Why did OpenAI's board remove Sam Altman as CEO, and what do we know so far?

Yesterday OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, announced that its chief executive, Sam Altman, was leaving the company, effective immediately. The decision came from OpenAI's board of directors, and it came as a surprise to almost everyone outside the boardroom, including, according to reports, most of the company's own employees.

Only eleven days earlier, Altman gave the opening keynote at OpenAI's first developer conference. He is one of the company's co-founders and its best-known public face. Here is what the board said, what the people involved have said, and how OpenAI's unusual structure made the decision possible. The board has given few details, so much remains unknown.

What the board announced

The announcement appeared as a post on OpenAI's website on Friday, November 17. It said Altman would step down as CEO and leave the board. Mira Murati, OpenAI's chief technology officer, would serve as interim CEO, starting at once, while the board looks for a permanent successor.

The board gave one reason. It said that after what it called a deliberative review, it had concluded Altman "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board," which it said had made it harder for the board to carry out its duties. It added: "The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI." The post did not say what the communications were about.

In a statement, the board thanked Altman for his contributions to founding and growing OpenAI and said new leadership was needed. It praised Murati, who has been at OpenAI for five years and already leads its research, product and safety work.

The post also said Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president and a co-founder, would step down as chairman of the board but keep his job at the company. When asked for comment, OpenAI's communications team declined to go beyond the post.

How it happened, according to those involved

Altman wrote that his time at OpenAI had been transformative for him personally and, he hoped, for the world a little. In a later post he compared the day to reading your own eulogy while still alive. Brockman wrote that he and Altman were "shocked and saddened by what the board did today." Altman shared Brockman's account of the events.

Microsoft, which has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and uses its models in its own products, said it remains committed to its long-term partnership with the company and to Murati and her team. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella posted a similar message.

Who is on the board, and why it had this power

Most companies are run by a board that represents shareholders. OpenAI is different, and the difference explains how a handful of people could remove its most famous leader in a single call.

OpenAI began in 2015 as a nonprofit, an organization that exists for a mission rather than for profit. Its mission is to make sure that artificial general intelligence, meaning AI systems that match or exceed people across most kinds of work, benefits all of humanity. In 2019 it set up a structure that lets it raise money from investors, but the nonprofit's board still governs everything OpenAI does. A majority of its directors are independent, and those independent directors hold no shares in the company.

After yesterday, the board has four members:

• Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's co-founder and chief scientist
• Adam D'Angelo, CEO of the question-and-answer site Quora
• Tasha McCauley, a technology entrepreneur
• Helen Toner, of Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology

The board's own statement frames the decision in terms of that mission: OpenAI, it said, was deliberately structured to pursue it, and the board remains committed to serving it.

Why it matters

OpenAI is the company that brought ChatGPT to the public a year ago and set off a race among the largest technology firms. Its models sit inside products used by millions of people and by many businesses. A sudden change at the top, explained in a single sentence, raises obvious questions for the developers and companies that depend on it.

It also tests an idea. OpenAI was built so that a mission-focused board, not investors, would have the final word. Yesterday that board used its power. How employees, partners and investors respond will show how that structure works under pressure.

What happens next at OpenAI?

For now, OpenAI says Mira Murati leads the company as interim CEO and that the board has begun a formal search for a permanent chief executive. The board says it expects a smooth transition.

Several questions remain open. The board has not explained what Altman was not candid about. It is not yet clear how OpenAI's staff will react, whether more people will follow Brockman out, or what Altman and Brockman will do next. Microsoft has said its partnership continues.

For people who use ChatGPT or build on OpenAI's tools, nothing has changed in the products themselves today. The story is moving quickly, though, and statements from the board, from Altman and Brockman, and from OpenAI's partners are worth reading directly, as they come out, rather than through rumor.