An excerpt from the forthcoming book The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future reveals fresh insights into the brief dismissal of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in 2023. Written by Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey, the book highlights how OpenAI’s board grew increasingly uneasy after discovering various issues, including the revelation that Altman personally owned an OpenAI Startup Fund.
Meanwhile, co-founder Ilya Sutskever and CTO Mira Murati were reportedly gathering evidence of what they considered Altman’s toxic and dishonest behavior, including screenshots from Murati’s Slack channel. One example involved Altman supposedly telling the company’s legal department that GPT-4 Turbo didn’t require review by the joint safety board — a claim the top lawyer later denied making.
After Sutskever shared this evidence with the board, they moved to remove Altman and appointed Murati as interim CEO. However, the decision backfired quickly as OpenAI employees, including Sutskever and Murati, signed a petition calling for Altman’s reinstatement. Altman returned shortly after, and both Sutskever and Murati eventually left to start their own ventures.
