The week before Thanksgiving 2023 was the AI industry’s biggest soap opera moment. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was abruptly ousted from his role at ChatGPT-creator. Explanation? Altman “was not consistently forthright in his communications with the board.” Now, through witness testimony and trial exhibits musk vs altmanFor the first time, the public is getting a solid look behind the scenes of that dramatic weekend, much of it focused on former CTO Mira Muratti.
It was a unique situation in that the rollercoaster of a power play – which seemed to change every hour – happened, in many ways, publicly. The board’s extremely vague blog post announcing Altman’s removal was posted on OpenAI’s website, immediately spawning a long list of conspiracy theories on X. (It turned out that the motivation was allegedly a pattern of lies or omissions by Altman, whether about OpenAI’s security procedures, about his own ownership stake in OpenAI’s startup fund, or about releasing certain tools or features, like ChatGPT.) Other OpenAI executives and AI industry leaders went public with this. Statement in support of Altman. An online campaign began among hundreds of OpenAI employees asking if they posted a heart supporting Altman’s reinstatement, and many posted the phrase, “OpenAI is nothing without its people.” Rumors spread as countless viewers waited with bated breath for any new information. (I covered the entire thing from a backpacking trip in Patagonia, armed only with an iPhone Notes app (and no laptop.)
During all this, one simple character seemed to be everywhere at the same time: OpenAI CTO Mira Murati. First, he was made interim CEO, with the position immediately handed over to outsider Emmett Shearer. Within days, Altman was back at the helm of the company, and the board that had rallied to oust him was largely gone.
Muratti had publicly supported Altman’s reinstatement and posted online in favor of his returning to his role at the company. But with time such reports emerged that he had an important role in his ouster. According to some accounts, he had more or less started A significant amount of information, including documentation of internal conversations and screenshots, text messages, and allegations of mismanagement during Altman’s time at Y Combinator regarding Altman’s concerns, was funneled to co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who conveyed his concerns to the OpenAI board in the form of a 52-page memo. In testimony this week, former board member Helen Toner said Muratti and Sutskever’s concerns materially escalated the board’s concerns about a pattern of deception, Altman’s “resistance” to board oversight and his “manipulation” of board processes and management problems.
On November 16, 2023, four members of OpenAI’s board of directors – Toner, Ilya Sutskever, Adam D’Angelo, and Tasha McCauley – unanimously signed a document terminating Altman’s employment with OpenAI and naming Muratti the new interim CEO.
Although, according to multiple accounts, Murati had played an integral role in the entire lead-up to Altman’s ouster, Murati began to lend his support to Altman almost immediately.
In 78 text messages exchanged over a 14-hour period, between Sunday evening and Monday morning, Murati and Altman talked at length about whether their reinstatement would be possible and what would happen next. Altman said that D’Angelo, a board member, was “trying to get the board to agree on a configuration” but Altman and Nadella told D’Angelo that “doesn’t work and that [they] “We need to start preparing for Plan B.”
At about 2:30 on Monday morning, Altman asked, “Can you tell directly whether it’s good or bad? Satya and others are worried.”
Murati responded, “Too bad directionally. Sam it’s too bad.”
Altman asked to attend the meeting and Murati said the board did not want him to do so. Altman then sent a message saying, “How do you want to make it better? If it helps, I’m still willing to walk away. If they’re going to file crazy lawsuits against me, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Murati said the board was confident of Altman’s decision to leave the company, saying, “They have explained to me all the reasons and issues with you and why you should not be CEO.”
Altman asked why the board, “kept saying all weekend they wanted me back.”
Muratti responded, “They want to appoint a new CEO tonight (not me).
Altman asked who, and Murati responded, “The new guy is the rando Twitch guy,” referencing Shear.
Murati told Altman that she was “hoping Satya can help fix it.”
Between November 17 and 20, Murati and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who had been fully on Altman’s side during the conflict and had offered to hire every OpenAI employee at Microsoft to work under Altman, also exchanged several text messages (largely one-sided, with Murati reaching out to Nadella). In one, Murati mentions that she is “not putting up.” [her] Put a name to it,” seemingly referencing a statement the board issued that Sunday saying “the Board stands firm in its decision as to the only path forward to advance and defend OpenAI’s mission,” and “Simply put, Sam’s behavior and lack of transparency in his interactions with the Board undermined the Board’s ability to effectively oversee the company in the manner it was mandated to do.”
Within days, more than 750 OpenAI employees signed a letter to OpenAI’s board, threatening to quit and join the new Microsoft subsidiary, which will be led by Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman.
He wrote that “the process by which you fired Sam Altman and removed Greg Brockman from the board jeopardized all this work and undermined our mission and the company.”
The first signer on that letter? Murati Late.
One of the most interesting parts of the letter is near the end, when the signers specifically note to the board that “within two days of your initial decision, you again replaced Interim CEO Mira Muratti against the best interests of the company.”
But remember: According to Toner’s testimony, Murati apparently told the board that she did not want to serve as interim CEO until the board was able to “legitimize” the decision. Toner said that Muratti “did not, consciously or unconsciously, understand that he himself had a significant role in legitimizing this decision.”
“She was waiting to see which direction the wind would blow, and she didn’t realize it was the wind,” Toner said.
Toner also said that Murati had been “highly incompetent” and “remarkably passive” after firing Altman, adding, “He had no interest in telling his team that his conversations with us were a significant factor in our decision to fire Sam.”
During 78 text messages between Muratti and Altman, Altman asked if it was time to send the staff letter to the board; Muratti told them it “wouldn’t make any difference” and that board members “don’t care if everyone resigns”, just that they did not want Altman’s “hands on AGI”. Altman asked if D’Angelo knew that Murati had rehired Altman, and he said yes.
On the morning of Monday, November 20, Murati messaged Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott that he was “close to resigning from the board.” Scott responded, “Really this time?” Murati said, “It seems so.” Ilya. [Sutskever] Signed our petition.
Later that morning, Murati asked Nadella to “Please make a public statement soon that shows support for the United [OpenAI] The team, basically bringing the team together? It is very important that we do not lose our researchers due to Demise or Elon.
Nearly a year ago, in a document dated September 30, 2022, Murati wrote a list of complaints about Altman and his management style, apparently shared directly with him. He wrote that “Constant panic about our projects, people, goals, etc. generates chaos and churn,” and “We talk about focus but in practice our approach is to do everything and do it fast as we find ourselves under constant pressure to change priorities and shuffle between people and projects.” He also wrote about Altman and the executive team’s misalignment regarding the importance of the applied AI team, and requested that Altman speak to him directly about his concerns: “I don’t want to find out from others… This is a missed opportunity for us to solve issues that are important to the company and it undermines the leadership of the company when you do that.”
Muratti also mentioned in that 2022 document the idea that “doing what users want is not in OpenAI’s DNA” – that the company’s top-cited goal was to generate $100 million in revenue, and Altman’s position was that “no matter how we got to this number, we needed to get there.” Muratti also said that one of the top proposed solutions to address these issues would be for Altman to “get informed” and use official channels to bring about the proposed changes.
“Often I hear two things from you at once, which seem contradictory to me: (1) we are not moving fast enough or a particular area or individual is failing and (2) you don’t know what’s going on, so you might be wrong,” he wrote in the 2022 document. “When unsure about how things are going or feel like things are not going right, go straight to Mira to get information and conduct a thorough review until you are satisfied you understand the situation.”
Played at trial as part of Murati’s statement musk vs altman This week, she said she stood by her criticisms of Altman and that her concerns were “entirely management related … I had to do an incredibly difficult job in an organization that was very complex. I was asking Sam to lead and lead with clarity, and not undercut my ability to do my job.”
Muratti may not have been present in the courtroom, but his testimony – and what emerged in the documentation – was the most memorable.
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