--- title: "This Apparently Wasn’t the First Time Sam Altman Was Dramatically Fired" description: "As more details are revealed about the drama at OpenAI, insiders are coming forward with messy anecdotes from Sam Altman's past." 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/sam-altman-dramatic-firings" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "OpenAI" - "sam altman" - "the digest" - "y combinator" --- # This Apparently Wasn’t the First Time Sam Altman Was Dramatically Fired ![As more details are revealed about the drama at OpenAI, insiders are coming forward with messy anecdotes from Sam Altman's past.]() *\Image: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty / Futurism\* ## Got the Boot As more details are revealed about the drama at OpenAI, insiders are coming forward with anonymous anecdotes about all manner of messiness from Sam Altman's past. In an extraordinary exposé, the [*Washington Post* has revealed]() for the first time that Altman was not only fired from the tech incubator Y Combinator in 2019, but that the organization's founder Paul Graham was the one who did the sacking. Though prior reports said only that Altman had "stepped down" from his role as [young president of the incubator](), three people familiar with the matter told *WaPo* that Graham, who was something of a mentor to the younger tech guru, flew from the United Kingdom to San Francisco to personally give his protegé the boot. "It was the school of loose management," one of *WaPo*'s insiders said, "that is all about prioritizing what’s in it for me." ## History Repeating Altman was also, curiously enough, fired by a close colleague at OpenAI on Friday. According to a timeline of events [posted over the weekend]() by the company's former board president Greg Brockman, cofounder Ilya Sutskever sacked Altman in a Google Meet call — far less personal than an international trip for a face-to-face discussion, but that's business in a post-COVID world. The [now-reinstated CEO]() was, as is now very public, fired by OpenAI's board for allegedly being [less than candid]() when communicating with them, though the exact details remain a [topic of intense speculation](). But this latest revelation about his termination at Y Combinator suggests shows that at the very least, the blowout wasn't unprecedented. **More on Altman:** [*OpenAI Employees Say Firm's Chief Scientist Has Been Making Strange Spiritual Claims*]() ## 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]()