A former OpenAI board member has provided the most detailed account yet of the shocking events that led to Sam Altman’s firing as CEO last November. In a new interview, he claims that Altman repeatedly lied to the board about everything from AI safety to the launch of ChatGPT.
Helen Toner, who left OpenAI as part of negotiations for Altman’s return, said the board only found out about ChatGPT’s launch after it had already happened.
“When ChatGPT was announced in November 2022, the board had no prior knowledge of it,” Toner told “TED AI Show” host Bilawal Sidhu on Tuesday. “We found out about ChatGPT on Twitter.”
“He repeatedly provided inaccurate information about the few formal safeguards the company actually had in place, meaning it was essentially impossible for the board to know how well those safeguards were working or what needed to be changed,” Toner added.
Toner also found that Altman “failed to disclose to the board his ownership of the OpenAI Startup Fund, despite always representing himself as an independent director with no financial interest in the company.”
“There are more individual examples, and in any individual case, Sam can always come up with some vaguely innocuous explanation for why it’s not a big deal or it was misunderstood or something,” Toner said.
“But ultimately, after all these years of this going on, all four of us who fired him came to the conclusion that we couldn’t believe what Sam was telling us,” she added.
The Post has reached out to OpenAI for comment.
OpenAI board chair Brett Taylor refuted Toner’s claims in a statement shared on the podcast.
The statement noted that the law firm WilmerHale had investigated the circumstances surrounding Altman’s firing and that he had denied any wrongdoing.
“We are disappointed that Mr. Toner continues to raise these issues,” the statement said.
“More than 95% of employees, including senior management, called for Sam to return as CEO and for the previous directors to resign,” the statement added. “The company remains focused on moving forward and pursuing OpenAI’s mission of ensuring AGI benefits all humanity.”
OpenAI’s last board meeting, which shocked the business world by firing Altman just before Thanksgiving last year, offered few details, saying only that he was removed for “failing to communicate consistently and openly.”
Altman later returned as CEO following reports of an employee revolt and intervention from OpenAI’s major investors, including Microsoft.
OpenAI ultimately announced a restructured board of directors that includes former Twitter executive Bret Taylor as chairman, as well as former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo.
The three directors involved in Altman’s firing – Tonner, Tasha McCauley and Ilya Sutskever – left the company when Altman returned as CEO.
Sutskever has since returned to work at OpenAI, but left the company permanently earlier this month after the AI ”superalignment” safety team she co-led was disbanded.
Jan Reicke, who co-led the safety team with Sutskever and has also since left, argued in an X thread that safety has “taken a back seat to flashy products” at OpenAI.
OpenAI has since announced a new safety oversight unit that includes Altman.
WilmerHale investigators concluded in March that a “breakdown in trust between the former board and Mr. Altman” had caused the turmoil.
The company determined that the dismissed directors acted in good faith.
The investors said Altman’s firing was not related to concerns about the safety or security of OpenAI’s advanced AI research, nor was it a dispute over “the pace of development, OpenAI’s finances, or statements to investors, customers and business partners.”
