Hey everyone!

I figured with all of the craziness happening around OpenAI, it might be nice to have a summary of events from this past weekend and what we might be able to expect. We’ll work to keep the details strictly to the facts and timeline of events and continue updating this thread as we know more.

Background Info

OpenAI, Inc. (the company's Non-Profit) is the sole controlling shareholder of OpenAI Global LLC (the company's for-profit subsidary).

What this means is that OpenAI Global LLC has a fiduciary responsibility to OpenAI, Inc., whose mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity.

Friday, November 17

• The OpenAI Board announces the firing of Sam Altman as CEO, appointing CTO Mira Murati as temporary CEO effective immediately.
• The Board's reasoning was that they do not believe Altman was consistently candid in his communication with the board and they no longer have confidence he can continue leading OpenAI.
• Greg Brockman, then chairman of the board, was also removed. And, although the company stated he would still remain in his role as President, he announced that he intends to quit.
• Reports come out that Ilya Sutskever, Chief Scientist and Co-Founder of OpenAI, had lead what many people perceive to be a board coup.
• 3 Senior Researchers with OpenAI had announced they would also resign: Jakob Pachocki, Aleksander Madry, and Simon Sidor.
• Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, was reportedly furious at the firing of Altman and reports say that Nadella and other key investors were only given a one-minute warning of the action.

Saturday, November 18

• Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI, sends a memo sharing surprise at the firing and that the decision was not made in response to malfeasance.
• Reports emerge of the possibility of reinstating both Sam Altman and Greg Brockman to their respective roles with OpenAI.
• Negotiations for bringing them back continued through the day.
• Reports say that Altman wanted the resignation of the Board as a condition of reinstatement.

Sunday, November 19

• Negotiations continue through the day but hit a stalling point, confirming that Altman and Brockman would not return to OpenAI.
• OpenAI announces that Emmett Shear, former Twitch CEO and Co-Founder, would take on the role of CEO.
• Microsoft announces, via CEO Satya Nadella, that they have hired Altman and Brockman to lead a new advanced AI research team.
• Ilya Sutskever expresses regret in his participation in the Board’s actions and will do what he can to reunite the company.
• Reports emerge that OpenAI employees wrote a letter to the Board of Directors, calling for their resignation. This was allegedly signed by Sutskever as well.
• By Sunday night, this letter reportedly had 600 employee signatures out of the 770 total employees.

Monday, November 20

• Signatures for the letter allegedly reach a staggering 650+ employees, meaning over 80% of OpenAI employees support the call for Board to resign and the rehiring of Altman and Brockman.
• Reports emerge that Altman and Brockman are still open to returning to OpenAI, as the Microsoft hiring hasn’t officially gone through yet.

Tuesday, November 21

• Altman is reinstated as CEO of OpenAI with Adam D'Angelo being the only board member left from the old regime