In Sam Altman We Trust?

Lauren Goode: I’m Lauren Goode. I’m a senior writer at WIRED.

Zoë Schiffer: I’m Zoe Schiffer, WIRED’s director of business and industry.

Michael Calore: OK. I want to start today by going back one year into the past, November 2023, to an event that we refer to as the blip.

Lauren Goode: The blip. We don’t just refer to it as the blip. That is actually the internal phrase that is used at OpenAI to describe some of the most chaotic three to four days in that company’s history.

[archival audio]: The company OpenAI, one of the top players in artificial intelligence, thrown into disarray.

[archival audio]: One of the most spectacular corporate fall-outs.

[archival audio]: The news on Wall Street today involves the stunning developments in the world of artificial intelligence.

Zoë Schiffer: It really started on November 17th, this Friday afternoon when Sam Altman, the CEO of the company, gets what he says is the most surprising, shocking, and difficult news of his professional career.

[archival audio]: The shock dismissal of former boss, Sam Altman.

[archival audio]: His firing sent shock waves through Silicon Valley.

Zoë Schiffer: The board at OpenAI, which at the time was a nonprofit, has lost confidence in him, it says. Despite the fact that the company is by all measures doing incredibly well, he’s out. He’s no longer going to lead the company.

Michael Calore: He’s effectively fired from the company that he cofounded.

Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. That immediately sets off a chain reaction of events. His cofounder and president of the company, Greg Brockman, resigns in solidarity. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says that Sam Altman is actually going to join Microsoft and lead an advanced AI research team there. Then we see almost the entire employee base at OpenAI sign a letter saying, “Wait, wait, wait. If Sam leaves, we’re leaving, too.”

[archival audio]: Some 500 of these 700-odd employees—

[archival audio]: … threatening to quit over the board’s abrupt firing of OpenAI’s popular CEO, Sam Altman.

Zoë Schiffer: Eventually there’s this back and forth tense negotiation between Sam Altman and the board of directors, and eventually the board then installs Mira Murati, the CTO, as the interim CEO. Then shortly after that, Sam is able to reach an agreement with the board and he returns as CEO and the board looks instantly different, with Brett Taylor and Larry Summers joining, Adam D’Angelo staying, and the rest of the board leaving.