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> 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 imme

> 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. Wow

DylanBohlender 3y ago
So this is probably indicative of a scandal of some sort right?
- Bjorkbat 3y ago
  His sister on Twitter made some pretty crazy abuse allegations against him a while back, but it didn't seem to get much coverage outside of the usual Twitter crowd. But who knows, maybe there's a connection.
  - buffington 3y ago
    I don't use Twitter, nor do I really pay attention to Sam Altman, but the allegations of abuse are things I've seen covered. Your use of "crazy abuse allegations" is strange to me as well. I hardly see any of her allegations as being "crazy". Here's a collection of things she's said about the abuse. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman-s-sister-annie-altman-claims-sam-has-severely https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...
- caust1c 3y ago
  Not sure that there can be any other interpretation based on my reading of it.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- jurgenaut23 3y ago
  Yes, very likely Altman has done something _very_ wrong, and the board wants to maintain plausible deniability.
  - saliagato 3y ago
    We all know what. HN moderators are deleting all related comments. Edit: dang is right, sorry y’all
    - ro_bit 3y ago
      Showdead shows one comment that doesn't really bring anything of substance. How many comments can a mod even delete on a 10 minute old post (post origin to the time you wrote your comment)
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - p1esk 3y ago
      Know what?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - parthdesai 3y ago
      > We all know what Genuinely curious, what is it?
      - wahnfrieden 3y ago
        Sexual abuse allegations from his sister.
        ilikehurdles 3y ago
        I don’t believe accusations from March about something that allegedly happened when he was 13 would be the cause of any of this.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- kylediaz 3y ago
  It could possibly have to do with his sister's allegations. It's one of the top autocomplete results when you google "sam altman", so people are definitely talking about it.
  - wslh 3y ago
    This? https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman-s-sister-annie-altman-claims-sam-has-severely https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...
    - o11c 3y ago
      Seems to be based entirely on "repressed memories" which is junk science. False memories are demonstrably very easy to create.
- prepend 3y ago
  Sounds more like some strategic difference of opinion. My guess is that either they’re financially super hosed. Or one group wants to build skynet and one doesn’t. A scandal would probably be something along the lines of either “we love him and wish him the best” (hidden) or “he doesn’t represent the values of our org and we love XYz” (embraced)
  - threatofrain 3y ago
    Would you call your CEO a liar just because of a strategic difference in opinion?
    - svachalek 3y ago
      Right. We all know the template for differences of opinion. "Sam just really wanted to spend more time with his family. Hugs, Sam!"
    - FateOfNations 3y ago
      If you started executing your strategy and hid it from the board and told them you were doing what they told you to do, yes.
  - jurgenaut23 3y ago
    No, this passage tells me that the board wants to cover their ass: "he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board [...]. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI." It's not just a "hey, we don't really agree on x or y so let's part ways". It's more "hey, this guy did something that could get us in jail if we don't cut tie immediately".
    - HlessClaudesman 3y ago
      Someone at the company did a bad thing, and everything is securities fraud.
      - janejeon 3y ago
- cvhashim04 3y ago
  Hostile takeover? Board politics?
  - shepardrtc 3y ago
    Satya going for the throat
- atlasunshrugged 3y ago
  His sister had levied allegations of abuse https://www.themarysue.com/annie-altmans-abuse-allegations-against-openais-sam-altman-highlight-the-need-to-prioritize-humanity-over-tech/ https://www.themarysue.com/annie-altmans-abuse-allegations-a...
  - OfficialTurkey 3y ago
    I don't think this is it. The allegations aren't brand new and the board says he lied.
    - bosie 3y ago
      i assume you mean she lied?
  - sparkling 3y ago
    From the website: > "[...] If someone — correction, if generally a white, cis man — presents himself with enough confidence, then venture capitalists, media [...]" I stopped reading right there. This kind of race-baiting adds zero context to the story (which may or may not be true).
    - whatamidoingyo 3y ago
      Same. Don't know why you got downvoted.
    - arcatech 3y ago
      How a person is perceived based on race and gender is definitely relevant context for this.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - astrange 3y ago
        The "white cis man" stuff isn't an incisive comment, it's an academic's way of trying to get into an insult war with other academics. Constantly calling out "cis men" is in fact transphobic, which is how you can tell they don't care about it. If you think cis men and trans men behave differently or are always treated differently, this means you don't think they're both men. Also sama is not white. Although he does appear to have gotten a series of jobs with not a lot of experience by convincing Paul Graham to figuratively adopt him.
- stg22 3y ago
  "he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board" = "He lied to us about something important" Murati's selection as interim CEO is a surprise and might be an attempt to distance the company from whatever the board is claiming Altman lied about.
- golergka 3y ago
  Those kinds of news are usually sugar coated to the point of caramelisation. This one isn't. It must be something very ugly.
narrator 3y ago
candid - Not obscuring or omitting anything unpleasant, embarrassing, or negative. IMHO, saying he hasn't been candid is extremely harsh in terms of corporate PR speak.
- iainctduncan 3y ago
  I dunno the details here, but I work in diligence, where "not candid" is what leads to "the whole deal is off and we're sueing the shit out of you". Not candid in any kind of investment situation with reps and warranties is a really big deal....
FormerBandmate 3y ago
OpenAI’s one of the most successful companies of this decade, if not the most, and its CEO just got fired for really unclear reasons. Insane, Steve Jobs shit
- epolanski 3y ago
  No, this is completely different. Jobs got fired because Apple was on brink of bankruptcy all the time and was selling nothing to no one. Jobs wasn't the CEO of Apple, Sculley was. This is a much more impactful move. On top of that OpenAI is literally exploding in popularity and sales, that's not the moment to cut ties with your CEO. Also Sam Altman has an insanely better and heavier CV today than Jobs had in 1985, former director of YC and often called the "boss of silicon valley". You don't fire a man like Sam Altman easily, they are hard to come by in the first place. He's a powerful person you don't want to have against for no good reason when winds are blowing in the right direction moreover. It has to be some scandal, otherwise this is too sudden, and out of nowhere to a guy that led OpenAI in this direction, with success, for years.
  - bboygravity 3y ago
    Or, this is the AI taking over. only half joking
    - queuebert 3y ago
      Next headline: "OpenAI now completely disconnected from power grid with fully self-sufficient generation capacity."
  - blindriver 3y ago
    This is a bad joke. Altman is great but on his best day, he was never "insanely better" than Steve Jobs in 1985. If you think that, you don't understand how influential Apple was.
    - epolanski 3y ago
ren_engineer 3y ago
yeah, this is about as harsh as corporate press releases get in terms of removing an executive. There has to be some majorly bad news coming out about Altman for them to not give him the standard "we are mutually parting ways"
magicloop 3y ago
Well, striking language indeed. But.. what are the responsibilities of the board that may be hindered? I studied https://openai.com/our-structure https://openai.com/our-structure One tantalising statement in there is that AGI-level system is not bound by licensing agreements that a sub-AGI system would be (ostensibly to Microsoft). This phase-shift places a pressure on management to not declare reaching a AGI level threshold. But have they? Of course, it could be an ordinary everyday scandal but given how well they are doing, I'd imagine censure/sanctions would be how that is handled.
roughly 3y ago
This reads like there’s another shoe to drop - especially since the Chairman of the Board is also stepping down.
nostromo 3y ago
I hope making the person in charge of "trust and safety" doesn't further neuter the company.
mirekrusin 3y ago
I wonder if it has something to do with recent downtime?

DylanBohlender 3y ago

So this is probably indicative of a scandal of some sort right?

Bjorkbat 3y ago
His sister on Twitter made some pretty crazy abuse allegations against him a while back, but it didn't seem to get much coverage outside of the usual Twitter crowd. But who knows, maybe there's a connection.
- buffington 3y ago
  I don't use Twitter, nor do I really pay attention to Sam Altman, but the allegations of abuse are things I've seen covered. Your use of "crazy abuse allegations" is strange to me as well. I hardly see any of her allegations as being "crazy". Here's a collection of things she's said about the abuse. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman-s-sister-annie-altman-claims-sam-has-severely https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...
caust1c 3y ago
Not sure that there can be any other interpretation based on my reading of it.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
jurgenaut23 3y ago
Yes, very likely Altman has done something _very_ wrong, and the board wants to maintain plausible deniability.
- saliagato 3y ago
  We all know what. HN moderators are deleting all related comments. Edit: dang is right, sorry y’all
  - ro_bit 3y ago
    Showdead shows one comment that doesn't really bring anything of substance. How many comments can a mod even delete on a 10 minute old post (post origin to the time you wrote your comment)
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - p1esk 3y ago
    Know what?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - parthdesai 3y ago
    > We all know what Genuinely curious, what is it?
    - wahnfrieden 3y ago
      Sexual abuse allegations from his sister.
      - ilikehurdles 3y ago
        I don’t believe accusations from March about something that allegedly happened when he was 13 would be the cause of any of this.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
kylediaz 3y ago
It could possibly have to do with his sister's allegations. It's one of the top autocomplete results when you google "sam altman", so people are definitely talking about it.
- wslh 3y ago
  This? https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman-s-sister-annie-altman-claims-sam-has-severely https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...
  - o11c 3y ago
    Seems to be based entirely on "repressed memories" which is junk science. False memories are demonstrably very easy to create.
prepend 3y ago
Sounds more like some strategic difference of opinion. My guess is that either they’re financially super hosed. Or one group wants to build skynet and one doesn’t. A scandal would probably be something along the lines of either “we love him and wish him the best” (hidden) or “he doesn’t represent the values of our org and we love XYz” (embraced)
- threatofrain 3y ago
  Would you call your CEO a liar just because of a strategic difference in opinion?
  - svachalek 3y ago
    Right. We all know the template for differences of opinion. "Sam just really wanted to spend more time with his family. Hugs, Sam!"
  - FateOfNations 3y ago
    If you started executing your strategy and hid it from the board and told them you were doing what they told you to do, yes.
- jurgenaut23 3y ago
  No, this passage tells me that the board wants to cover their ass: "he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board [...]. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI." It's not just a "hey, we don't really agree on x or y so let's part ways". It's more "hey, this guy did something that could get us in jail if we don't cut tie immediately".
  - HlessClaudesman 3y ago
    Someone at the company did a bad thing, and everything is securities fraud.
    - janejeon 3y ago
cvhashim04 3y ago
Hostile takeover? Board politics?
- shepardrtc 3y ago
  Satya going for the throat
atlasunshrugged 3y ago
His sister had levied allegations of abuse https://www.themarysue.com/annie-altmans-abuse-allegations-against-openais-sam-altman-highlight-the-need-to-prioritize-humanity-over-tech/ https://www.themarysue.com/annie-altmans-abuse-allegations-a...
- OfficialTurkey 3y ago
  I don't think this is it. The allegations aren't brand new and the board says he lied.
  - bosie 3y ago
    i assume you mean she lied?
- sparkling 3y ago
  From the website: > "[...] If someone — correction, if generally a white, cis man — presents himself with enough confidence, then venture capitalists, media [...]" I stopped reading right there. This kind of race-baiting adds zero context to the story (which may or may not be true).
  - whatamidoingyo 3y ago
    Same. Don't know why you got downvoted.
  - arcatech 3y ago
    How a person is perceived based on race and gender is definitely relevant context for this.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - astrange 3y ago
      The "white cis man" stuff isn't an incisive comment, it's an academic's way of trying to get into an insult war with other academics. Constantly calling out "cis men" is in fact transphobic, which is how you can tell they don't care about it. If you think cis men and trans men behave differently or are always treated differently, this means you don't think they're both men. Also sama is not white. Although he does appear to have gotten a series of jobs with not a lot of experience by convincing Paul Graham to figuratively adopt him.
stg22 3y ago
"he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board" = "He lied to us about something important" Murati's selection as interim CEO is a surprise and might be an attempt to distance the company from whatever the board is claiming Altman lied about.
golergka 3y ago
Those kinds of news are usually sugar coated to the point of caramelisation. This one isn't. It must be something very ugly.

narrator 3y ago

candid - Not obscuring or omitting anything unpleasant, embarrassing, or negative. IMHO, saying he hasn't been candid is extremely harsh in terms of corporate PR speak.

iainctduncan 3y ago
I dunno the details here, but I work in diligence, where "not candid" is what leads to "the whole deal is off and we're sueing the shit out of you". Not candid in any kind of investment situation with reps and warranties is a really big deal....

FormerBandmate 3y ago

OpenAI’s one of the most successful companies of this decade, if not the most, and its CEO just got fired for really unclear reasons. Insane, Steve Jobs shit

epolanski 3y ago
No, this is completely different. Jobs got fired because Apple was on brink of bankruptcy all the time and was selling nothing to no one. Jobs wasn't the CEO of Apple, Sculley was. This is a much more impactful move. On top of that OpenAI is literally exploding in popularity and sales, that's not the moment to cut ties with your CEO. Also Sam Altman has an insanely better and heavier CV today than Jobs had in 1985, former director of YC and often called the "boss of silicon valley". You don't fire a man like Sam Altman easily, they are hard to come by in the first place. He's a powerful person you don't want to have against for no good reason when winds are blowing in the right direction moreover. It has to be some scandal, otherwise this is too sudden, and out of nowhere to a guy that led OpenAI in this direction, with success, for years.
- bboygravity 3y ago
  Or, this is the AI taking over. only half joking
  - queuebert 3y ago
    Next headline: "OpenAI now completely disconnected from power grid with fully self-sufficient generation capacity."
- blindriver 3y ago
  This is a bad joke. Altman is great but on his best day, he was never "insanely better" than Steve Jobs in 1985. If you think that, you don't understand how influential Apple was.
  - epolanski 3y ago

ren_engineer 3y ago

yeah, this is about as harsh as corporate press releases get in terms of removing an executive. There has to be some majorly bad news coming out about Altman for them to not give him the standard "we are mutually parting ways"

magicloop 3y ago

Well, striking language indeed. But.. what are the responsibilities of the board that may be hindered? I studied https://openai.com/our-structure https://openai.com/our-structure One tantalising statement in there is that AGI-level system is not bound by licensing agreements that a sub-AGI system would be (ostensibly to Microsoft). This phase-shift places a pressure on management to not declare reaching a AGI level threshold. But have they? Of course, it could be an ordinary everyday scandal but given how well they are doing, I'd imagine censure/sanctions would be how that is handled.

roughly 3y ago

This reads like there’s another shoe to drop - especially since the Chairman of the Board is also stepping down.

nostromo 3y ago

I hope making the person in charge of "trust and safety" doesn't further neuter the company.

mirekrusin 3y ago

I wonder if it has something to do with recent downtime?