‘Felt hurt and angry’, OpenAI Sam Altman opens up about the 5-day boardroom drama

Sam Altman has finally broken his silence on all that transpired following his sacking by the OpenAI board.

Altman has still not revealed why he was sacked from the company though. (AP photo)

On November 17, the tech world was shaken by the unceremonious sacking of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman by the board. The ouster led to nearly five days of drama until Altman was reinstated as the CEO of the company. Now, after days of the alleged boardroom coup, Altman has opened up in an interview, recounting what transpired behind the scenes.

In an interview with The Verge, Altman admitted he initially felt defiant, hurt and angry. When asked about his reaction to being reinstated as the company CEO, Altman said that it took him a few minutes to snap out of it and get over the ego and emotions to finally embrace the change. Altman said that he really loved the company and had “poured his life force into this for the last four and a half years”. He said that the company has been making such great progress on the mission that he cared so deeply about – to make AGI safe and beneficial.

While he shared his thoughts on how he felt about the entire saga, Altman largely refrained from answering the most pressing question – why was he sacked from the company? When asked about it, Altman said that the board is going to do an independent review into the incident and that he welcomed it. He said that he didn’t have anything to say on the same but is looking forward to learning more from the review.

When asked about his comments on X about the misunderstandings between him and the board, and OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever expressing regret, the 37-year-old responded he wasn’t ready to talk yet and expressed ignorance about Sutskever’s intent.

Altman was also asked about the driving force that got him back to the company to which he responded by saying that he was hesitant initially but not for long and that there were a lot of feelings that happened to him. Talking about the employee support he got, Altman said that they have emerged stronger and more unified after the episode. Altman also admitted that there was a problem with the governance structure at the company, and finding the best solution will take a while.

It is to be noted that the mysterious Project Q* (Q-star) was also linked to all the drama at the company. When asked about the same, Altman without going into the specifics said that the company has persistently said that the technology will continue on its rapid pace of growth.

First published on: 01-12-2023 at 12:33 IST

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