OpenAI fires Sam Altman
The most dramatic corporate news of 2023, by far, came on November 17th, when OpenAI made the shocking announcement that it had fired CEO Sam Altman in a coup led by the company’s Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever.
OpenAI’s board of directors refused to explain why it turned against Altman, saying only that “he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board.” The news sent the tech world into a frenzy and set off a bizarre series of events, which saw OpenAI naming an interim CEO, Microsoft announcing it was bringing Altman on as an employee, and the majority of OpenAI’s staff threatening to quit in protest.
