Sam Altman is out of OpenAI, the company he cofounded and helped turn into a leading AI lab.
The move shocked the tech community and left commentators and investors scratching their heads.
Altman was well-liked and OpenAI was — by most measures — doing well under his leadership.
The company had transitioned from an AI startup to a household name in the space of a year. It was heavily backed by tech giant Microsoft and on track for an $86 billion valuation 12 months after spearheading a global AI revolution with its wildly popular ChatGPT.
But the launch of ChatGPT – arguably Altman's greatest success at OpenAI – may also have triggered his downfall.
While it's still unclear exactly why Altman was fired, tensions at the company had been bubbling under since the release of the AI-powered chatbot.
The hype that followed ChatGPT reportedly stoked tensions between the company's non-profit mission and for-profit division. Current and former OpenAI employees told The Atlantic that pressure to commercialize ChatGPT created divisions among leadership.
After the unprecedented popularity of the company's chatbot, OpenAI's safety teams wanted to slow things down while the product teams pushed to capitalize on the hype, the outlet reported.
Further product releases including ChatGPT Plus and GPT-4 only served to increase tensions, three people at OpenAI at the time told The Atlantic.
Ilya Sutskever, a board member and the company's chief scientist, found himself at odds with Altman and former OpenAI president Greg Brockman when it came to priorities. Where Brockman and Altman focused on commercialization, Sutskever was more worried about the company upholding the nonprofit mission to create safe and beneficial AGI, the report said.
In July, Sutskever even created a "Super Alignment" team within the company to ensure that future versions of GPT-4 wouldn't be harmful to humanity, according to The New York Times.
While Altman has expressed concerns about the safety of advanced AI, he's also been the face of the commercialization of OpenAI's tech.
Both tensions around the push towards commercialization, including at OpenAI's much-hyped DevDay earlier this month, and safety concerns around AI may have contributed to the shock ousting.
When Altman's firing finally came it came from Sutskever.
According to a timeline provided by Brockman, the chief scientist texted Altman at midday Friday asking for a call. When Altman joined it, the entire board bar Brockman was waiting for him and he was told by Sutskever he was being fired.
The board said it had lost confidence in Altman's "ability to continue leading."
On Monday Sutskever addressed his role in the controversy. In a post on X, he said: "I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we've built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company."
