The senior employees described Altman as psychologically abusive, creating chaos at the artificial-intelligence start-up — complaints that were a major factor in the board’s abrupt decision to fire the CEO

Gift link to article: https://wapo.st/3RyScpS

  • OldWoodFrame@lemm.eeEnglish
    33·
    11 months ago

    He had a weird exit from Y Combinator too, I don’t doubt this at all.

    But in those days with the company on the line with everyone trying to dig in to why he got fired, nobody leaked this? Nobody had a good example of something he did which was not acceptable behavior for a CEO?

    I just can’t see it being a big enough deal to fire him over so abruptly, without even telling Microsoft ahead of time, if nobody has the killshot example of him doing something crazy. Maybe he’s just an asshole. There are lots of asshole CEOs.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    51·
    11 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Initially cast as a clash over the safe development of artificial intelligence, Altman’s firing was at least partially motivated by the sense that his behavior would make it impossible for the board to oversee the CEO.

    Altman was reinstated as CEO five days later, after employees released a letter signed by a large percentage of OpenAI’s 800-person staff, including most senior managers, and threatening mass resignations.

    Within hours, messages dismissed the board as illegitimate and decried Altman’s firing as a coup by OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, according to the people.

    For longtime employees, there was added incentive to sign: Altman’s departure jeopardized an investment deal that would allow them to sell their stock back to OpenAI, cashing out equity without waiting for the company to go public.

    As the company seeks to rebuild the board and smooth things over with Microsoft, its majority shareholder, it has committed to launching an internal investigation into the debacle, which broke into public view on the Friday before Thanksgiving.

    “There have been a lot of wild and inaccurate reports about what happened with the Board but the bottom line is that Ilya has very publicly stated that Sam is the right person to lead OpenAI and he is thrilled that he is back at the helm," Sutskever’s lawyer, Alex Weingarten, chair of the litigation practice at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, wrote in a statement.

    The original article contains 1,248 words, the summary contains 233 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

      • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        9·
        11 months ago

        Yeah, that’s a weird one. I posted the article because of all the questions surrounding Altman’s firing, but the article itself is pretty much just a laundry list of one guy’s assholery:

        • Altman was psychologically abusive, the employees alleged, creating pockets of chaos and delays at the artificial-intelligence start-up

        • pitted employees against each other in unhealthy ways

        • lied to OpenAI board as part of a campaign to remove a board member

        • key leaders found interacting with Altman highly toxic

        • employees said they feared retaliation from Altman

        • Altman was hostile after an employee shared critical feedback with the CEO and later undermined that employee to their team

        • employees described facing intense peer pressure to sign the mass-resignation letter

        • “People texted each other at 2-2:30 am begging people with write access to type their name” (not directly about Altman, but what kind of cult job requires you to be text-available 24/7?)

        Ultimately, “the board’s vote was triggered by a pattern of manipulation and rooted in Altman’s attempts to avoid checks on his power at OpenAI.”

        That’s a better summary, and I bet I saved more words, lol