Sam Altman Ouster

2023

Date: 17-22 November 2023 · Place: OpenAI, San Francisco · Figures: Sam Altman, ousted then reinstated CEO · Ilya Sutskever, board member · Mira Murati, briefly interim CEO · Emmett Shear, briefly interim-interim CEO · Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO · Tags: AI, Governance, FiveDays 01. Friday Afternoon Termination On Friday 17 November 2023 at 12:28 p.m. Pacific, the OpenAI board announces it has terminated Sam Altman as CEO, citing that he 'was not consistently candid in his communications with the board.' Mira Murati is named interim CEO. The internet, the AI industry, and Silicon Valley spend the weekend in continuous shock. By Sunday Microsoft has announced it will hire Altman to run a new internal AI division. By Monday, 738 of OpenAI's 770 employees have signed a letter threatening to follow Altman to Microsoft unless the board resigns. 02. Reinstatement and Heart Emoji On 22 November 2023 the board reverses. Altman returns as CEO. Most of the original board resigns. Throughout the five-day crisis the meme of the era is the heart emoji, posted by OpenAI employees on Twitter as a coordinated signal of loyalty. The cycle becomes the canonical example of governance theater in the AI industry, retold continuously through 2024 and 2025 in business books, podcasts, and a forthcoming HBO series. Sources • OpenAI, board announcement (17 November 2023) • The New York Times, 'Sam Altman Is Reinstated as OpenAI's Chief Executive' (22 November 2023) • The Atlantic, 'Inside the OpenAI Power Struggle' (28 November 2023) by Karen Hao