Why did Sam Altman suddenly depart from OpenAI?

According to OpenAI, the billionaire and AI preacher’s “departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities”.

The board said it "no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI".

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According to media reports, Altman may have tried to bypass the board on a major deal. According to a TechCrunch report, it’s possible that Altman — and potentially OpenAI President Greg Brockman, who stepped down as chairman simultaneously, then resigned — wanted to make a bold move that he knew the board would not like.” Semafor reports Altman has been in the process of raising a venture capital fund to focus on "hard tech".

If it were negotiating some deal, such as an acquisition or a more exclusive integration, it could also have caused the board of directors to become angry, either at the idea itself or at being excluded, the report mentions.

OpenAI is also not doing well financially and is burning through a lot of cash. Reports emerged earlier this year that the maker of ChatGPT is likely to go bankrupt by the end of 2024 if it does not secure more funding soon. ChatGPT reportedly costs $700,000 (Rs 5.80 crore) daily to operate. Even Altman had admitted in a tweet that "compute costs are eye-watering".

Altman has reportedly been secretly pursuing an internal project, perhaps at a significant cost, against the board's advice.

“Some kind of major mismatch in the financial department could be cause for dismissal, but it’s hard to imagine what Altman could have kept from the board and CTO that would be so damning,” as per TechCrunch.

There is also a possibility that Altman was making personal investments in a way that the board did not agree with. It's also possible that Sam's enthusiasm for generative AI “led to a major rift between him and the board”.

Meanwhile, Altman said on Saturday that he loved his time at OpenAI. “It was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. Most of all I loved working with such talented people. Will have more to say about what's next later”.