employees, and they claim the directors are not able to oversee the company. If the board members don’t resign, the workers who signed will leave and join a new advanced Artificial Intelligence division at Microsoft, formed by Altman and Brockman. The directors seemed like they were being asked to negotiate with terrorists, even though this threat didn’t seem to affect their resolve. Presumably one director feels differently—Sutskever, who now says he regrets his actions. The letter has his signature on it. Having apparently deleted his distrust of Altman, the two have been sending love notes to each other on X, the platform owned by another fellow OpenAI cofounder, now estranged from the project.

The board’s brief and somewhat cryptic statement announcing Altman’s departure said the directors had “concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.” Altman was replaced by CTO Mira Murati, who was appointed interim CEO. Brockman was removed from his position as chair of the board and quit the company in solidarity with Altman, who was also removed from his position.

Helen Toner, a board member who was rumored to have played a role in ousting Altman, said on her verified account that all of them would get some sleep.

Sam Altman, Microsoft, and the Shareholders of the OpenAI Board of Directors, Revisited: A Brief History of his Disappearance in a Silicon Valley

“OpenAI has the potential to be one of the most consequential companies in the history of computing,” Thrive partner Kelly Sims said in a statement shared with The Verge. Sam and Greg show a profound commitment to the company, and an ability to inspire and lead. We couldn’t be more excited for them to come back to the company they founded and helped build into what it is today.”

The company said in a statement late Tuesday that it has an “agreement in principle” for Altman to return alongside a new board composed of Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo. D’Angelo is a holdover from the previous board that initially fired Altman on Friday. We were told that he is still on the board, so that he can give the previous board some representation.

When I joked that the chart that mapped out this relationship looked like something a future GPT might come up with, Sutskever didn’t like it. He said they were the only company in the world with a capped profit structure. If you believe, like we do, that if we succeed really well, it will take my job and your job and everyone else’s jobs, then it makes sense if the company doesn’t make truly unlimited amounts of returns. To make sure that the profit-seeking part of the company is not shirking its commitment, there is that board, keeping an eye on things.

This was the board that fired Sam Altman last Friday because it no longer had confidence in him because he was not consistently candid in his communications with it. No examples of that alleged behavior were provided, and almost no one at the company knew about the firing until just before it was publicly announced. No notice was given to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other investors. The four directors, representing a majority of the six-person board, also kicked OpenAI president and chairman Greg Brockman off the board. Brockman quickly resigned.

Altman’s firing triggered an extraordinary few days in which he discussed returning to the company before agreeing to join Microsoft instead. On Monday morning, hundreds of staff signed a letter threatening to quit the company in protest over the board’s handling of Altman’s removal. By afternoon, more than 95 percent of the company had added their name to the letter.

After removing Altman last Friday, the board originally appointed CTO Mira Murati as interim CEO. It also removed Altman’s cofounder and the company’s president, Greg Brockman, from his position as chairman. Brockman stopped working a few hours later.

Even ChatGPT might have struggled to dream up such a convoluted story of corporate intrigue. There are questions surrounding what prompted his dismissal.