OpenAI’s chief technology officer reportedly penned a memo to the company’s board criticizing President Sam Altman’s management style, which set off a chain of events that led to his firing.
Mira Murati expressed her concerns directly to Mr. Altman before sharing her concerns about Mr. Altman’s leadership style with the board. According to the New York Times.
Murati told the board that Altman manipulated executives to get what he wanted.
Altman told people what they wanted to hear in order to entice them to follow his decisions, Murati reportedly told OpenAI board members.
But if those executives don’t go along with his plans or take too long to make a decision, Altman will try to discredit them, Mulati told the board.
Murati’s suspicions about Altman were supported by OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskeva, who accused the CEO of what he felt was manipulative behavior, the Times reported.
Mr. Murati and Mr. Sutskever both told the board about their rocky relationship with Mr. Altman, who was fired in late November, but was recalled days later after Mr. Altman won a power struggle that resulted in board turnover. It was.
According to the Times, the board feared that if it did not take action against Mr. Altman, Mr. Murati and Mr. Sutskever would leave the company, leading to an exodus of key employees and taking their supporters with them. He said he was concerned.
Two executives expressed support for Altman’s return as CEO, even though they say he created a toxic work environment at the company and never listened to dissent from subordinates.
WilmerHale, a leading Manhattan law firm, is conducting an independent investigation into OpenAI’s response to Altman’s firing.
Attorney Alex Weingarten, who represents Sutskever, told the Times that the suggestion that his client went to the board to complain about Mr. Altman was “completely false.”
After the Times published the article on Thursday, Murati told OpenAI employees that she and Altman had a “strong and productive partnership, and I would not hesitate to share feedback directly with him.” I didn’t,” he said.
Murati told staff: “When each director contacted me directly for feedback on Sam, I provided it. All of the feedback was already known to Sam.”
She said her interactions with the board regarding Mr. Altman do not mean she is “responsible for or endorses the actions of the former board.”
Altman’s firing in November sparked a crisis for the company, and the value of its hugely popular ChatGPT bot rose significantly. Currently, OpenAI is said to be worth more than $80 billion.
More than 700 employees at the company threatened to quit en masse to protest the layoffs. Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI, has hired Altman and the company’s co-founder Greg Brockman.
The Windows maker also invited OpenAI employees into the company.
Mr. Sutskever was one of six members of the board of directors at the time of Mr. Altman’s firing.
Upon Mr. Altman’s return, the board of directors was replaced by an interim structure consisting of three directors. One is former Salesforce co-CEO Brett Taylor, who chaired Twitter’s board before Elon Musk took over the platform last year. former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers; and Adam DiAngelo, CEO of Quora.
Mr. D’Angelo is the only remaining member of the former board.
The Post reached out to OpenAI, Murati, Sutskever and Altman for comment.
