--- title: "OpenAI’s Board Was Apparently Seething With Rage Before Sacking Altman" description: "Though all appeared well from the outside, there was major beef between Sam Altman and OpenAI's board of directors behind the scenes. " date: "2023-11-22" modified: "2023-11-22" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-board-altman-history" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "drama" - "OpenAI" - "sam altman" - "the digest" --- # OpenAI’s Board Was Apparently Seething With Rage Before Sacking Altman ![Though all appeared well from the outside, there was major beef between Sam Altman and OpenAI's board of directors behind the scenes. ]() *\Image: Alex Wong via Getty / Futurism\* ## Spurn Unit Though all appeared well from the outside, there had apparently been major beef between Sam Altman and OpenAI's board of directors behind the scenes. As the [*New York Times* reports]() based on accounts from multiple unnamed insiders, the drama that exploded out into the public over the past five days was a long time coming, though one conflict in particular seems to have been the main catalyst. According to an email viewed by the *NYT*, the CEO met with Helen Toner, a Georgetown AI security researcher who sat on the board, to discuss an [October policy brief]() she'd co-written that seemed to criticize OpenAI's safety protocols — and, perhaps more succinctly, praised those at its [rival Anthropic](), which was founded in 2021 by disgruntled ex-OpenAI employees. In the email, Altman reprimanded Toner and said her paper put OpenAI at risk amid a [Federal Trade Commission investigation]() into the company over a data breach that resulted in personal user information being leaked online. "I did not feel we’re on the same page on the damage of all this," the [now-reinstated CEO]() wrote. "Any amount of criticism from a board member carries a lot of weight." ## Fight Club Toner, for her part, defended the brief as an academic policy recommendation and nothing more, but Altman seemed unconvinced. And, per people familiar with the situation who spoke to the *NYT* on condition of anonymity, he even raised the question of whether the AI security expert should be removed from the board. That argument seems to have been one of the final nails in Altman's blown-open coffin: Toner, along with OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever and fellow board members Tasha McCauley and Adam D'Angelo, the CEO of Quora, voted to oust the CEO over allegations that he had not been "[consistently candid in his communications" with the governing body]()." It gets even messier from there, somehow. Per the *NYT*'s sources, Toner held firm in her belief that Altman shouldn't be at the helm of OpenAI after Sutskever reversed course, and said during those initial reinstatement discussions that because the company charter charges its board with creating AI that "benefits all of humanity," it was more consistent with that mission that the company be destroyed in Altman's absence than see him as its chief executive again. Unsurprisingly, Toner has now been removed from the OpenAI board of directors, along with Sutskever and McCauley, as part of Altman's return. The *NYT*'s reporting indicates that although tensions had been high at OpenAI since even before ChatGPT was released, they seemed to have reached a boiling point with the conflict between Toner and Altman — and reading between the lines, it seems that for now Altman has won that round. **More on OpenAI:** [*Is OpenAI Melting Down Because It Secretly Created Something Really Scary?*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()