Sam Altman Already Knew He was Going to Get Fired

Sam Altman is unlikely to come back as the CEO of OpenAI. 

Interestingly, the former OpenAI chief knew that the board might fire him, well in advance. In an interview with Bloomberg earlier this year, he said: “The board can fire me; I think that's important. I believe the board, over time, needs to be democratised to include all of humanity.”

This response comes when Bloomberg journalist, Emily Chang, probed Altman, saying that he has an incredible amount of power at this moment, and said: “Why should we trust you?” 

“You shouldn’t,” replied Altman. He said it is important for people to ask as many questions as possible as no one person should be trusted. 

Altman believes that the governance of technology belongs to humanity as a whole, and not just one person or a company. “You should not trust one company and certainly not one person with it,” he added. 

This has finally come true with Altman getting fired from the firm by the board members, hinting his dominance and control in the company, did not align with the rest of the board members. “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI,” read the blog.  

The grounds for Altman’s departure followed 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. 

This unexpected change arrived shortly after OpenAI’s recent DevDay conference, where Altman actively participated. His departure triggers curiosity about its connection to the company’s intricate governance structure, notably the relationship between its nonprofit and for-profit arms.

OpenAI’s board of directors consists of OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, independent directors Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology’s Helen Toner.